Two or three years ago Sir Norman Lockyer, in association with his son, communicated to the Royal Society a paper in which the data recently obtained as to the relation between sun-spots and the weather in India--the field of observations having been confined to that territory--are fully elaborated. A remarkable feature of the recent work in that connection has been the proof, or seeming proof, that the temperature of the sun fluctuates from year to year. At times when the sun-spots are numerous and vigorous in their action, the spectrum of the elements in these spots becomes changed. During the times of minimum sun-spot activity the spectrum shows, for example, the presence of large quantities of iron in these spots--of course in a state of vapor. But in times of activity this iron disappears, and the lines which previously vouched for it are replaced by other lines spoken of as the enhanced lines of iron--that is to say, the lines which are believed to represent the unknown substance or substances into which the iron has been decomposed; and what is true of iron is true of various other elements that are detected in the sun-spots. The explanation of this phenomena, if Professor Lockyer reads the signs aright, is that during times of minimum sun-spot activity the temperature of the sun-spots is relatively cool, and that in times of activity the temperature becomes greatly increased. One must come, therefore, to speaking of hot spots and cool spots on the sun; although the cool spots, it will be understood, would hardly be considered cool in the terrestrial sense, since their temperature is sufficient to vaporize iron. Now the point of the recent observations is that the fluctuations in the sun's heat, due to the periodic increase and subsidence of sun-spot disturbances--such fluctuations having been long recognized as having regular cyclic intervals of about eleven years--are instrumental in effecting changes in the terrestrial weather. According to the paper just mentioned, it would appear to be demonstrated that the periods of decreased rainfall in India have a direct and relatively unvarying relationship to the prevalence of the sun-spots, and that, therefore, it has now become possible, within reasonable limits, to predict some years in advance the times of famine in India. So important a conclusion as this is certainly not to be passed over lightly, and all the world, scientific and unscientific alike, will certainly watch with acute interest for the verification of this seemingly startling practical result of so occult a science as solar spectroscopy.