Abstract
Two papers by W. G. Bowerman (Pop, Astron., 52, March, April, May, 1944) discuss the rather indefinite subject of the relations between sunspots and terrestrial conditions. The first illustrates a close parallelism between sunspot numbers and the total mortgage loans on residential property in the United States. This held during 1923–38 but broke down in 1939, presumably owing to the disturbance caused by the War. The second and longer paper describes in a 'popular' manner the quasi-periodic nature of outbreaks of sunspots and a good deal of recent American literature on relations between sunspot numbers and extremes of temperature and precipitation, as well as such indirect effects as industrial activity, forest fires and outbreaks of tropical diseases. The author accepts the views of Ellsworth Huntington and C A. Mills that the major economic and cultural cycles of historical times result from long-period oscillations of solar activity, acting through average temperature, which in turn controls both the spread of disease organisms and the power of man to resist or cope with them. Within the 11-year cycle there is a 'sharp upthrust' of temperature near sunspot minimum, but the relations are complicated by volcanic eruptions.
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Sunspots and Human Affairs. Nature 154, 359 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154359b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154359b0