154 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



(Baker's Chronicles), and, in 1182, Jerusalem and almost all 

 the towns in Syria were desolated by earthquakes ; and Mrs. 

 Somerville has stated that 1186 was an astronomical year, 

 when, on Sept. 15., the five great planets were in conjunction : 

 an occurrence which had not before happened for 3686 years ! 

 Without wishing to assign any of the earth's derangements 

 to astrological causes, I may also add that the sweating-sick- 

 ness happened at intervals of thirty-three years, during the 

 conjunction of three of the great planets in the same signs. 

 But I shall not yet allude more to the question of ** period- 

 icity" (VII. 387.) In 1228, the harvest was gathered in 

 before St. John's day; and, in 1230, the summer was so 

 exceedingly hot, that " men roasted eggs in the sand." 

 (German Chronicles.) The year 1289 was also, according to 

 Steinhoffer (Chronicles of Wiirtemburg), so mild, that there was 

 no snow in winter, birds paired at Christmas, and vines blos- 

 somed in April ; yet frost occurred in May, retarding but not 

 destroying the abundant vintage. In 14«20, the winter was 

 also mild ; the harvest was gathered in at Whitsuntide, and 

 the vintage by Aug. 24. The year 1671 (Phil. Trans.) also 

 exhibited cherries, in Ireland, ripe in April ; and it is stated 

 that there had been no snow or frost for two or three previous 

 years. These examples exactly parallel those of 1833 and 

 1834 in the mildness of the winters, the drought, and early 

 harvests, and the sudden irruptions of unseasonable frosts in 

 May. Of this latter phenomenon, the year 1063 affords a 

 most striking instance : there was such dreadful destruction, 

 for four days, in the spring of that year, by snow, accom- 

 panied with raging winds, that the trees, vines, men, and 

 cattle were greatly injured. (Hermannus Contractus.) 



As I have quoted a few instances, from the old chronicles, 

 of seasons unusually hot, and as, before, we have traced some 

 instances of unusual cold to volcanic action, we may add to 

 the list the following examples of a contrary kind : — The 

 year a. d. 1125 was so cold, that the eels left the water for 

 the meadows; and there were no leaves till May. (Her. 

 Contr.) Serres, in his life of Francis I., says that, at the 

 siege of Luxembourg (1543), the wine froze; and was broken 

 up by hatchets, and carried off by the soldiers. In a.d. 821, 

 the Rhine, Elbe, Seine,. Danube, &c, were frozen over for 

 thirty days. Seneca, also, complains in his epistles (23. and 

 67.) of " malignum ver," " prcepostum frigus." We have, how- 

 ever, no means of ascertaining the connection of these incle- 

 ment seasons with the other phenomena of the time. There 

 are, also, several mentions of violent storms in the chronicles. 

 In the year 1096 (in the reign of William Rufus), a hurri- 



