WEATHER ALMANACKS. 



predictions which affect to define, from day to day, the state of 

 the weather. There are few, however, who do not look for a 

 change of the weather with a change of the moon. It is a belief 

 nearly universal, that the epochs of a new and full moon are in 

 the great majority of instances attended by a change of weather, 

 and that the quarters, though not so certain, are still epochs 

 when a change may be probably expected. Those who have 

 least faith in the meteorological influence of the moon, extend 

 their belief thus far. 



It is worthy of remark, that this persuasion of the meteoro- 

 logical influence of the moon is never so strong and so undoubting 

 as among those classes of persons who are at once most deeply 

 interested to foreknow the weather, and have the best and most 

 unc easing opportunities of observing the phenomena. No 

 navigator, from the captain or master to the commonest seaman, 

 no agriculturist or gardener, from the largest farmer to the com- 

 monest field-labourer, ever doubts for a single moment the 

 influence of new and full moon on fair weather and foul. 



Notwithstanding the general diffusion of scientific information 

 and the multitude of encyclopaedic compilations and elementary 

 and popular digests of physical science that are accessible, it is 

 astonishing how universal is the ignorance on this subject even 

 among persons who might be supposed to spare no pains to 

 inform themselves. Thus we find in the otherwise excellent 

 compilations of the late Mr. Loudon on Agriculture and Gar- 

 dening, a chapter on the means of prognosticating the weather, 

 in which the supposed influences of the lunar phases have 

 precedence over the indications of the barometer, the ther- 

 mometer, the hydrometer, and the rain-gauge, the former being 

 characterised by the author as "natural," and the latter as 

 "artificial" data. Why the variations of the atmospheric pres- 

 sure and temperature, and the quantities of water which are 

 suspended in, or which fall from the atmosphere, should be 

 regarded as less " natural " indications of the weather than the 

 moon, the author does not inform us. 



We find, however, in these popular works of reference, the 

 lunar prognostics reproduced in their minutest details, and the 

 fantastical theories of Toaldo, Lambert, and Cotte, referred to 

 as though they were as sound as that of gravitation. 



2. In some one of the numerous weather almanacks which 

 have from time to time circulated, there appeared a table pro- 

 fessing to indicate the relation between the changes of the 

 weather and the lunar phases, entitled "Herschel's Weather 

 Table." The general public have fallen into a natural and 

 excusable mistake (from which Mr. London does not seem to 



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