158 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



Now, if it be said that October, May, and September are 

 hurricane months in the East and West Indies, this will not 

 make against my argument; for though the causes of the 

 meteors and of the hurricanes respectively produce their due 

 effects, there is nothing more in the 12th or 13th day of 

 November, than there is in the 31st of August, or 31st of 

 October, to give weight to cometic influence. Those days of 

 November are, as we have seen (VII. 385.), connected with 

 other meteoric displays, which certainly have a volcanic con- 

 nection : and there are other instances in which those days 

 are rendered remarkable. But they seem more referable to 

 terrestrial than celestial periodicity, when we consider that, 

 nearly contemporaneous with these hurricanes, there were 

 evidences of volcanic agency ; when we take into the account, 

 also, the occurrences of other particular days ; and that 

 locusts are conspicuous in America every seventeen years (VII. 

 610.) ; that the sweating-sickness * occurred thrice at intervals 

 of thirty-three years ; that the two great hurricanes of August 

 had an interval of seventeen years, and that they corresponded 

 in all other points, especially in the breaking up of the ice in 

 Greenland ; and that, as I could easily show, there is an extra- 

 ordinary concurrence in all cases of great terrestrial and atmo- 

 spherical derangement, with the multiples of a period of sixteen 

 or seventeen years (the sum of whose digits is 33), and which 

 periods, calculated backwards from the year 1833, will be 

 found, with fixed allowance occasionally of from five to six 

 years f , to comprehend almost every phenomenon of the kind 

 on record, either in modern or ancient history. It is easy to 

 play with numbers ; but the results obtained by this calculation 

 answer to periods of most marked and striking interest. 

 There is an extraordinary agreement between the dates of 

 recorded events, and the numbers obtainable by the process 

 alluded to, if we assume 1833 as our base. We have, for 

 instance, the years a. d. 62, a period of universal earthquakes ; 

 79, famed by the ruin of Pompeii; 1750, 1755, 1794*, of 

 more recent celebrity ; 711, mentioned by Morales ; 431, the 

 period named by St. Isidore ; 519 to 563, the reign of Jus- 



* I learn, with pleasure and satisfaction, that Dr. Babington, the trans- 

 lator of Hecker's work on the Black Death, is engaged in the publication of 

 translations of two other works of that industrious writer ; viz. the Danso- 

 mania and the English Sweating-Sickness. These three works form a series, 

 on which Dr. Hecker is engaged, on the epidemics of the middle ages. 

 f Thus, 1833 v — 17=1816 v , 1816+6=1822 v ; 



1833—16 = 1817, 1817+6=1823; and 

 1823 + 6=1829*. 

 Again, 1833-33= 1800 v , 1800— 17= 1783 v ; and 



1783—16=1767; 1767— 17=1750 v ; and so on. 

 The v implies a volcanic year. 



