CHAP. 4. 7. OP PROGNOSTICKS. 163 



are periods of greater and lesser irritability in the 

 human body, and that at the irritable periods 

 many diseases occur to which the patient may 

 be predisposed : now it seems by the result of 

 long continued observation, that these periods of 

 irritability oftener occur about the new and full 

 of the Moon, than about the quarters. Every 

 body almost must know from their own ex- 

 perience, that they get up in the morning on 

 particular days less disposed to be pleased, and 

 with more general irritability than usual ; these 

 days also happen nearer to the times of the full 

 Moon, or of the new Moon, than to that of 

 either quadrature. To bring this observation 

 into a smaller compass, and to confirm it by fu- 

 ture remarks, I have proposed to meteorologists 

 to divide the Lunar revolution into four equal 

 parts or weeks, in the middle of each of which 

 week one of the changes of the Moon shall take 

 place. By doing this we shall find the greater 

 proportion of headaches and nervous diseases of 

 many kinds to occur in those weeks, in the 

 middle of which the opposition and conjunction 

 of the Moon shall take place. Moreover, the 

 sudden occurrence of East Winds, so obnoxious 

 to nervous persons, seem to me to produce more 



M 2 



