The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-05-14
The Era Of Physical Connections.

At the last January session of the
Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Faye
gave rather startling summary of re-
ceht physical connections both on the
earth and on the sun. Among the
numerous exceptional phenomena noted
for some time, such as the frightful
volcanic explosion of krakatoa, the
immense sea waves and air waves
which have swept round the globe and
the strange celestial lights and c0lo'a
tons, he mentioned that the month of
January in Europe resembled in tenn
perature the month of April, while sys-
tematic observations disclose singular
variations in sun spot frequency ard no
less singular behavior of the magnetic
needle. During the present summerin
the southern hemisphere extraordinary
heat has been recorded, the thermome-
ter at Buenos Ayres rising in the shade
to 1O1 and in Queensland to LOG de-
grees In consonance with the dis
turbed state of the earth NJ. Wolf, of
Zurich, reports two pronounced san
spot maxima, in April and October
last, and only four days in 1883 on which
the sun was not spotted Though these
maxima were not rs high as that of
April, 1882, and there are now indica-
tons that the suns activity is deereas-
ing, physicists will not be slow to con-
meet the terrestrial disturbances with
the solar storms. The French scientist
may now add to his list of strange phe-
nomena the late unparalleled Ohio
floods, the extraordinary Southern tor
nadoes of recent date, withthe reported
death roll of several hundred persons,
and the phenomenally early and extern
sive efflux of Arctic ice upon the At
lantic.
1t is impossible, perhaps, to trace all
these exceptional phenomena to a
single cause. But by the theory that
the sun has for the last two years been
excessively active in radiating heat
upon the earth, as seems most likely,
all these anomalies may possibly lie ac
counted for. Since the "red skies
began to startle Europe last fall, sew,
eral astronomers, following Mr.. Lock
yer, have been 80 ready to explain them
by the diffusion of Java volcanic dust
whirled through the upper air at the
rate of two thousand miles day, tina
it is to be feared some OF this dust ha'
gotten in their eyes. These sky gioWs
as the Herald suggested on Decembel
II and subsequently, were due Target,
ito an excess of evaporation, espe
cially from the oceans, indicating ex
ceptional activity of the solar fires. ;
The exceptional evaporation from TIT
oceans and a consequent excess o
aqueous vapor in the atmosphere, TO
which we then argued, seem to have
been pretty well unmasked by the re
cent extraordinary ocean cyclones ant
barometric minima as well rs by th'
torrential rainfalls in New Zealand, il
the Gulf Stream region, in Grea
Britain, in parts of Southern Europ
and in the Ohio Valley. The mere fac
that microscopes have found dust re
sembling volcanic ash in the White
SHOWS by no means proves that tn
worldwide sky celebrations were due t
this agent. The most careful obsery
ations of the phenomena by the Frencl
| scientists on the summit of the Pqy dt
Dome lead NJ Alluard evidently t.
think that the light-refieeting medium
was not necessarily dust, but may hav'
been made up of particles of exces
sively minute frozen water Tn
English investigator, Mr.. Mattieu Will
Jams, also thinks that the suns radi
alton has recently been exceptional.
great, and that its warming effect o.
the upper atmosphere might enable
to hold much aqueous vapor ''in tn
form of liquid particles" which woul
perfectly explain thered and green sun:
No competent meteorologist, so far {
we have noticed, has undertaken
otherwise explain these meteoroiogic'