FARMERS' REGISTER— INFLUENCE OF THE MOON. 



168 



ever, in the equatorial regions, not a trace of it 

 can be found. In these countries, the heat, the 

 rain, the winds, &c., all depend on the distance of 

 the Sun from the zenith of the place, without any 

 regard to the situation or the phases of the Moon. 

 We may be yet more convinced of the smallness 

 of this influence, if we reflect that the most op- 

 posite weather, in different parts, takes place at 

 the same instant of time, and consequently, under 

 the same lunar phase. This fact is determined, 

 with the greatest evidence, by the accounts of the 

 Aveather Avhich we receive from different places 

 during the time of our eclipse. 31. Bode, for ex- 

 ample, has collected the remarks made during the 

 time of the solar eclipse which happened on the 

 18th November, 1816 ; where we perceive a 

 strange mixture of good and bad weather, with- 

 out any respect to order, spread during this day, 

 through a great part of Europe. Professor Bran- 

 des having compared with great lal)or, but in a 

 very instructive manner, the variation of the wea- 

 ther which took place over a great part of the 

 Earth's surface in 1783, found no relation between it 

 and the lunar phases ; and if a variation in the wea- 

 ther appeared to coincide with these phases in any 

 one country, no variations, or opposite variations, 

 took place in other countries. Tiie periods of 

 eighteen and of nineteen years, make no discoveiy 

 of any sensible analogy in the variations of the wea- 

 ther, during the years equally distant from these 

 intervals. 



Some have pretended to have remarked sensible 

 effects j)roduced by the rising of the Moon, and 

 by her culmination ; l)ut the phenomena cited by 

 them, either do not prove this influence, or are not 

 accurate. Several of our mariners also hold that 

 the full Moon, when rising, dissipates the clouds; 

 but this prejudice owes its origin to the circum- 

 stance, that the clouds commonly disappear during 

 a tranquil evening, and consequently also at the 

 rising of the Moon, according to a very just re- 

 mark of M. Brandes. The pretended observa- 

 tion that a storm cannot approach from the zenith 

 at the time of full Moon, contradicts itself; for tlie 

 electric cloud which is at the horizon of one place, 

 is at the zenith of another place not many miles 

 distant. But in asserting that the lunar influence 

 upon the season is extremely weak, and that it is 

 nearly lost among the other causes which produce 

 a variation in the weather, we are not certain that 

 the Moon does not produce some little effect. Let 

 us see what the theory seems to indicate. The 

 Moon and Sun produce, twice in twenty four hours 

 iifty minutes, a flux and reflux, both in the ocean 

 and in the atmosphere : these motions vary with 

 the phases of the Moon ; they are the strongest in 

 the new and full Moons, and the weakest in the 

 first and last quarters. Let us suppose, for exam- 

 ple, that the tides of the atmosphere produce a 

 change of .0354 of an inch in the height of the 

 barometer, in syzigies ; it will produce only half 

 that variation in the quadratui-es. Now, though 

 these effects are so weak, it is not impossible but 

 that the strong tides at the new and full Moon may 

 dispose the atmosphere to receive considerable mo- 

 tion. We dare not therefore, declare as absolute- 

 ly false, the observations which some philosophers 

 pretend to have made, namely, that more storms 

 happen at the time of new and full Moon, than at 

 the time of the quadratures. It is the same with 

 respect to the passage of the Moon through the 



equator, and through the perigee ; at these times 

 it may act as an exciting cause, although no vio- 

 lent motion be produced by it in the atmosphere. 

 The Moon may also have an influence upon the 

 variation of the weather, in an indirect manner ; 

 that is, by the motion of the waters of the ocean, 

 at least upon some coasts. It is true that in the 

 open sea, the height of the tides never exceeds three 

 or four feet ; but upon the coasts, in bays, and 

 narrow channels, the rise of the tides is much 

 more considerable. At Brest, for example, it rises 

 more than twenty feet, and at Bristol more than 

 fifty. Ought not the motion of these large masses 

 of water to occasion some variations in the atmos- 

 phere, especially as they appear to have a small 

 influence on the electricity of the air? The inha- 

 bitants of the sea coast believe it to be a fact, that 

 the changes in the weather, and the force and di- 

 rection of the wind and clouds, depend on the 

 tides. We may here observe, that the tides of the 

 ocean, and those of the atmosphere, do not happen 

 at the same instant, tliough both are produced by 

 the Sun and Moon, and both have the same period. 

 The air being easily moved, and not being hinder- 

 ed by any obstacle, instantly obeys the attractive 

 force of the IMoon ; but the w'aters of the ocean 

 are more taidy in obeying this force. On this ac- 

 count, the atmosplieric tides immediately follow 

 the passage of the Moon over the meridian ; but 

 high water in the open sea, does not take place till 

 three hours afterwards; and on coasts and in bays, 

 it happens still later. It is possible then, that the 

 mediate and immediate effects of the Moon upon the 

 atmosphere, in some places, mutually destroy each 

 other ; and this is perhaps the cause why the as- 

 tronomer Horsehy at Oxford could not perceive in 

 the English observations any relation between the 

 weather and the phases of tlie Moon ; while Toal- 

 do at Padua believed that he could distinguish the 

 IMoon's influence in the observations made during 

 fifty years by Poleni. Now though I w'ould not 

 deny but that the results deduced from observa- 

 tions by Toaldo might be partly true for the cli- 

 mate of Italy, I must still observe that from the 

 great number of exceptions to his rules, he was 

 himself convinced that the lunar influence was 

 extremely small. A series of experiments for 

 many years has convinced me, that in our climate, 

 where the weather is subject to xnore considerable 

 and more numerous variations, the rules of Toaldo 

 are entirely wrong. For example, on the 7th of 

 December, 1813, the full Moon coincided with the 

 perigee, and two days after the Moon had its 

 greatest northern declination ; so that from the 

 principles of Toaldo, the lunar influence ought 

 to have been the greatest possible ; but notwith- 

 standing all this, there was not any sensible change 

 in the weatlier. I believe then that I have demon- 

 strated that the influence of the Moon upon the 

 weather is so small that it is totally lost among the 

 infinite number of other forces and causes which 

 change the equilibrium of our very moveable at- 

 mosphere. The influence of the Moon upon the 

 weather, and upon the atmosphere, being so in- 

 sensible, we are entitled very much to suspect its 

 pretended influence either upon men, animals, or 

 plants. In fact, it is all of it due to illusion and 

 prejudice. It is evident that the duration of the 

 period of some phenomena exhibited by man in 

 health, agree only nearly, and never exactly, with 

 tlie lunai'. revolutions; and that these pheuomeoa 



