PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS. 



Mathiolus Faber gives an instance of a maniac who at the very 

 moment of an eclipse of the moon, became furious, seized upon a 

 sword, and fell upon every one around him. Since it was observed 

 that as the day of the eclipse approached, the patient became 

 more and more sombre and melancholy, it may be inferred that 

 iu this case imagination, excited by the apprehension of the 

 approaching phenomenon, had more to do with the paroxysm 

 than the moon. 



Ramazzini relates that, in the epidemic fever which spread 

 over Italy in the year 1693, patients died in an unusual number 

 on the 21st of January, at the moment of a lunar eclipse. 

 Without disputing this fact (to ascertain which, however, it 

 would be'necessary to have statistical returns of the daily deaths), 

 it may be objected that the patients who thus died in such 

 numbers at the moment of the eclipse, might have had their 

 imaginations highly excited, and their fears wrought upon by 

 the approach of that event, if popular opinion invested it with 

 danger. That such an impression was not unlikely to prevail is 

 evident from the facts which have been recorded. 



At no very distant period from that time, in August, 1654, 

 it is related that patients in considerable numbers were by order 

 of the physicians shut up in chambers well closed, warmed, and 

 perfumed, with a view to escape the injurious influence of the 

 solar eclipse, which happened at that time ; and such was the 

 consternation of persons of all classes, that the numbers who 

 flocked to confession were so great, that the ecclesiastics found it 

 impossible to administer that rite. An amusing anecdote is 

 related of a village curate near Paris, who, with a view to ease 

 the minds of his flock, and to gain the necessary time to get 

 through his business, seriously assured them that the eclipse was 

 postponed for a fortnight. 



Two of the most remarkable examples recorded of the supposed 

 influence of the moon on the human body, are those of Vallis- 

 nieri and Bacon. Vallisnieri declares that being at Padua 

 recovering from a tedious illness, he suffered on the 12th of May, 

 1706, during the eclipse of the sun, unusual weakness and 

 shivering. Lunar eclipses never happened without making 

 Bacon faint ; and he did not recover his senses till the moon 

 recovered her light. ' 



That these two striking examples should be admitted in proof 

 of the existence of lunar influence, it would be necessary, says 

 M. Arago, to establish the fact that feebleness and pusil- 

 lanimity of character are never connected with high qualities 

 of mind. 



Menuret considers that cutaneous maladies have a manifest 



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