The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-10-08
DOG DAYS AND WAR
Many Superstitious People AS
S0Ciate the Two.
Belief Has No Basis In Fact, But
From Ancient Times the Star
Sirius Has Been Blamed
for Calamities.

The great world war comes In dog
days and hosts of people the world
over will charge the monster calam-
ity. the incalculable catastrophe,
against the dog star.
When the sun is ardent and the air
is sultry, as must often be the condl'
ton of the weather in our temperate
zone during mid and late summer,
many persons are prone to speak OF
the period of excessive warmth and
moisture as the season of dog days.
They are giving voice to an ancient
superstition. The same thing has
been said since the human race was
young, and the phrase or it's equiva-
lent has come trippingly from mems
tongues ever since recorded history
began.
Yet 1t is a superstition. 1t has no
basis, In fact. 1t is a Pigment of the
fancy. Dog days have no relation
to dogs nor have dogs any relation
to dog days. There is the same rela-
ton between excessively hot weather
and dogs that there is between
the same kind of weather and
men, There is great danger of
heat prostration, there is a thirst
for more water and suffering If
it cannot be had and there is an in
creased demand for shade and rest
From the time that the eastern
shepherds watched the skies at night
and drew a more or less fancifui like
ness between groups of stars and OBJ
jects known on the earth there was a
constellation called CAMS Major, or
the Greater Dog" The brightest star
of the heavens was in the mouth OF
that constellation, which to some
imaginations possessed resemblance
to the outline of a dog. That star in
the constellation of the dog came to
be called the dog star. 1t has another
name which Is Sirius. 1t has been
estimated that this star has more than
thirteen times the magnitude Of our
sun.
It was a superstition with the early
dwellers in the hot portions OF the
world, and there civilization devel-
oped first, that the rising of the dog
star with the sun produced pestilen-
tial heat AS this event occurred in
the summer, there was often pesti-
lential heat, but the dog star could
not logically be charged with that mis-
fortune. There was great heat be-
cause It was the time when great heat
might be expected, and with Excess
sive heat often came pestilence be-
case of the ignorance of the people in
matters of sanitation, hygiene and
medicine The dog star had no more
to do with intense heat of mid or late
summer or with the siZZards Of July
and August than comets have to do
with war.
In the time of the Romans, or in
those ages when the Romans were
sufficiently advanced to think Of as
Economical concerns, they called the
bright star in the constellation Of the
greater dog "Canicular," which was
their way of saying that it was the
dog star in the dog constellation. The
days or the nights when that star was
conspicuous in the sky they called
dies canicular or canicular days-or
dog star days.
Then, because it had received the
name of dog star, the popular mind
conceived that it was related to the
dog, and as the stars and the moon
had influence over men, why, the dog
star had influence over dogs.
In the hot season, when this star
was in the sky, and a dog went wild
with thirst, it was the dog star that
did it. The dog star got the blame
for the hot weather and the madden
ing thirst Of the dog. Men died an
agonizing death sometimes after hav-
ing been bitten by a dog. This ter
rible disease came finally to have the
name of hydrophobia or rabies. When
a man was bitten during the brilliant
ascendancy of the dog star the mat
ter caused wide comment and the
blame was laid on the star. If the
death occurred at any other time, peo-
PIE were very SOlly LII Tic FlCLlll, UuJ
they did not connect the occurrence
with the star.
And so the superstition has come
down through the centuries. Modern
statisticians who have dealt with
such things can prove that rabies is
commoner, or more frequent, at other
times than during dog days." and
just what days are dog days is not
easy to define. An astronomer could
answer The canicular days of the
Romans were 40. There were 20
canicular days before and 20 after
the rising of the dog star, and the ris-
ing was described as ''the heliacal
rising" meaning the time when the
star, after being practically in con-
junction with the sun and invisible,
energies from the light so as to be
,vic;J,1o ~, @Io ~ Iofooo