AMERICAN Er.KCTRIC-TEr.F.GRAPII. 27] 



has g-enerally been altributpd to the blighting inflnence of the lunar rays 

 may be accounted for by a very simple physical cause, having no con- 

 nection whatever with ihat which has been assigned.* 



Another opinion is that limber should be felled only at particular pe- 

 riods of the lunar phases, and that, if this rule be not attended to, its du- 

 rability will be greatly impaired. The difficulty of tracing any connec- 

 tion between the efiect and its supposed cause is still greater here than 

 in the former case. The lunar rays have not power to affect the most 

 delicate instruments : even when concentrated by the parabolic mirror 

 and reflected upon the bulb of a differential thermometer, they produce 

 not the slightest effect. But before wasting time in the attempt to assign 

 reasons, let us again inquire : fs the fact established ? Popular prejudice 

 is certainly in favor of it, but this proves nothing. Experiment alone 

 can decide it, and this test has been applied. M. Duhamel Monceau, a 

 French agriculturalist, has proved that the qualities of timber, felled at 

 different periods of the lunar month, are the same, and that trees of the 

 same age, similar exposure, and growing on the same soil exhibit no 

 difference in durability. 



It is unnecessary to analyze these fallacies to a greater extent. Opin- 

 ions based upon a few isolated facts or observations are worthy of no 

 credence, yet hasty and general conclusions have often been deduced 

 from them, tenaciously retained, implicitly believed, and even transmit- 

 ted to succeeding generations without an attempt to ascertain their truth. 

 Nothing but a series of carefully conducted observations or experiments 

 can be relied upon, for the confirmation of any opinions connected with 

 lunar influences ; and wherever this test has been applied the popular 

 belief has been shown to be erroneous. 



* Our readers will, no doubt, wonder wlij-, if the belief in lunar influence is to be regarded as 

 a popular prejudice, our correspondent did not assign some other reason for the occurrence of 

 frosts late in spring and early in autumn, so uniformly at about the times of new and full moon, as 

 to have given rise to that belief. They will think it singular, that the atmosphere should happen, 

 just at those limes, to be more destitute of moistiue and thus favor radiation and the production of 

 cold than at others. The persuasion, so summarily condenmed as unfounded and erroneous, is 

 but the result of the common sense of mankind strongly impressed by the events of each year — a 

 deduction from the accumulated observations made tlirough a succession of ages ; so that it would 

 be about as easy to persuade our readers that the day had no more than an accidental connection 

 with the sun, as upon the authority of MM- Shiibler and Arago, to convince them that certain at- 

 mospheric changes, usually ascribed to lunar influence, " have no connection whatever with the 

 cause which has been assigned." — Ed. 



THE GREAT AMERICAN ELECTRIC-TELEGRAPH. 



Every one has, no doubt, read or heard of this greatest wonder of 

 our age. There is scarcely a newspaper or public journal published in 



