The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-04-18
PLANETS DEAL DEATH.
Remarkable Calculations by an English
scientist.
Origin and Recurrence of Epidemics
Controlled by Planetary Conditions.

Remarkable Calculations by an English
scientist.
Origin and Recurrence of Epidemics
Controlled by Planetary Conditions.
B. G. Jenkins, F. R. A. s., writes an
interesting paper to the Pail Mall Ga
zette, in which he says it IS to the intense
prejudice educated people have against
astrology-confoundi the aStrolOgy of
the ancients and of the scientific men of
the Middle Ages with the nonsense of
the gYpseys-that we are indebted for
our Ignorance of the origin of epidemics.
AS Hecker remarks: 'Of the astral in
f1uence which was considered to have
originated the great mortality physi-
clans and learned men were as complete
ly convinced as of the fact of its reality"
The fatal error they made, however, was
in suppOsing that the influence was due
to the conjunction of the planets, instead
of to the position of the planets in their
orbits. Omitting the nonsense of for
tune-telling, the reasons why people of
the present day do not believe in planet
airy influence are two-fold: First, it is
held to betoken Ignorance and supersti-
tiOn-points on which educated people
are very sensitive; and, secondly, they
cannot imagine how such tiny objects
can effect their great globe, unconscious
ly forgetting that our earth among the
planets is as marble among cannon
balls. From a lengthy study of great
terrestrial phenomena and the movement
of the large planets, can come to no
other conclusions than that they are in
timately connected; and 1 shall, in as
few words as possible, lay before your
readers my reasons for such a conclu-
sion.
About eight years ago 1 spent many
months accommodating information on
cholera throughout the world, from 1916
to 1871. l tabulated my results, threw
them into the form of curve, and was
surprised to find that there had occurred
great outbreak about every II years,
and that these outbreaks took place al
ternately at maxima and miinma of sun
spots. Certainly the sun-spOts could not
have produced the cholera, for there was
great outbreak when the spots were
very plentiful, and the next when they
were very few. But that there was
connection I felt convinced, and also
that they were both in the nature of eff
fects. l suggested in a paper on the sub
ject / read at the time before the ROYAL
historical society that the cause would
probably be found in the influence of
the planets, and their approach to the
sun. There were minor outbreaks
which l could not explain; but 1 felt
sufficient confidence in my results to
state (see Nature, May, 1879 that, as
there had been great outbreaks in 1867,
1924, 184S-5O, 1867, we might conf
IDENTIFY expect the next in 1884. l
left the subject for seven years. Mean
while / worked at the subjects of SUM-
spots, and was rewarded by finding that
the average period for these phenomena,
for magnetic storms and for aurora peri
cd was 1,9 years, the period of Jupiter's
anOmalistic year, and that these phe-
nomena were always least when Jupiter
was nearest the sun. l then turned to
terrestrial magnetism, and found that
the needle of the compass, which at
London was moving east up to 1880 and
west till 1916, and east ever since, fol
lows the movements of a strong mag
netic pole which Sir James Ross found
in 1880 in Boothia, but which has now,
| hold, travelled west to Prince Albert
land, and has moved at such a rate that
it will complete its revolution round the
pole OF the earth in about 800 years
On examining the accumulated evidence
in regard to the dip of the needle, l
found that the magnetic pole must be in
the atmosphere over the place where it
appears to be in the earth.
In the midst of this work little Incl
dent occurred which induced me to write
to the registrar general for the number
of deaths in England for the last forty
years, which he kindly sent me. l i'm
mediately found that what / suspected
was true-that the number of deaths IN
England was greatest, on an average over
the whole period, every six years.
threw the numbers into the form of a
curve and under it placed the curve rep
resented by Jupiter's orbit during the
same period, and found that whenever
Jupiter was at two points equally distant
from his nearest point to the sun CORES
ponding to our September and March)
the deaths in England were greatest. "a
short paper on the subject will appear
in the next number of the proceedings
of the Statistical society," If this is true
for England it should be true for the
death rate of the world. On examining
the curve for cholera over the world
from 1916 to 1871, which drew out sew
en- years ago, found that this held good.
am at present engaged in examining
the death rate of the world for the last
forty years as far as possible. The ont
break of plague directed my attention to
that subject. | examined magnetic
chart of the world and found that the
lines of no declination ii. c. the lines
which indicate where the needle points
to the true north, and therefore the lines
in which the greatest magnetic power is
are advancing west, at the
average rate of about one-seventh of de-
gree annually, oyer the regions which
are the present epidemic-stricken quar-
tiers of the globe-Russia, Persia, United
States, Brazil, and Western China. AS
the magnetic poles advance these lines
advance, and epidemics on man and
beast accompany them. On calculating
back find that the line which is now
passing across Russia must have pass
ed over that region 500 years ago.
This will take us back to the mid
DIE of the fourteenth century, and with
similar magnetic conditions we have the
same epidemic-the black death. We
know that plague devastated Europe
more or less for the next two centuries,
in the great plague of Lon
don in 1865, and curiously enough just
at the time when line of no declination
was advancing over England. 1t occur
red to me that Neptune might be the
cause of the movement of the magnetic
pole On examining the movements of
the planet in its orbit, found that those
of the needle varied in accordance with
those of that planet while it makes three
revolutions. The magnetic poles make
an eccentric circle round the pole of the |
earth; this eccentricity found was due
to the influence at maximum of about
imum of about eighty years. On exam |
lining the movements and position of
Uranus, l found that they were such as
to account for the anomaly. / have fully |
detailed the subject in paper sent to
the Royal Astronomical Society; they
have announced it; whether they will |
have the courage to have it read is an
other matter
have, sir, occupied so much of your
space that will not go into other Gu
rious points, especially some relating to |
the atmospheric change which produces |
plague, and possible remedy. In con-
clusion would say that within the next |
seven years there will happen that which |
has not happened for hundreds of years |
all the planets at or near their nearest |
point to the sun about the same time II |
is true of the earth that its magnetic in |
tensity is greatest about the time when |
it is near the sun; the same is probably |
true of all the planets; therefore we may |
expect extraordinary magnetic phenom- |
ena during the next seven years, and |
great plaques, which will manifest them |
selves in all their intensity when Jupiter /
is about three years from his perihelion |
that is, in 1888.
Anton RubensteIn, a brother of the
great pianist, will come TO America in