HAYES EARTHQUAKES IN 1 87 I. 1 77 



showing the number of different days in each year on which 

 earthquakes have been reported from 1739 to 1842, and that the 

 largest maxima occurred in the years of the heliocentric conjunc- 

 tion and opposition of Jupiter and Saturn, with but three excep- 

 tions, and in those cases the increase began in those years, but 

 the maximum was not reached till the following sear. I also 

 suggested that these planets induce electric currents which call 

 into action those forces to which the causes of siesmic phenomena 

 are usually ascribed. My subsequent investigations have only 

 tended to confirm the opinion then expressed. I cannot see why 

 there should be any regular periodicity at all, unless the super- 

 inducing cause is outside of the earth itself; and, as it seems to 

 me, it cannot be gravitation, for, if it were, the periodicity could 

 not be so so strongly marked as it is in respect to these two plan- 

 ets, since their effect upon the tides is inappreciable. The phy- 

 sical condition of those two bodies and their exceedingly rapid 

 axial rotation would seem to fit them for exerting, in some of its 

 forms, a greater amount of repelling force than any other heav- 

 enly body in our system excepting the Sun. 



Hi— 12 J une 2I > l8 73- 



