4-74 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If "hills clear, rain near," means the same as " the presence of a wedge- 

 shaped area of high pressure, accompanied by great atmospheric visi- 

 bility, is likely to be followed by the advance of a disturbance with 

 rain and southerly winds," which for all practical purposes it does, 

 the preference is justified on the mere ground of breath economy. 

 The thirty-one words demanded by science stand no chance against 

 four. 



But it is unfortunate that, along with the limited number of folk- 

 sayings founded on truth, there has survived a very large number 

 founded on the grossest error. These latter have borrowed credence 

 and respect from, the proved credibility of the others, and apparently 

 they are all destined to sink or swim together. Hammer as we will 

 at certain favorite proverbs which we know to be based upon error, 

 it is all in vain. The reverence for tradition is too much for us. And 

 of all the superstitions, pure and simple, which defy our attempts at 

 destruction, the most invulnerable are those ascribing certain effects 

 to the infliuence of the moon. Few of the counties in England, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland but have their own peculiar observances referring to 

 the supposed lunar influence upon diseases, destiny, etc. To merely 

 enumerate these would require a small volume. Any who may care 

 to see some specimens should consult a curious collection (but far from 

 an exhaustive one) published last year by the Rev. Timothy Harley, 

 under the title " Moon Lore." And of equal vitality with the other 

 moon-myths is the idea of lunar influence upon the weather. There 

 is this important difference, however, that while the attribution of 

 supernatural powers to the moon is palpably and admittedly absurd, 

 the idea of her influence on the weather is not founded on anything 

 physically impossible, and has the sanction of striking analogy in the 

 accepted doctrine of the tides. How much importance was attached 

 to the inquiry, regarded as a true scientific investigation, in the earlier 

 half of the century, and up even to very recent years, may be seen by 

 consulting a meteorological bibliography. The constant succession of 

 papers in English, French, and German, by accredited scientific men, 

 and contributed to resj^ectable scientific societies and periodicals, deal- 

 ing with the lunar weather theory in all its aspects, shows this to have 

 been long considered one of the most important problems of meteor- 

 ology. 



The doctrine of the survival of the fittest would not seem to be 

 applicable to the case of wise saws. The criterion of fitness we may 

 take to be the reliableness of the saw, and, as we have just seen, they 

 survive without the slightest reference to that characteristic. Never- 

 theless, one is loath to believe that formulated nonsense can have found 

 credence for ages unless there is a larger admixture of truth in it than 

 is readily apparent by the light of our present knowledge. Popular 

 error has been described as the perception of half the truth, or of one 

 side of a truth. Were this invariably so, it would afford a profitable 



