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136 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



June 



LUNAR INFLUENCE — THE TIDES, &c. 



1!Y PROF. C. DEWEY. 



Ti.ila — Modifying causes— Earth flattened at the Poles — Proof — 



High tide' in Bay of Fundy— Reason — Opinion of great men. 



Admitting for a moment that the action of the sun 

 and moon, and chiefly of the moon, produces the tides, 

 what might be the difference in the tides at different 

 places? If the earth were covered with ocean some 

 miles deep, the tides would be only two or three feet 

 high at the greatest, and generally about two feet. 

 The great Lakes are too small to have tides ; an 

 ocean is required to have the attraction of the sun 

 and moon upon the waters apparent. The tides rise 

 much higher by the waters being stopped in their 

 course by the land of the continents, islands, fcc, 

 and by being thus accumulated along the shores. 



Again : the tides rise higher in places more favorably 

 situated for accumulating the waters. Places differ 

 greatly in this respect, and of course, the height of 

 the tides. Also ; commonly there are two tides daily, 

 but from their different position, some places have less 

 than two tides a day, and some have more than two. 

 These facts exist, and must be solved on any cause, 

 and are consistent with the notion of lunar and solar 

 influence. 



The highest part of a tide is under the moon when 

 she is on the meridian on the same side of the equa- 

 tor the moon is, and when she is on the meridian op- 

 posite, is on the contrary side of the equator. If the 

 force of the sun and moon act together, the tide is 

 higher, and when at right angles to each other, the 

 tide is lower. If the wind conspires with the other 

 forces, the tides are higher than is ordinary: if the 

 wind acts with power against those forces, the tides 

 are far less than was anticipated. Currents effect 

 the tides, either increasing or diminishing, beyond 

 what the attraction requires. In either case the ef- 

 fect is to be considered. 



The earth is flattened towards its poles. Actual 

 measurement of the length of a degree of latitude, 

 has proved it. The same pendulum vibrates in less 

 time in higher latitudes. Both prove that the poles 

 of the earth are flattened. The equatorial diameter 

 is the longest, and the polar is the shortest. The 

 difference is about thirty-four miles. This difference 

 of o4 miles in 8,000, will not make much difference 

 in the attraction exerted on different parts of the earth. 

 The northern regions being nearer the centre of the 

 earth, the attraction of gravitation must be greater 

 on the waters, and it must be more difficult for the 

 power of sun and moon to raise a tide. Yet the tides 

 are the highest of all in the Bay of Fundy. But, as 

 this high tide is not found along the shores northward 

 and southicard of this Bay, it shows that this tide 

 depends on some local circumstances. Looking to 

 the Geography we see the Bay opening like a tunnel 

 towards the east and southeast, so as to receive the 

 !' tide which has been drawn across the Atlan- 

 tic, and then the Bay narrows into the neck of a tun- 

 , so as to give the greatest and best action to the 

 waters in raising the tide along the narrower channel. 

 The high tides in the Bay of Fundy are no objection 

 to the notion of solar and lunar attraction being the 

 cause of the tides. 



Along our coast, and the coasts of other countries, 



itfa great inequality, owing to the local 



in their situation, the capes, shoals, cur- 



. These too are entirely consi 



with ttractioa in the earth, and that of 



i 1 m ion upon the earth. 



It is a great curiosity to me that all the most dis- 

 tinguished philosophers from Newton to this day, 

 English, French, German, and American, should 

 agree on the cause of the tides, and that the more 

 fully the laws of nature and their operation are un- 

 derstood, the more confident and perfect should be the 

 agreement of the greatest minds,— of those qualified 

 to judge and decide — on the causes that raise the 

 tides. How eagerly would the French and German 

 mathematicians have seized upon any defects in the 

 reasoning of the great Newton upon the tides, if any 

 had been discoverable. But they have sustained his 

 reasoning, and simply carried on its application to 

 greater extent. Though the Newtonian theory of the 

 tides has been slightly assailed by some who have 

 never gone over his reasoning, not one valid objection 

 has been made; not one distinguished philosopher has 

 supported such objection. Rochester, JV. Y., 1849. 



FECUNDITY OF INSECTS. 



Among the astonishing things which present 

 themselves to the eye of the naturalist is the won- 

 derful fecundity of insects. This is a circumstance 

 which would naturally follow the law by which one 

 animal preys upon another throughout the whole 

 animated creation. In no part of nature is this law- 

 more extensive than in the insect world, which suf- 

 fers immense ravages from this cause. In order to 

 till the deficiences thus made, it would seem to be 

 necessary that insects should be exceedingly prolific. 

 Linnseus calculates that the carcass of a horse would 

 not be devoured with as much despatch by a lion as 

 by three of the flesh fly denominated musca Vomitoria 

 and their immediate offspring. For one female flv 

 will give birth to twenty thousand larva?, each of 

 which will, in a single day, devour sufficient food to 

 acquire an increase of two hundred times rts 

 weight, while only a few days are requisite for the 

 production of a third generation. Prof. Ehrenberg, 

 of Prussia observed an animalcule which he calcu- 

 lated to increase in ten days to one million, on the 

 eleventh day to four millions, and on the twelfth dav 

 to sixteen millions. In another instance he supposes 

 that a single individual may in four days become one 

 hundred and seventy billions. The progeny of a 

 single queen bee often amount to forty thousand, and 

 the queen of the Termites or white ants, generally 

 lay at an average of sixty eggs per minute, or nearly 

 ninety thousand in the short space of twenty-four 

 hours. According to Luwenhoek, two families of 

 lice would in sixty days have as many as. fifteen 

 thousand descendants. 



Astonishing as this increase among insects may 

 appear, certain circumstances seem sometimes to 

 augment it to a most extraordinary extent. In some 

 countries the ant frequently makes its appearance in 

 such countless multitudes, as to defy all human 

 means to destroy them. They blacken the roads 

 and fields for miles, destroying the cattle, and devour- 

 ing rats, mice, birds, or whatever may chance to be 

 near the scene of their ravages. They rush into the 

 streams in such vast swarms that the tiny carcasses 

 of the drowned form a bridge for the living, often to 

 the depth of six inches, and extending upwards of 

 500 miles long, and eight or ten feet broad. This 

 wonderful fecundity among insects is, however, ex- 

 ceeded by that of the cod-fish, which is said to 

 spawn in one season a greater number of eggs than 

 all the inhabitants of the .State of Now York. — Sel. 



