Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-12-23

be guarded against carefully, since it will
vitiate any speculation, but at the same
time in investigating problem to which
we possess SO little clue, it is advisable
that nothing he overlooked which may by
any possibility help US to rational and
correct explanation.
We no longer believe in astral Influences
of the medieval kind, but modern science
does not convince US that the conditions
OF our own planet are incapable of being
disturbed by the centiguity of other plan
cts or spatial bodias of any kind. Super.
stition has always ascribed such disturbin ,
influences to comets, and for that reason
perhaps scientific men are apt to go to the
opposite extreme. and deny any influence to
these bodies. But it is both possible and
to be expected that comets should exercise
disturbing influence upon this earth. We
are not yet acquainted with their csnstitu.
hon, but We are warranted in suspecsing
land particularly from the peculiar re.
peilant movement of their tails from the
SUM, that electricity is largely concerned
In their motions and composition. Now it
Is certain that enormous masses of Instter,
however tenuous, highly charged with
electricity, passing comparatively near to
the earth, must have some effect upon the
electrical conditions of the latter. We
know also that susceptibility and insus.
ceptibility to disease depend largely upon
seiluric magnetism and electricity. When
the atmosphere is surcharged with cleo.
tricity sickness is rife; and also when the
supply is deficient. To suppose, there
fore, that the advent Of large comet may
produce such disturbance in the electrical
condition OF the earth as to give rise to
epidemics, is entirely consistent with the
most advanced science. And yet this is
precisely what our ignorant and supersti.
tious ancestors believed in their time.
Dr.. Hecker has brought together great
deal of evidence showing the coincidence
OF teiluric and atmospheric disturbances
with the greatest epidemics OF the middle
ages. Thus before the Black Death which
decimated the Inhabitants of Europe in the
fourteenth century, a remarkable success.
sion of violent and destructive earthquakes
occurred, accompanied by oometary and
meteoric appearances. The Sweating
Sickness of the succeeding century was
ushered in likewise by cometary phenom-
ena, and what is very significant, great
disturbances in the progress of the seasons
appear always to have followed these phe.
nomena. Now this is just what we should
expect to happen consequent upon serious
arrangement of the normal electrical con.
ditions of the earth and that arrangement
once established nothing is easier than to
deduce from it rational explanations of ell
the succeeding disasters.
But even though it should be made ap.
parent that epidenics are or may be caused
or propagated in the manner indicated, the
fact could not warrant any relaxation of
vigilance on the part of local authorities.
For though changes in the electrical condi.
tions may increase or diminish the suscep.
tibility to disease, it must be remembered
that the local material for the manufacture
of disease germs must be present before it
can be possible to propagate such diseases
as typhoid fever. Wherever such dis
ease becomes epidemic we know that the
local conditions were such as to favor its
dissemination. It would be impossible to
make typhoid fevers epidemic where there
were no accumulations of excreta and other
decomposing matter to form the indus of
the germs. Local cleanliness and good
drainage are therefore equally Indispensable
whether epidemics are induced by changes
in the electrical conditions, or are born OF
the spot, so TO speak. The only way to
secure even approximate safety from them
is to maintain the utmost purity in the
local atmosphere. For while it may and
does often happen that community lives
for years with comparative impunity in the
midst of the most Inhealthful conditions.
such communities are always in the posi-.
ton OF people living over powder msga-
zine, which any accidental spark may
ignite, to their sudden destruction.