POPULAR SCIENCE 



LUNAR PERIODICITY IN LIVING 

 ORGANISMS 



By H. MUNRO fox, M.A. 

 Biological Laboratory, School of Medicine, Cairo 



A SUPPOSED influence of the moon on plants, animals, and on 

 the affairs of men is found mixed with the religious ideas of 

 nearly all primitive peoples. It persists to-day in folklore and 

 superstition. Most of us have turned a coin in our pockets for 

 luck on first seeing the new crescent, wishing that with the 

 growing moon the money and our general prosperity might 

 too be increased. This in reality is the key to the origin of 

 most moon beliefs. The moon is one of the most striking of 

 natural objects seen by primitive man, and one which varies 

 most in aspect. By association of ideas the moon's increase 

 and decrease is then supposed to influence the increase and 

 decrease of any changing process. 



This assumption has left its trace in the superstitions of 

 many present-day peasants in Europe and elsewhere, who 

 believe that hair, nails, corns, etc., cut under a waxing moon 

 grow again more quickly than when cut under a waning moon, 

 and that sickness disappears most rapidly when treated under 

 a waning moon. The same ideas were current in ancient Rome, 

 for Pliny says that Tiberius " for hair-cutting observed the 

 increasing phases." Hence sheep are shorn under a waxing 

 moon, and to-day in Greece the peasants arrange that lambing 

 and calving shall take place in the growing phases. The same 

 belief can be traced into nearly all departments of human 

 activity. Thus in parts of Africa to-day war, journeys, or 

 business must be commenced with a waxing moon if they are 

 to be successful, and the same is related by Caesar {De Bello 

 Gallico) and Tacitus (Germania) of the ancient Germans. 

 Marriages, too, must take place during the first half of the lunar 

 month. 



From this idea it is but a short step to associate the waxing 

 and waning moon with the growth and decay of vegetation. 



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