The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-02-24
No Fear OF Planetary Disaster.

of all the major planets to their perlhelia,
intlicting dire results and bringing about
the most fearful calamities known to
history and resulting in the most de-
vastating disaster to men and beasts,
Professor Lewis Swift has written let
ter to the Rochester Herald, in which
he says:
For the last two years the popular
mind has been excited to an unusual
degree over the statements made by a
few visionary enthusiasts, who, with a
great flourish of apparent wisdom, have
spread before the world the prediction
shat, owing to the simultaneous arrival
of the major planets to their perihelia
during the present year, the most dread
full caiamities ever recorded in history
are to occur, such as earthquakes on
vast and destructive scale, devastating
tornadoes, widespread pestilence, great
loss of life by shipwrecks, famine and
wars and thousand other things too
dreadful to contemplate. In all COM
} munities there is certain class who
will give listening ear to anything, no
matter how absurd, that partakes large
ly of marvelousness; hence this belief,
which has not a particle of evidence to
support it, is widespread in all civilized
countries.
1 am constantly receiving letters ask
ing when the planets will severally be
in perihelion (nearest the SUM- and
when we are to look for fnlfillment of
4 these predictions that will make the
year 1881 famous for all coming time
These questions convince me that the
delusion still exists, and has sunk deep
IN the minds of men, and that perhaps
I III would be advisable to prepare state
Z .ffient setting forth the facts as they ex-
ist, and, with slight variations, will con-
5 stlnue to exist as long as time lasts.
All planets move in orbits or paths
more or less eliptical, the sun occupy
ing the common focus of them all 1t
therefore necessarily follows that a
planet is sometimes nearer the sun than
at others. In oar, age (but it will not
always be so) the earth is about three
million miles nearer the sun on the lst
OF January than on the I'd day of July.
On January /, therefore, the earth is
in perihelion, and of course is in that
i. situation once year. Every planet is
in periheliOn once during its year.
Mercury. the planet nearest the sun,
has smaller orbit than ours, and hence
its year is correspondingly shorter, be-
ing only Lightweight of our days and
] mtEt therefore be in perihelion. every
] INghty eight days. On the contrary
Neptune, the most distant planet known
: has n year equal in length to one hun
dred aud sixty-four and one-half of
,ctrs, and is consequently only once in
Sperihelion during that time. It follows
that Che time must come when all the
u. eightsplanets will be in perihelion at
once. 1t is only question in simple
arithmetic how often this will happen.
1t has been stated, and insisted upon,
that this rare event, which probably
has not occurred since the Mosaic crea-
ton, would take place during the pres
q ent year. That this is not the case the
following table shows:
Mercury..Fe5. 2, May -, Aug. I6. Nov II, 1881
Earth Ian \ 1891
MATS. .........-.-.--....-. May rs, 1881
Jupiter. ......Sept 2i 1SS0
Saturn. Aug. 70, lSS)
70 Srluus ...-.,..-.......----..-s March p 1852
Nepluue- -,........- Oct. -, 1SS2
1t is not denied that this is a close
agreement when it is considered how
long some of the periods of revolution
49, A'ub WIide Vi lux w llO HIS ever
proved or presented evidence that has
ANY semblanee of proof that planets ar
! irving at their perihelion points have
the least perceptible influence on either
! the sun or earth or any of the other
planets?
4A Each planet, even the giant Jupiter,
isa pigmy compared to the sun. in
fact he will outweigh all of them COM
bincd by more than 700 times. What
effect then can the simple difference in
distance of any single planet, say of
Jupiter, have on the heat, and lieht.
and spots. ETC.. on the sun, almost 500
000.000 miles Distant
The planet Mercury is comparatively
near the sun and almost as dense as
lead, and the eccentricity of his orbit is
SO great that he is over 20, 900, coo miles
nearer the sun at perlhelion than at
faphelion, but has any one ever per.
ceived any changes on the sun once in
lightweight days? Has any recurrence
of magnetic storms, earthquakes,
plaques. or an excess of calamities OF
any kind ever been noticed during his
perihelion passagesP If not, then it is
safe to say none exists and the subject
may be elassed with the thousand other
decisions which exist in the minds of
men, and for which no remedy is known
save thorough and universal educa-
ton OF all classes of society.