LUNAR INFLUENCES. 



1. Popular opinions on Lunar Influences. 2. Red moon. 3. Time for 

 felling timber. 4. Supposed Lunar Influences on vegetables. 5. On 

 the complexion. 6. On putrefaction. 7. On shell-fish. 8. On the 

 marrow of animals. 9. On the -weight of the human body. 10. On 

 births. 11. On incubation. 12. On mental derangement and other 

 human maladies Instances of this supposed influence during eclipse 

 given by Faber and Eamazzini Amusing anecdote of a village cure 

 near Paris Examples of Vallisnieri and Bacon Observations and 

 examples of Menuret, Hoffmann, Dr. Mead, Pyson, and Dr. Gall. 

 13. Difficulty of showing fallacy of these opinions by reasoning or 

 proof Dr. Olbers' partial refutation of them Arago's opinion on 

 them. 14. General conclusion that few of these influences have any 

 foundation in fact. 



1. ASTRONOMERS have demonstrated that the effects of the 

 moon's gravitation are manifested by various phenomena upon 

 the surface of the earth, among which the most conspicuous are 

 the tides of the ocean. But popular opinion, advancing further, 

 has in all nations, and in all ages, claimed for our satellite a vast 

 number of other influences which do not seem to appertain to its 

 mere physical attraction. The vicissitudes of the weather which 

 have been supposed to follow the course of the lunar phases 

 might be imagined, if they could be shown to have any reality, 

 to be produced by atmospheric tides or currents arising from the 

 LARDSER'S MUSEUM OP SCIENCE. i 113 



Xo. 7. 



