Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1878-11-14
PERIHELION AND PESTILENCE.
what May Ensue During the Next Seven
Years-A Period Of suffering ana
Death.
from the Science of Health.l

|
| If there is anything in astrological criolo.
gy, I'VE are approaching one of the most pes.
tilential periods of the earth's history. Since
perihelia of the four great planets of the solar
| system-Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and Nep.
| tune have not been cOincident. But this IS
| about to occur, and, in the language of DR..
Knapp, who has traced the history of the
greatest epidemics that ever afflicted the hu-
| man race to the perihelia of these planets,
there will soon be ''ively times for the doc
! tors" The theory is that when one or more
of the large planets is nearest to the sun, the
temperature and condition of our atmosphere
are so disturbed as to cause injurious vicissi-
tudes, terrible rains, prolonged drouths, etc.,
resulting in the destruction of crops, and pes
tilences among human beings and dometic
animals.
DR.. Knapp has collected mass OF statisti-
Cal data, all going to show that periheliOn data
have always been marked by unusual mortali-
ty, and that sickness and death have invaria-
bly, corresponded with the planets in periheli-
on at the same time. The revolution of Jupi-
ter round the sun is accomplished in little
less than twelve years of oaturn in q little
less than thirty years of Uranus in about
eighty-four years. If it be true, therefore,
that the perihelia of these planets occasion
atmospheric conditions unfavorable to life,
pestilential periods should occur once in q
dozen years, and aggravated and still more
widespread epidemics at longer intervals. In
tracing the history of epidemics for more
than 1900 years, DR.. Knapp finds the facts
in all cases to validate the theory Thus in
the sixth, and again in the sixteenth centuries,
three of these planets were coincident in peri
helion, and those were the most pestilentlal
times of the Christian era.
But soon we are to have, for the first time
in two thousand years, all four of these planets
against us. They will be at their nearest ap-
proach to the sun in or soon after 1880, so
that for few years, say from 1880 to 1885,
the vitality of every living thing will be put
to severe and trying ordeal. Some persons
think they see in the signs of the times evi-
dences of the great disasters in the immediate
future. The excessive heat, the unexampled
cold, the prevalence of flood aud disasters at
sea, the geneal failure of the potato crop, the
wide spread chill fever among human beings,
and the equal presence of epizootic among
animals, are mentioned as among the pre-
monitions of the rapidly approaching perihel-
ion.
Well, ''to be forewarned is to be forearm
ed." Accidents excepted, we know very well
that persons of more vigorous constitutions
and more hygienic habits will have better
chance to survive whatever adverse influences
the extraordinary perihelia will occasion. 1t
is well known to physicians that, in all pes
tilences, plague, typhus, small .pox, cholera.
murrain, etc. the Incorporate, the dissipated,
and those whose sanitary conditions were bad
furnished the victims.
We do not write to alarm any one, nor to
make sensation. We state the facts which
all history attests. Readers can judge for
themselves what importance to attach to the
subject That the conjoint perihelion of all
large planets of the solar system, one of
which, Jupiter, is a thousand times as large
as the earth, must disturb our atmosphere
and temperature very considerably, is prob
able ;that this disturbance must be injurious
to health and life, is certain and that these
periods have heretofore been pestilential, is
matter of record. How much we shall suffer |
during the next dozen or fifteen years, de-
pends very much upon how nearly we live !
life in accordance with the laws of life.