New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-09-12

| CITY HOTEL,
New Orleans, September g. 1871. :
GENTLEMEN: l have the pleasure to ac
knowledge your card Of this day, asking my
| opinion of merits of the prediction of q
tidal wave" imputed to Professor Agassiz
The like questions have recently been ad
| dressed to NE so often and from so many
! quarters, that l am obliged to you, gentle
men. for furnishing me an occasion, once
for all, to answer them. and so far as any
word from me may have any value to allay
| public anxiety in the premises.
| Without the pleasure of a personal &C.
| quaintance will the great Swiss naturalist
| / will volunteer his defense any charge OF
| agency in this most monstrous and cruel
| hoax.
| Professor Agassiz is an illustrious savant
| in his domain of inquiry, which. l believe
has never embraced the physical sciences
| Zoology, geology and the natural sciences
| generally, as distinguished from the physi-
| cal sciences, bound the field of his distinc.
| tons; and, therefore, he is without author
! ity, should he ever become so unphilosophic
| as TO assume the prophet for the amuse-
ment Of alarming the unscientifc.
With this defense of an illustrious philOso-
| pher, now absent, as l learn, on mission
of discovery and collection, you will par
don me if l add a few views, which appear
10 me worthy the attention and recollection
of all persons. humble or lettered.
Science thus far has furnished man no
keys to the tar future beyond the regular
operations of known laws.
The alienation of day and night; the
phases of the moon; the regular return OF
the tides; the seasons Of the year, and of
the planets to their positions. at well ascer-
tanned periods-long since fully explained
are relied upon as our intuitions, our staple
of knowledge Any accidents relating to
any of these are beyond human ken; and
the child has as much authority as Her
schel, Arago or LeverTicr, in predicting
them.
No conjunction of the planets" or COM
bination of causes known to science can
give the remotest guess when an earthquake
will occur. or a volcano discharge it's lava,
at any place on the globe; and nothing
short Of considerable upheaval beneath
the sea, or disturbance of its bed, can pro
duce any such wave as is fancied in this
absurd prediction, or in any way create a
greater rise or fall of water than may be
due to storm winds, or lunar tides of the
ordinary kind.
Spring tides are known as the high and
low tides, occurring about the change and
full OF the moon. AT these times the earth,
moon and sun are nearly in right line, AMI
hence the tides, by combined attraction of
sun and moon on the earth, increase the
feet, at special localities. These are all
well known and accounted for, and may be
predicted, by Mark Twain, or his humblest
almanac reader.
No other heavenly bodies are sufficiently
near to the earth to affect sensibly the tides
Of the ocean; so that no conjunction of the
planets" whatever their positions, can APP
preciably influence the earth's tides.
The changes that are taking place, by the
operations of geological causes, are gen
orally so slow as scarcely to be appreciated
within any historic period. These; how
ever, are sometimes attended by great and
sudden movements called earthquakes and
volcanoes. But they occur, as above stated,
at such'long and irregular intervals that no
sane man has ever ventured to predict
them. And no better test of fitness for
madhouse could be given, by either a phi
losopher or pretender, than the utterance
Of any such prophesy.
Returning my thanks, gentlemen, for the
value You are pleased to attach to my opin-
ion on this as a matter of public interest,
have the honor to remain, very respect
fully, CALEB G. FORSHEY.