ON THE INFLUENCE OP COMETS. S2^ 



servation of apples is thought to depend upon the season of ga- 

 thering, with regard to the moon ; in the western islands of Scot- 

 land, the peat dug in the increase of the moon is said to continue 

 moist, and never burns clear, while the contrary is observed of that 

 cut in the decrease ; and the earthen dykes thrown up in the latter 

 season, alone are found to possess stability.* It is, also, stated that 

 if an animal fresh killed be exposed to the moon's rays, it will, in a 

 few hours, become putrid ; while another animal, only a few feet 

 distant, ]>rotected from their influence, will not be, in the least, af- 

 fected; that fruits exposed to moonlight have been known to 

 ripen much more readily ; that plants, bleached in the dark, recover 

 their colour from the beams of a full moon ; and that, in South 

 America, trees cut at the full of the moon split almost immediately, 

 as if torn asunder by great external force : " all these," it is added, 

 " are remarkable and well-established facts ;"t and such, at any rate, 

 is that of the rapid decomposition of fish, in the West Indies, which 

 are taken by moonlight.^ 



Several additional instances, of the same kind, might be given 

 with respect to animals and vegetables : it may be said that some 

 of them are not sufficiently ascertained — but it cannot be asserted 

 that they have been disproved ; neither will it be so easy to invali- 

 date, as to deny, what is matter of ordinary observation, the lunar 

 influence upon the human constitution. || But, whatever may be 

 the fate of some of these assertions, the connection between the 

 state of the weather and the changes of the moon is unquestionably 

 verified by the continual experience of those who possess the best 

 opportunities of remarking it : it may easily be discredited by the 

 inhabitants of populous cities, to whom the aspect of the open 



• Martin's Description, in Mechanics' Magazine^ xi., 42C. 



■f- Mechanics' Magazine^ iv., 381. 



X Many of the same facts have been remarked by Pliny, who elegantly 

 terms the moon *' a feminine and soft star ;" he attributes to it the liberation 

 of the damps of night, the production of sleep, and the increase and decrease 

 of animal and vegetable substances : he expressly mentions the putrescence 

 of slaughtered beasts, and has given full directions to render its aspect avail- 

 able in the various labours of agriculture. — (1. ii., c. 99, 101., xviii. 32.) 



Ij The objection which has been triumphantly alleged against the action of 

 the moon upon the human body, — that it has no en'ect upon the most deli- 

 cate barometer, — is about as pertinent as it would be to complain that a rain- 

 guage could not be emptied by a magnet, or a clock set agoing by a dose of 

 calomel. 



January, 1836.— vol. hi., no. xiv. q 



