Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-04
VX TEATHER bureau scientists


wv have much to learn-they
have dropped back to the
rear of the procession and it is time
they were up and doing
This statement made by William A.
Spalding at meeting of the Academy
of Sciences in Symphony hall last night
caused the learned men who heard him
to sit up in their seats and cast ques-
tioning glances at their neighbors.
Mr.. Spalding is student of science
and has devoted much of his spare time
for many years to study and research.
Mr.. Spalding predicted the Mar
Unique horror, the Japanese earth
quake and the San Francisco disaster
fourteen years ago in a lecture before
the teachers institute.
Last night, in an address on 1.-The
Search for a Cycle" he explained his
reasons for some of his calculations,
and told many things of interest to
scientists concerning earthquakes and
tornadoes. He illustrated his lecture
with charts and maps.
Mr.. Spalding declared that the field
of inspirational prophecy is narrowing
until it contains only few charlatans
and other dupes, but that the field OF
scientific forecast is broadening tre-
mendously with the increase of human
knowledge.
Mr.. Spalding says that the weather
bureau often makes mistakes in its
predictions of local conditions, and he
believes that the shortcomings of the
service are due to the fact that the
weather bureau confines itself toe
strictly to reporting observed phenom-
ena. He says that the weather bureau
is doing little or nothing to investigate
new theories and to enlarge the scope
of meteorology.
He says that more attention should
be paid to the larger cosmic influences
which dominate all sorts of disturb
ances on the earth and bring them
trooping along Observation-Disclosures
volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and hur-
ricanes.
1.-The second, the minute and the hour
are periods arbitrarily established by
man for the purpose of measuring time,
The week comes down to us from the
east, and has an immemorial past,
said Mr.. Spalding.
"It was not known in the Grecian
calendar, and was not introduced by
the Romans until the time of Theodo-
sius While the week was doubtless
founded upon religious tradition whose
main purpose was to designate one day
in each group of seven for devotional
exercises, the principle of rest from la
bor on that day proved so conducive
to the physical, mental and moral we'll
being of mankind that, independent of
all creeds, the period has obtained
worldwide observance.
Man Made Time Measures
''The point which / wish to enforce
is that the second, the minute, the hour
and the week as measures of time are
distinctly of human establishment. Not
so with the day, the month and the
year, which are periods provided for
us by Nature. The day Is determined
by one rotation of the earth on its
axis the month by one revolution OF
the moon around the earth, and the
year by one revolution Of the earth
around the sun. The day, the month
and the year are founded upon three
distinct rhythms in nature.
"Other phenomena owe their regular
recurrence to those same rhythms
such, for example, as the alienation
OF day and night, the systematic actor
OF the tides, and the succession of the
seasons. Through a vast number OF
phenomena we may extend our inves'
tigation, and wherever we discover II
them an established sequence of phases
and a repetition OF such sequence II
equal times we may be sure that they
are referable TO these same rhythms II
nature which regulate and dominate
the affairs Of the earth.
III we would arrive at a correct un'
derstanding Of any phenomenon, oui
most persistent EFFORT should be direct.