The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-07-14
HEAT AND FAMINE.
startling Natural Phenomena In Prospect
1xzIign SUN Spots-The Earth Feeling the
Reactive Effects of Solar Distur-
bance-Drought and Ruined
Crops.
New YORK MercurY.l

from an excess of heat In many places the
crops are totally ruined, and recent showers
aave done little good. Blights In vegets-
ton invariably pIecsde and accompany
epidemics, and not inirt quently culminste
in famines. What is the cause of blights2
In other words, to what cosmIoal influences
ara We to attribute the late unusually mild
winter and the late unreasonable spring.
There are certain pious, well meaning peo-
pie, who refer all tublunary abnormalities
10 the Creator of the universe but in recent
years there has arisen class of phIlosophic
spectators who attribute the recurrence of
blighting years and meteorological inhar-
monies TO
PLANETARY INFLUENCES,
or to what may more properly be termed a
periodical excess of planetary attraction.
Blights in vegetation, from bad seasons and
irregular weather, always precede epidemics,
and il Is a significant circumstance, that ad
z1its of positive demonstration, that the
pestilential periods OF history have always
been coincident with the perihelia
or ueares. approach OF the large planets OF
our system to the sun. Especially Is this the
case with Jupiter and Saturn. In this con-
uecti0n, and with the late weather and crop
prospects before rs, il Is not pleasant to re-
mark that Jupiter, the giant planet OF our
system, WILL make his neersst approach to
the sun in October. He is at present
exSnsitIug through the sign Aries. On the
LIST OF June he was in twelve degrees and
ffty minutes of that dry, arid sign. On the
zst of July he reached seventeen degrees and
seventeen minutes of the Ram; on the LIST Of
August be will haye reached twenty eight
degrees hfiy-four minutes On the 18th OF
the Last named month he will turn retro
grade in twenty eight degrees f!ty-eight
minutes. On the 1sJ of September he will
have retrograde1 70 eighteen degrees thirty
seven minutes of Aries; by the LIST of
October 10 fifteen degrees eighteen minutes,
sad on the 9Th OF October In fourteen de-
Srees thirty minutes of Aries retrograde,
Jupiter will make his nearest approach in
his periodic twelve years to the sun. At
that time SIturn will be also retrograde il
twenty elk degrees twenty two minutes of
Aries. These two giant planets remain,
uniting their forces, whatever they
may be, in Aries during the
whole of this year. II there be any
truth in the theories OF astronomical
etioIogy, the world and its inhabitants will
have cause to remember this malign comb
nation. The influence OF these planets ad
uslts of simple explanation. Their I'M
mense masses no doubt act and react on the
sun, Ccc3sioning those stupendous exhibi
tions OF sun spots that astronomers have re-
Gently remarked. Probably the force that
we are accustomed to term the attraction of
sfavitation is
A NATURAL vITA-sTIMULANT,
like heat. 1t may require long series of
observations and greatly improve phllosoph.
zeal instruments to settle this question be-
yond cayil; but looking at the progress made
within the last three Yeas of spectroscopy,
may fairly indulge the hope that astronom-
zeal science will yet unfold something posi-
tive on this Question-Some instrum emit more
delicate than the barometer, capable of meas
1ring the amount of planetary attraction on
the cir. The barometer shows that there is
an increase in the weight of the atmosphere
ct every high tide; elevating an immense
atmospheric tide and counter tide; and that
there Is then
A MARKED CHANGE IN THE ELECTRIC TENSION,
and a variation in the magnetic needle.
These disturbances are undoubtedly intensi
ned during the perihelion approximation OF
the great planets 10 the sun. There are good
reasons for believing Sbat the revolutions OF
Jupiter govern the recurrence OF periods OF
DestilenCe and famine Consequently, with
Jupiter and Saturn in close cooperation
during the whole Of this year, lively times
Tor doctors and undertakes may be expect
ed Ali of Jupiter's twenty-five perihelIon
approaches, in a cycle OF 300 years have been
characterized by great disturbances IN the
physical world and severe epidenlics. So
uniform and pronounced have been those
results that it has been marvellous that the
kset has been so long overlooked. A rscent
writer says: by all the facts presented it Is
rendered very probable, to say the least, that
Jupiter and Saturn's perihelion approaches
do inaugurate epidemics, aud that III
Jupiter occupied the position OF Mas.
snd Saturn that of the asteroids, their peri
i
d1dons of human existence on our globe
is is veil their masses are 80 far from rs,
with such multiplicity of asteroids be
tween Us to offend and soften the severity
OF their unreienting gripes. We need q
1ebular expaDse, indeed, 70 shelter us. And
If the asteroids are, as has been supposed,
fragments OF a magnificent world that once
revolved in the regular Keplerian order OF
distance, but could not Withstand the force
1t had to encounter, and was shattered to
atoms, which atoms now compose the aster-
Oids, was it not the attraction OF Jupiter and
Saturn united that destroyed it? We know
that they possess great attractive power
We know that they are disturbing each
other at every turn. We know that the
planet Neptune was discovered by searching
for the outside pow er that was all but draw
ing Uranus out OF his orbit. This iIlustra.
ton probably also furnishes an explanation
OF the manner in which
EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIoEs
are caused, under the united attraction o.
the sun, moon and planets"
In studying the comparative influence o.
Jupiter and Saturn it would appear>th the
latter planets power for evil is less than tina
OF Jupiter, inasmuch as his single perihelior
visits DO not cause the same amount Of
malign disturbance that the formers singl,
visits cause. The explanation is simple
Ssturn's mass Is less, and he is much farther
OF. Still Saturn power is great. The ma
Ign influence he exerts on the earth wher
united with that of Jupiter is made known
by the increased g. yravation of the latter
perihelion, as IN the records of the Irish
famine and epidemics of 1S43 and 1857. thu
continued pestilence of 1875 and 1885, th'
scurvy epidemics of 1725 and 1745, and TIT
great and continued pestilence of 1868 tC
1879. IL may not be amiss to explain the pc
siton of Jupiter and Saturn during one Of
those long pestilential periods. Let us Sc
iect the latest of the series. the period of thu
Irish famine, continued through 70 1856
The epidemics and other cosmical disturb
ences of this most recent period are fresh ii
che memory of the average reader "A con
JUDetion of the planets took place in Cap