The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-03-02

During the last half century there has been
observed, formulated and verified by accurate
prediction one of those unitormities of change,
called laws that may deserve 10 rank in hui
man interest next after those two most obvious
and momentous changes that men know viz.
the rotation of the earth apparent in the recur,
renee Of light and dark, and the revolution OF
the earth apparent IN the unceasing succession
of the stars
An obscure German stronomer-llotrath
Schwabe of Dc3sau-bsgan in 1876, at first
with his naked eyes, to count, measure and re.
cord the spots upon the sun, If any every day
its face could be seen, so as, perchancc, to dis
Germ any ebb or flow at the fountain of all ter.
rcstrial energy. Il went out like Saul" he
atterward said "to seek my fathers asses, and
10, | found kingdom" For twelve years,
daily, Herr SChwabe was on hand to confront
II the rising orb and then for three times twelve
wears more Herr Schwabc daily rose to put his
finger. slowly stiiienng with age, upon the
very pulse of solar energy. In twelve years he
had discovered a high tide and Il low tide in
the solar spots, and suspected theirperiodlcity
In twentyone years more he had completed
the observation of three elevcn,ycar cycles of
spot frequency.
But now the astronomers of the world some
physicists of England, Germany and the Unit.
ed States, and one eminent Statistician of India
gathering to his support with an induction
from widely separated but converging series
OF facts, have transformed the suspicion of an
eleven years cycle, common to the phenomena
OF the earth and the sun, into demonstrated
fact The years OF maximum sun spots are the
years or maximum magnetic storms, and tele
graphic enterprise must take account of them.
The temperatures of the globe are probably
higher in the years of minimum sun spots, and
CON do
to suit the event. The hurricanes of the West
Indies, the cyclones of the Indian ocean, and
the wind disturbances on all sides of the globe
rise with the increasing and fall with the de
creasing sun spots; and Lloyds record of ma
rlne casualties shows that the percentage of
losses on the total during the common eleven
years cycle was 10 per cent greater during the
two maximum years of the common cycle than
during the two minimum ones The insur-
ance of the commerce of all nations will reckon
hereafter with the sun spots, rs with winter
and summer. Colncident with the cycle of
maximum sun spots is the maximum flow of
water III the great rivers of the globe, and
probably in the fluctuations of the great La
mentian lakes.
Along with the cycle of marine casualties
runs step by step the cyle of tropical rainfall,
which has itself pOrtentous coincidence with
a cycle of Indian famincs, so that the specula-
tions OF obscure Herr Schwabe and the Stats
tics of Mr.. W. w. Hunter have been the prime
causes of that success with which Lord Lytton,
the NiCcroy of India, measured and mitigatcd
the appalling Calamities of the last famine. So
that hereafter the cyclic character of the trOpi.
cal rainfall will be regarded duly in the great.
est problem of Indian adminlstration-the hus.
banding and distributing Of the water supply,
so as to insure a continuous food supply for
the people Of that crowded peninsula.
These are but a few slight indications Of con-
sequences already visible from the discovery
of this new law, yet they are of wide reach and
deep moment. 1t is probable that still vaster
consequences to the happiness of mankind will
attend upon the farther unfolding of these con-
current phenomena in earth and sun, this
eleyenyear rhythm in the outpour Of solar
torcc-N. !. Sun.