30 THE LUNAR INFLUENCE 



1788 coincides, like that of 1830, with the appearance of two 

 comets. In bringing together these and other similar facts, 

 some writers are induced to believe themselves authorised in 

 establishing theories which attribute a certain frigorific influ- 

 ence to the comets. But no such coincidence existed in the 

 winter of 1867-68, nor in any other years signalised by the 

 occurrence of excessive frost. 



What are we to think of the supposed influence of the moon 

 upon the weather ? 



This question, so constantly revived, is here not out of 

 place. The exceptionally prolonged cold, during which the 

 thermometer remained for three weeks below zero, the baro- 

 meter oscillating between 76 and 76.5, commenced on the 22d 

 of December, three days before the new moon ; now, it is on 

 Christmas-day, at 48 min. past n p.m., that the moon is found 

 in conjunction, that is to say, has become completely invisible 

 to us by passing between the earth and the sun. And the 

 thaw, which terminated this period of frost, commenced on 

 the 1 2th of the following January, just three days after the full 

 moon ; the exact moment of its opposition, when the moon 

 reflected upon us the whole hemisphere of its borrowed lustre, 

 took place on the 9th, at 2 min. past 1 1 in the evening. It is 

 then in the neighbourhood of the syzygies (conjunction and 

 opposition) of the moon that we must place the commence- 

 ment and termination of the cold period to which we have 

 been alluding. 



We should not have thought of recalling these coincidences, 



