Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1904-12-28

belleve In his absurdly fantastic
theories. They are no more be-
lievable than the myths and legends
of the ancients. 1t is inconceivable
that learned astronomer and
meteorologist actually believes that
the sun is passive except when it is
"perturbed" by some planets
equinox; that mists and vapors are
injected and infused into the sun by
Mercury's perturbation, and then
thrown out by solar energy to form
mists and sleet on earth; and that
during the so-called Jupiter
period" the carrying capacity of
earth's atmosphere becomes dis
ordered and weakened, so that it
cannot transport and diffuse humid
.ty, thereby causing consuming
ldrouths in places and destructive
cloudbursts in other localities. One
who actually believes that kind of
absurdity is really beyond the reach
OF influence by evidence and argu-
ment. The bare statement of such
propositions is a sufficient refuta-
ton.
Students in the primary class in
.meteorology learn that the ever
changing phenomena of the weather
ARE all referable to the action of the
sun upon the earth and its atmos-
iphere, vapors and gases; that the
constantly radiated energy of the
sun supports heat, light and electric
force in the solar system. The
planets possess no form of indepen-
dent energy whereby they. may
"perturb" the sun and increase it's
potency. Gravitation is only a
name given to the statical relation
of all matter in the universe, and it
is physical constant. There is alb
!solutely no proof of any "perturba-
ton" or increase in storm energy
when the sun crosses the equator Of
the earth or any other planet. That
lis merely hypothesis, supported by
apriori assumptions and occasional
condolences. People often con-
found coincidence with consequence.
Planetary weather forecasts are
too-far-fetched to be practicable.
The prophets in that line work at
the wrong end of the problem.
When there is little more than
the usual degree of heat, or stormi-
ness, they peer into the nebular
spaces to see what caused the dis
sturbance on earth, and then allege
that it was done by Jupiter, or was
the malign work Of Saturn, which in
their philosophy causes epidemics
and pestilential contagious diseases.
Possibly also they may in time dis
cover that it is due to Saturnian
potency that we have rings and
in human affairs; why.
not?
True science, in the last analysis,
is plain common-sense applied to
the study of natures problems. In
erecting philosophical structures
the foundation should rest on the
earth. Begin with facts as the solid
basis of theories. Reason from the
known to discover the unknown.
In forecasting storm, observe the
good, old recipe of the cook book
for cooking a hare-first catch your
storm, and then predict its future
course and time schedule. A storm
in hand q. e. on the map) is worth
two in some nebular hypothesis!
It's mighty easy forecasting storms
if one is allowed a broad range as to
the exact locality and a long range
as to the exact locality and a long
range as to the date. Storms are
coming and going all the time,
somewhere; on all dates as well as
the specified days Of the almanacs
storm period.
It's probably true that cyclones,
or storm eddies, are practically as
much in evidence one day as
another, considering the earth as a
whole. So one may safely predict
storms for every day in the year
with the certainty that they will
rage somewhere. 1t would. keep
the moon and planets mighty busy
with their equinoxes to maintain the
continual stream of atmospheric
eddies flowing over the face of the
earth. But really the moon and
planets are not charged with that
duty. In respect to light, heat and
power of gravitation these bodies
are infnitesimal as compared with
the sun, which is the prime cause
of weather phenomena on earth.
j. R. SAGE.