In pursuance of an idea which occurred independently to Professor Tait and myself, a careful examination has been made of the solar autographs, taken at Kew and Cranford, under the superintendence of Mr Warren De la Rue. This was done with the view of detecting, if possible, some reference to planetary configurations in the behaviour of sun-spots, and in this undertaking, much aid was derived from a remark once made by Mr Beckley of Kew, when taking pictures of the sun, to the effect that, for a considerable period of time, he did not observe any spots in the act of breaking out on the visible disc of our luminary. A few words may not be amiss regarding the nature of the scrutiny to which the solar pictures were subjected, and also the value of this as a test of planetary action. In the first place, let us bear in mind, that by the rotation of our luminary, the different portions of his surface are successively presented to each planet in turn. Now, if the bodies of our system have any appreciable influence of this kind upon the sun, it is natural to expect that this should differ for any given portion of his surface, according as this portion is presented to the influencing body, or withdrawn by rotation, so that the sun's diameter is interposed between it and the planet. We should therefore expect to find that, for a given date, the spots should all begin to break out into visibility at or about the same ecliptical longitude. Similarly with regard to their healing up; and, generally, all spots on the sun's disc at a given date should behave in the same manner as they pass a given ecliptical longitude.