Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1870-05-19


sky.
As has already been said, things ar,
tbs more readily believed the NOR,
they tickle the fancy, and hence it il
no sufficient reason to regard thing
as true because it has been accepted
for years, or even centuries. Unprej.
udieed observation must decide, and il
is proved by thousands of cases thai
the condition of the intestinal tube and
the effect ofvermifuges is precisely the
same at the increasing as at the waning
moon. If, therefore, there are physi
clans who to this day administer YER
mifuge during the moons wane, the
consoling assurance is theirs that its
action will be the same as if admins
tered during the moons increase. The
belief in special lunar influence upon
the growth of plants results from very
defective observation, and is altogether
unfounded. 1t is said, for instance,
that wood cut during the moons in
crease rots faster than that felled dur
ing the moons wane; but at no time
and no where has this assertion ever
been tested by a single and sensibly
made experiment. One person echoes
this absurdity after the other, vet it
has never entered anybody's head to
fell two trees, equally sound and of the
Same kind, to keep them under like cir
cumstanees, and then TO watch the
changes. The same remarks are ap-
plieable to the assertion that certain
plants thrive only when planted during
the waning moon, while the contrary is
the case with others. We all know
that not every thing which is planted
or sown thrives; nevertheless these peo-
pie are very careful in noticing every
instance where a plant put into the
ground at the wrong time of the moon
did not thrive as new confirmation Of
their rule; the instances, however,
where plant planted at the right time
did not thrive are attributed to the
weather.
And the weather! Does not expe-
rience teach US that the moon surely
has an important influence on the
weather, but not even any which is in
the least demonstrable; and if expert
ence be appealed to, reply that it is
that very experience which contradicts
the opinion of the moons weather
making. / do not, it is true, mean
that experience which is gained by the
individual and experienced observer,
who occasionally notes when rainy
weather happens to set in about the
time of the new moon, or fair weather
at the moons full; but that experience
which is acquired in observatories and
at meteorological stations, where the
general nature Of the weather, the state
Of the barometer, the direction Of the
wind and the degree of moisture in the
are recorded twice or three
times day. Now the tables at Munich
observatories, kept for more than forty
years, and with the greatest care, in
form us that on the days of the full
moon or of the new moon and of the
two quarters, respectively, the weather
does not change more often, or more
rarely, than on any other day. Only
such experience is entitled TO consid-
Grafton.
The moons physical influence upon
our planet is in common life very great
Iy overrated. This influence, according |
to the known laws of physics, can be
sxerted in only three ways: by the
moons attraction, by the reflected light |
IF the sun which it sends to the earth,
and by the emission of heat. The
moons attractive power, IN Sc six I
lines less than the earth's, dwindles
o a mere nothing for objects on the
,arth's surface, as, owing to the dis
ance of $1,000 miles, it is greatly pre-
by the earths attraction:
20 that its action may indeed be calcu-
ated, but on account of its extreme
imallnesss can not be an object of
perception. If, when the moon is
overhead, we send a soap bubble or
Gather into the air, We shall not be
lble to perceive the moon exerting the
east attraction.
But how is it with the phenomena of
he tides? They depend, as is known,
IN the suns and moons attraction,
md the moon, much smaller and much
earer, attracting by a third more
trongly than the sun. The elevation
aused by this combined attraction
ontains about one hudred cubic miles
f water-a mass which, in round mum
ers, weighs the trife of one thousand
illion hundred weights. But it would
e grievous error to suppose that this
normous weight is raised by the moon
n the same manner that a man lifts a
undred weight, or magnet attracts
nail. Looking at the CLASSY surface
f an inland lake, though it be never
o large, when the moon is in the ze-
ith, not the slightest rise of the tide
1ill be marked The conditions upon
'hich high water is dependent are
lrnished by the extraordinary facil-
y with which small particles of water
re displaced, and by that vast body
{ water, called the Pacific Ocean, ex-
ending over more than one-quarter I
the globe. Other causes cooperate,
-hich to explain would lead me be-
ond my design. An explanation of G
be whole may be found in any good |
hysical geography.
To confirm the belief in lunar in t
uence upon the weather, it has been a
sserted that the moon must act on the j
cean of air-the atmosphere the
anne manner that it acts on the ocean
t water, producing kind of ebb and Il
ow. theoretically, this had long been
butt required the incest OBJ t
srvations of years upon the most deli t
ately constructed barometers, before n
hilosophers succeeded in proving GER v
lin very minute fluctuations due to
le action of the moon. Yet what are
.ooo d,otrof;oDe aooinoF fhoca Of thn l