egeson's weather system.
25
With the unequal distribution of vapour, it is evident thatthe same cause, acting from without upon the whole earth,would in different places have different effects. Hence it isonly when we take large areas that we can expect to eliminatethe local and trace the general cause. And though our obser-vations may never cover the whole earth’s surface, there willdoubtless be found smaller areas in favourable positions,especially within and near the tropics, where the variationswill be sufficiently representative of the whole earth to war-rant the belief that it will be possible to know their changes byobserving the sun.
As with the rain area, so with the intensity of rain shownby rain measures. If some places show an agreement withsolar variability one way, there must of necessity be otherswhere the phases of variability are reversed, and still othersneutral. It is only when the mean for the whole earth istaken, that the true relation of intensity of rain to solarmaculation is shown. And yet some find it difficult to under-stand these apparent anomalies in the result of Mr. Meldrum’sinvestigations. He found that on the average more rain (asmeasured in the rain-gauge) fell at the epoch of maximumsun-spots than at minimum. This implies that the earthreceives more heat, and that consequently the sun is hotterwhen spotted than when clear. Besides the corroborativeevidence given by other observers and investigators of con-nected phenomena, the deductions made in these pages tendto the same conclusion.
We have yet to learn, from some future investigator, oflunar influence as modifying that of the sun’s. It is evidentthat its effect can only be traced by reference to the wholeearth, and that it must have different effects at different places.It is simply absurd to say that it should operate in zones.Yet by such arguments has all thought of lunar influencebeen banished. But surely the belief in its influence, datingfrom the infancy of nations, cannot be so easily disposed of.The influence of the equinoxes and of comets upon theweather, and thereby upon human affairs, is no longer the