The daily morning oasis., 1919-12-13
BY PROF. w. w. CAMPBELL

Director Lick Observatory, U. of CO.
Written for the United Press
! Scores of communications have
come to the Lick Observatory in re-
cent weeks inquiring about dreadful
! storms, floods, excessive cold, earth
quakes, volcanic eruptions, and so
forth, to occur on December II and
later.
These inquiries say that some as
tronomer made such prediction, bas
ing it upon peculiar arrangement OF
the planets with reference to the sun.
This must be mistake, for no astron-
omer would make such a prophecy.
However, no careful man would VEN
ture to say that severe storms, earth
quakes, etc will not occur on or about
December II, or any other date.
The fact is, no man is able to pre-
dict what will occur in the way Of
storms and earthquakes even ten days
in the future If / were to predict
which ! do not-that severe storm
, will occur somewhere in the northern
hemisphere on or about January Is,
the chances are strong that my pre-
; diction would be verified; severe
. storms occur somewhere on the earth
on or about any date that anybody
may be pleased to mention
1t is true that on December II six
; of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, will lie
in on general direction from the sun,
and seventh planet, Uranus, very
nearly in the opposite direction, but
the earth will be in quite different
direction. The prophet says that
such strange grouping of planets
) has not been seen in score of CEN
turies. Then how does he know that
such a grouping will have dire con-
sequences for the earth? Configur-
ations of the planets just as remark
; able as that due to exist on December
II have occurred many times, and no
one has recognized that the earth has
suffered therefrom.
The prophet speaks of the "con-
I junction the seven planets on the
18th. This Is mistake on his part
The two great planets Jupiter anc
Saturn, wi ;ch contain thirteen times
! ! as much material as the other 81,
planets combined, will not be in con
junction. Tie lines drawn fro'-
I them to the sun will make an angle
! of twenty-six degrees with the other
The prophet says that when the
planets are in conjunction with the
sun their united pull upon the SUI
causes the suns gases to explode ant
produce a sunspot. Now, the gravita
tional pull of the planets upon the
sun will not be maximum on Decem
ber II; this pull upon the sun ha'
been greater many times in the pas
century than it will be on December
' II. Jupiter and Saturn come into ex
act conjunction with the sun once
every twenty years, approximate!
= and when they are in conjunction, a.
they will be in August, 1921, theil
combined "pull" upon the sun i:
greater than the combined pull of al
4 the planets will be on December II Of
this year. No consequences of the
conjunctions of Jupiter and Satu1
upon the earth's weather, quakes anc
so forth, have ever been found, al
though they have been most carefully
searched for by experienced students
of these subjects.
The prophets say, "the magnetic
currents between Uranus and the six
planets will pierce the sun like a
mighty spear" Nobody has ever OBJ
served that there are any magnetic
! currents acting between any two OF
more of the planets. This statement
of the prophets rests upon no obser-
walton and upon no established scien-
tific theory.
The prophet brings in the sunspots,
but he appears to know very little
about them He does not get his facts
straight. He says that the planetary
influences will on December II cause
"the hugest sunspot on record-a sun
spot that will be visible to the naked
eye" He further says that since men
began to make records of events no
sunspot has yet been large enough
to be seen without the aid of instru-
ments (meaning telescopes(. Now
sunspots large enough to be seen by
the naked eye are of frequent occur
rences. I have myself seen several
sunspots without telescope aid, sim
ply by looking at the sun at the right
times through properly smoked
glasses, and am not so horribly old,
either.
The The revised prospectus of Cor
respondence Courses offered by the
University Extension Division of the
University of Arizona includes in ad-
d;t;on +o +boca alraady SchedIIed a