The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1875-05-29
Scientific.
What The Late Cold Means.


The 81. Louis Democrat discourses thus.
The science Of meteorology j. making at
least as remarkable progress an any other.
The wonderfully verified predictions Of the
Signal Service have already become SO
familiar that they excite no surprise,
Professor Tice, whose very interesting con
tributions we have published, has demon
strated the possibility of predicting periods
Of atmospheric disturbance months or even
years before they occur. And now comes
DR.. Hopper, OF the St. Petersburg Physi-
cal Observatory, pointing to the fact that
early in the summer Of 1874 he predicted,
after series Of most comprehensive OBJ
seryations, taken in various parts Of the
globe, that there was every reason TO ex-
pect in 1875 phenomenally cold year.
That this prediction was not blunder all
Of us are ready to bear testimony; but the
theory upon which it was based il seems,
IN some sense, to supplement, and on a
broad scale to sustain, the theory of Pro-
fessor Tice, that electrical currents con-
troll to great extent the atmospheric
phenomena
II is not new idea that certain changes
in the spots Of the sun, which occur peri.
odically, are associated with periodic max
ina in the range Of the magnetic needle.
Professor Loomis, in his work published
in 1868, points out the fact that obserya-
tions Extending back nearly a century
indicate maximum in the range Of the
magnetic needle every ten or twelve years, 2
which corresponds with the relative fire.
quency Of solar spots, and Of auroras. and
that these maxima themselves exhibit a
further periodicity, with intervals Of fifty
eight to sixty years, at which the greatest
variations Of the needle and the most fre-
quent auroras occur. The first of these
periods corresponds to one revolution Of
Jupiter, and the second to five revolutions
Of Jupiter and two Of Saturn. Professor
Loomis supposes that electric currents
around the sun are affected by the posi
tion Of the planets, and in turn affect and
disturb the electric currents around the
earth. Now, DR.. Hopper finds that in the
mean annual temperatures of each zone
there are indeed eleyen-year periods of
maximum and minimum that under the
tropics the maximum heat occurs about a
year before the maximum Of sun spots,
but north of the tropics about two or three
years after the maximum of spots. Also.
he finds that the period Of time between
the minimum and succeeding maximum
Of spots is shorter than the period between
the maximum and succeeding minimum,
and that the extremes of heat aud cold
follow a similar law This, indeed, is
shown by LOOMS elaborate tables.
The ancients were not so far wrong,
then, in gazing at the stars and trying 10
foretel future events from their motions.
If the periods Of Jupiter and Saturn af.
feet the electric condition Of the sun, and
if the suns condition governs the electric
currents of the earth, and thus produces,
according to DR.. Hopper, extremes of tenn
perature, and according to Professor Tice,
vast maelstroms of polar air and violent
atmospheric and electric perturbations, it
may not be long before science viii snatch
their secrets from the starry heavens, and
foretell the weather with the same minute
ness and certainty with which it now pre-
diets eclipses and the movements Of com