The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1878-06-01
THE MOON.
From Harper's Weekly. !


Everybody aooords the sun the priv
ilegs OF regulating the course of the
seasons. Their majestic alterations har-
monize we'll with the march of heaven
ly body that constantly meets our eyes
with the same invariable aspect. But
changes of the weather, so unexpected
and frequent, seem to require, people
think, a more variable origin. If we
consider the daily vicissitudes of rain
and sunshine, of fogs, winds. clear skies,
and clouds, the moon is the only heaven
ly body whose rapid alterations of form
and position answer to such unceasing
variations.
In truth, the moons course does
really offer numerous periodical changes,
without taking into account anomalous
events, such rs eclipses and others. If
the weather's g caprices are more or less
periodical, they can hardly be richer in
contrasted periods than the moon her
self is Moreover, prediction-makers
have the additional resource of lunistlces,
when the moon is stationery; of the
epochs when her declinatiou is either
north or south, wnen she crosses the
equator or the eoliptio, when she is on
the same side of the equator as the sun,
or on the opposite side. Note we'll that
all these circumstances really have some
influence on the ebbing and flowing OF
the sea; whence. sailors do not fail to
conclude, they also influence the tides
OF our aerial ocean.
If we accepted literally every lunar
prejudice. the moon would rule many
things besides the weather. Madmen
and lunatics would be subject to her
power. There are veterinary surgeons
who say that the sight of certain horses
becomes dim or clear according to the
phases of the moon. Woodmen insist
that if trees are teiled with waning
moon, the wood will speedily decay
Housewives declare that il you kill your
pig. as you ought, with crescent moon,
the bacon will swell nicely in the boil
ing. if, on the contrary, when she is on
the wane, it will shrivel, shrink, and be
hard and good for nothing. Finally, all
sailors in mass, except the most highly
educated officers, attribute every change
of weather to the moon. Why? Nobody
knows.
1t is exactly because prejudices are
beyond the reach of discussion that it is
go difficult to bring them to reason.
Natural philosophers have perfectly ex-
planned the phenomena attributed to the
red moon (the lunation between the
Pasohal and the Pentecostal moons)
responsible for the morning frosts which
frequently occur at that season, But
the ancients never entertained the idea
that the moons phases were the cause
OF changes in the weather; it was Ju.
pliers privilege to assemble the clouds
and to dart the thunder-bolts. 1he
lucky and unluoky days of the lunar
month belong to astrology. and not tc
meterology. Bouvard, Arago, and many
others have proved, by long series Of
observations, that the moon does moi
Affect the weather. Labor in vain! The
majority Of sailors interpret the moons
age, each according to his own private
rule OF belief. The only effectual refuta
ton would be to strike at the root of tn,
evil in early youth, and make school
children repeatedly recite and copy truth
ful sentences, snch as: 1t ia rediculou
to believe in sorcerers. witches, were
wolves, and red moons." cit is not tru
that the new moon changes the weather
that the full moon eats up the clouds
that thunder-bolts are made of stone,
and other items Of the vulgar creed. Ac
curate knowledge Of facts might thus
promoted by cateoh hism of things no
to be believed.