THE FARMER'S iMAGAZINE, 



551 



tion was, had these sheep the seeds of disease in them at the 

 time of sale at AVilton fair ? Had they those seeds whicii 

 became more developed afterwards .^ The great point for 

 the jury to determine was whether or not the sheep were in 



an incipient state of disease when they were sold at Wilton 

 fair.— The jury immediately found a verdict for £33 4j. Gd., 

 the amount claimed. His Honour said that if it was any 

 satisfaction to the jury, he perfectly agreed with the verdict. 



THE INFLUENCE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA 



In another column the reader will find some corre- 

 spondence on the atmospheric phenomena of the vernal 

 equinoxial week, from the 18th to the 25th of March of 

 the present year, with suggestions respecting such in- 

 fluence over, or connection with, the ensuing summer. 

 The science of Meteorology is the one of all others 

 with which we have the most to do, and on a proper 

 attention to which our physical comfort and happiness, 

 and frequently the continuance of life itself, depends. 

 The word embraces all physical causes that affect the 

 state of the atmosphere ; and therefore its phenomena 

 enter into and determine the quality, in a sanitary sense, 

 of the primary element by which vitality is sustained. 

 From the cradle to the death-bed we are dependent on 

 these phenomena, and enjoy, or suffer, in accordance with 

 theirinfluence; and the well-being of our future physical 

 condition — the possession of a sickly or a healthy con- 

 stitution — is not urifrequently determined for life by the 

 air inhaled or the liquid imbibed in the earlier stage of 

 existence. It is well understood that the injurious ac- 

 tion of a malarious atmosphere is, at all stages of our 

 career, the most prolific source of endemic and epidemic 

 disease, and of premature death. 



But it is not man and the inferior animals only, that 

 are affected by atmospheric phenomena. We see, in 

 fact, their influence in a much more direct and positive 

 form on the vegetable world at every stage of their ex- 

 istence, and in most cases feel our utter helplessness to 

 avert or apply a remedy to them. In the case of 

 animals we can, by medical appliances, relievo or re- 

 move disease arising from atmospheric as well as other 

 causes, or we can remove the sufferer into a more genial 

 locality, where the acting cause does not exist. But 

 the vegetable tribes are fixed in their position, and must 

 stand the brunt of all the changes which the fitful sea- 

 sons and the climatic variations inflict upon them. 

 The drought, the deluge of rain, the biting east wind, 

 the devastating storm, admit of no alleviating appli- 

 ances ; and the husbandman, when he sees his crops 

 injured or destroyed by them, feels that he is in the 

 hands of an irresistible Power, and must suffer in 

 silence and acquiescence to an omnipotent will. 



The science of meteorology is still in its infancy, and 

 our knowledge respecting the occult and multiplied 

 causes in operation upon the atmosphere is still very im- 

 perfect, notwithstanding the great advances made in the 

 physical sciences. There is every reason to believe that 

 the various changes in the atmosphere are the result of 

 fixed laws, probably, when known and understood, as 

 simple and invariable as those which move the heavenly 

 bodies in the solar system. If we could arrive at data 

 sufficiently clear and exact, each of those atmospheric 

 phenomena we behold might be traced to its true 

 cause, and we should be able to predict thel'uture state 

 of the weather with as much correctness as we now 

 calculate the eclipse or a conjunction of the planets. 

 But the great and insuperable obstacle to the acquisi- 

 tion of such knowledge is that the cycles in which the 

 various meteorological agencies affecting our globe 

 move, are some of them of such immense extent, that 

 the probable duration of humanity itself would not 

 suflice to record all the changes they produce, "If," 



says Dr. Thompson, " the buried relics of primeval 

 life have taught us how brief has been our tenure of 

 this terrestrial Paradise, compared with its occupancy 

 by the brutes that perish, the sidereal truths we have 

 been expounding impress upon us the no-less hum- 

 bling lesson that from the birth of the first man to the 

 extinction of his i-ace, the system to which he belongs 

 will have described but an infinitesimal arc of that 

 immeasurcable cycle in which it is destined to revolve." 



It is evident that if the meteorological phenomena 

 of our globe arc regulated by cycles of such protracted 

 duration or extent, it will be in vain to expect to 

 understand their influence. But whilst there cannot be 

 a doubt of the reality of that influence, there are other 

 shorter, inferior, and subordinate periods, in which 

 the weather nearly, though not absolutely, returns 

 after the same order. The chief agents operating di- 

 rectly upon the earth's atmosphere, are the sun and 

 moon, and their revolutions are the primary and pre- 

 dominant causes of the changes we witness. Thus the 

 moon's cycle occupies nineteen years, in which its mo- 

 tions coincide with those of the sun ; and as her nodes 

 perform their revolutions in nearly the same time, 

 meteorologists have observed that nearly the same 

 series of changes in the weather have returned. 



The utmost knowledge, therefore, of the abstruse 

 science of meteorology is that gathered from observa- 

 tion, extending over series of years, carefully recording 

 the results, day by day, month by month, and season by 

 season. This has been the course we believe pursued by 

 Mr. Uu Boulay, who in his letters, in another column, 

 gives us the result of his experience ; and whatever 

 may be thought of the theory he has laid down in 

 them, they are drawn up with that modesty which 

 theabstruseness of the subject, and the imperfection of 

 our knowledge, coupled with the incompleteness of the 

 dpta upon which an opinion can be formed, naturally 

 inspire in the man of science. There can be no diffi- 

 culty, after a series of observations, extending over a 

 numberof years, of laying down general rules by which 

 the phenomena of the future may be with some confi- 

 dence expected to occur ; at the same time, it must be 

 confessed that these rules will be liable to tlie action of 

 disturbing causes too occult to be reached, or too erra- 

 tic and fitful to be calculated upon. There are also other 

 agencies, such as the conjunction of a planet or the sud- 

 den appearance of a comet, which will undoubtedly 

 affect the atmosphere, and probably counteract in somo 

 degree even the more direct action of the sun and 

 moon*. 



Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the public will, 

 we are sure, feel obliged to JMr. Du Boulay for his letters; 

 and far from considering him " a charlatan," will think 



* " M, de Lagrange has established, by demonstration, that 

 all the changes ariaiug from the disturbing forces of the planet- 

 ary system, are subjected to vast cycles, on the return of which 

 the same motions are perpetually lenewed. Similar periods, 

 but of an extent to alTright the imagination, probably regulate 

 the modifications of the atmosphere ; for whenever a coinci- 

 dence of circumstances prevails, the series of appearances 

 must inevitably recur.'"— EncDclopmlia Britannica. 



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