Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1855-08-11
Dog DIVE

The ms CdHicu}dus, rs commonly stated IN
the Calendars, continue from the Sd Of July till
tho lth Of August. Bailys Dictionary says,
.'thcy are certain days in July and August. com
monty from the 18th Of the former to the 25th of
the latter. which are very hot in the dog star
increasing the heat aud vulgarly reckoned UNI
wholesome The dog days, says Chambers, pre-
code and follow the heaoal rising of the star
Sirius, in the constellation of the Greater Dog, in
the morning which, in Philiny's time, was the 18th
Of July.
Even in modern. as well as ancient times, this
cheated term" has been conneeten with the sp
pearmce of this star in.the morning; though the
extreme heat is palpably the effect Of the oontin-
uod high position of the sun. Now the fact
is known, that the Dog Star cannot increase the
heat. because. by the procession of the equinoxes
its heacal rising will, in few thousand years
take place in the depth of winter. 1t now occurs
the latter end of August
Bat the star suffers, and so do its namesakes,
the canine race, from u vulgar idea that it in
croascs the liability of dogs to rabies. AtArgos
a festival was expressly instituted for the killing
of dogs at this season, and the institution seems
to be preserved, at the present time, in our
cities.
DIR. Hutton remarks, that some authors say,
from lippocrates and Pliny, that the day this
star first rises in the morning, the sea bois, the
wine turns souri, dogs began to grow mad, the
bile increases and irritates; and all animals
grow languid also, the diseases it usually
caslons in men, are burning fever, Mysteries, and
phrensies." The Romans sacrificed II brown dog
every year, to Canicula, at his first rising, to APP
peasa his rage. Sirius. it is to DO remarked, is
hardly near enough 10 this earth, to produce
such effects as to increase the ltat Of Summer.
Sirius is supposed to the nearesi It the fixed
stars to u, but merely because il is tho most
brilliant and it has been reeknned to Civ only
one twenty millionth part OF the light ui ihe sun;
and surprising it to be of thu same siz =. m cv.
cry other way alike, il sh, uld he di~talit from
earth not less than l,96 ltaA, UN6md.Ha l.1J)
according to Chambers figures. Again, il has
been found that Sirius IS 50 distant, that an nugle
formed hetwern il and tho two extrrmitiea af tho
earth's orbit, is too small TO h. unprecedented
Were it so much IA second or the 3600th part
of degree it could be appreciated by the nice
instruments of the present dav; but it is not
even this, and hence it is concluded that Sirius
must be at least l9,200, 900 of miles dis
tant, however much more. Surprising this to be
its distance, its light would take three years to
reach us, and cannon ball from it more than half
a million of years. We are about AS much in
danger of a cannonade from it. as we are of an
increase of heat from the same source. AT its
distance, its rays cannot add sensiby to the heat
of summer, cause the dogs to 60 mad
This absurdty, that the rising of Sirius in
creases summer heats, and produces rabies in
u'SS. - not vi egyptian oTiSiH, thouSh III" II
egyptians typifed the star as Il dog, and hence it
has got tho name of the dog star, and the rep
utation so banefu to canine security.
"The Egyptians were taught" says n writer,
"by long expereoe and observation, that as
particular star, Che one in question: became
visible, the Nile would overflow its banks and
they accordingly, upon its very first appe arance
retreated 10 their terraces where they remained
till the inundation had subsidized. This star was
therefore called by them Shon e. the Nile, as
is iSirios in Greek and Sirius in Latin and from
the warning it afforded them, they typfed it as
n Dog, or in most cases, as a man with dogs
head:--that faithful animal having been, even in
those times, distinguished for his peculiar quail
ties Of Watching the affairs of man. and afford
ing warning approaching danger. The name
assigned to this star by the Egyptians, was
ThGnm or Tdyant, the dog, and in later times,
Sothis; 1hoiiS, or 7'hot, each bearing the like
Specification but it was left for the subsequent
ignorance of those other nations who adopted
that character for Sihon, now Sirius, without
considering the true origin of its appellation,
falsely to assign TO 1t the increasing heat Of the
season, and its consequent effects on animated
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