Evening journal., 1901-10-10

Belief prevails that the moons
phases and changes have a controlling
influence over the weather, but so great
an authority as Professor c. A. Young,
Of Princeton. assures us that the moon
has absolutely nothing to do with the
weather.
Such belief is in the strict sense of
the word a superstitiOn-"me sur
vival from past credulity. 1t is quite
certain that if there is any influence
at all of the sort 1T is extremely slight
SO slight that it cannot be demon
strated with certainty, although nu-
merous investigations have been made
expressly for the purpose of detecting
Ut. We have never been able TO ascer-
tain. for instance, with certainty.
whether it is warmer or not or less
cloudy or not ait the time Of the full
moon. Different investigations have
led to contradictory results.
"As TO the supposed connection be-
tween change of the moon and
changes of the weather, it should be
enough to note that even within the
United States the weather changes are
not simultaneous lin Kansas and
If they were due to the changing
phases OF the moon. Since, however, a
change of the moon occurs every week,
every weather change must necessarily
occur within about three days and a
half of lunar change, and half OF them
ought to fall within about forty-fiYe
hours, evens If perfectly independent
Now 1t requires only very slight
.prepossession in favor of a belief in
the effectiveness of the moons changes
to make one forget few of the
weather changes that occur too far
from the proper time Condolences
enough can easily bel found to Justify
a pre-eSisting beliefI
From very remote antiquity, in the
twilight of natural astrology, a belief
arose that changes in the weather were
occasioned by the moon That the be-
lief still exists Is clear to any one who
is acquainted with current literature
and common folk lore. In fact, it must
be admitted that even intelligent. and
well informed people have been known
to accept the theory.
BELIEF IN ENGLAND
The idea that the weather is affected
by the changes in the moon is still held
with great vigor in England, and one
of our proverbs is, so many days Old
the moon is on Michaelmas Day, so
many floods after" If it rains on St.
Swithin's day, we are tod to expect
rain for forty days after. An equally
wise prediction is that if Christmas
comes during a waxing moon we shall
have very good year, and the nearer
to the moon the better, but if during a
waning moon a 'hard year. and the
nearer the end of the moon so much
the worse.
Another belief is that the condition
Of the weather depends upon the day
of the week on which the new moon
chances to fall. New moon on Mon
day, or moon day, is everywhere held
as sign of good weather. Fridays
new moon is much disliked, while Sat
urday is unlucky for the new and Sun
day for the full moon According to
the old English weather saw,
Saturdays new and Sundays FUN
Never was good and never wull.
In Scotland the farmers believe that
misty moon is a misfortune and an
agricultural maxim among them
teaches that
If the moon shows like a silver shield
You need not be afraid to reap your
field.
But if she rises haloed round
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground.
Two rules of the shepherd of Ban
bury are: