INFLUENCE OF THE MOON. 



seized with a rage for weather prognostics, produced apparently 

 by an unusually rigorous and long-continued frost, which took 

 place in the months of January and February. In one of the 

 numerous " weather almanacks " which were then circulated, a 

 fortuitous coincidence occurred, by which it appeared that the 

 coldest day had been predicted by the author, an adroit Hibernian 

 named Patrick Murphy. The conductors of some of the leading 

 journals, without waiting to obtain better information from any 

 of the acknowledged scientific authorities, gravely descanted on 

 the "great advantages which would accrue to the farmer, the 

 manufacturer, the navigator, and others, from the certain pre- 

 diction of the weather from week to week and from day to 

 day," and admitted that they looked forward to the period 

 not far distant, when 



" Careful observers might foretel the hour 

 By sure prognostics when to dread a shower." 



So extreme was the public excitement at the moment on 

 this subject, that the book in which the so-called weather table 

 was published was actually purchased, though its price was 

 high, by the hundred thousand ! So urgent was the demand 

 for it, and so irrepressible the public impatience, that the 

 shop of the publisher, like that of a baker in a famine, was 

 obliged to be protected by the police, who, to keep the thorough- 

 fare unobstructed, marshalled the expectant purchasers in a 

 queue which extended to an incredible length. Yet will it be 

 believed, that when this weather almanack was afterwards 

 examined and compared with the actual changes of the weather 

 by the author of these pages, its pretended predictions were 

 found to fail in seventeen cases out of twenty-four ! 



3. Tbe imputed influence of the moon upon the weather 

 may he considered either as a question of theory or a question 

 of fact. 



Let us consider for a moment the theoretical question. If 

 the moon act upon our atmosphere by attraction, as she acts 

 upon the waters of the ocean, she will produce atmospheric tides. 

 The greater mobility of air will cause those tides to be formed 

 more rapidly than the water tides; and it may be, perhaps, 

 assumed that they will always be placed, either exactly, or 

 very nearly under the moon. Thus, as there is high water 

 twice daily, so would there be high air twice daily ; and the 

 times of this air-tide would correspond with the moments of 

 the transit of the moon over the meridian above and be'ow the 

 horizon. 



