THE RED MOON. 



ar they can be reconciled with the established principles oi 

 astronomy and physics. 



2. The Red Ifoon It is believed generally, especially in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, that in certain months of the year, the 

 moon exerts a great influence upon the phenomena of vegetation. 

 Gardeners give the name of Red Moon to that moon which is 

 full between the middle of April and the close of May. Accord- 

 ing to them the light of the moon at that season exercises an 

 injurious influence upon the young shoots of plants. They say 

 that when the sky is clear the leaves and buds exposed to the 

 lunar light redden and are killed as if by frost, at a time when 

 the thermometer exposed to the atmosphere stands at many 

 degrees above the freezing point. They say, also, that if a 

 clouded sky intercept the moon's light it prevents these injurious 

 consequences to the plants, although the circumstances of tem- 

 perature are the same in both cases. 



According to the notions of these agriculturists the rays of 

 lunar light are endowed with a certain frigorific property, in 

 the same manner as those of solar light are endowed with a 

 calorific virtue ; and that as the latter raise the temperature of 

 objects upon which they are directed, the former, on the con- 

 trary, lower their temperature. 



Now this question has been submitted to the test of direct 

 experiment, and the result has been directly opposite to such 

 a notion. The bulb of a thermometer sufficiently sensitive to 

 render apparent a change of temperature amounting to the 

 thousandth part of a degree, was placed in the focus of a concave 

 reflector of vast dimensions, which being directed to the moon, 

 the lunar rays were collected with great power upon it. Not the 

 slightest change, however, was produced in the thermometric 

 column, proving that a concentration of rays sufficient to fuse 

 gold, if they proceeded from the sun, does not produce a change 

 of temperature so great as the thousandth part of a degree when 

 they proceed from the moon. 



Nevertheless, the fact observed by the gardeners and agri- 

 culturists is real, subject only to the objection that their 

 observation of it has not been sufficiently extended. Had they 

 observed the effects produced on clear and clouded nights whicii 

 are not moonlit, they would have discovered the moon's inno- 

 cence of the offence they charge against her. 



That these phenomena are wrongly ascribed to the influence 

 of the moon, will be easily comprehended by any one who is 

 familiar with the physical principles which govern the radiation 

 and reflection of heat. 



All bodies, whatever be the matter of which they are formed, 

 1 2 1x5 



