622 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1775. 



the rest of their physics from the East. And to this circumstance, I am per- 

 suaded, the opinion owes the credit it has met with among men of learning. 

 But whatever general assertions may be found in some writers, concerning celes- 

 tial influences in general, and the moon's in particular, as being of all the 

 heavenly bodies the nearest to the earth, the writers who treat of the signs of 

 the weather practically, for the information of husbandmen and mariners, derive 

 their prognostics from circumstances, which neither argue any real influence 

 of the moon as a cause, nor any belief of such an influence ; but are merely 

 indications of the state of the air at the time of observation : namely, the shape 

 of the horns, the degree and colour of the light, and the number and quality of 

 the luminous circles which sometimes surround the moon, and the circum- 

 stances attending their disappearance.* It is true, that each of these prognostics 

 is expressly confined, by the early writers, to a particular time of the moon's 

 age.-|- But not, as I conceive, on account of any particular influence of the 

 moon in this or that aspect ; but merely because the prognostics, that she affords 

 at one age, are such in themselves as she cannot aflxjrd at another. For in- 

 stance, the bluntness of the horns in the new moon is a sign of approaching 

 rain, because it indicates a turbid state of the atmosphere ; for if the air were 

 clear and dry, the horns should appear sharp and pointed, that being then their 

 natural shape. But the bluntness of the horns is no sign of change after the 

 dichotomy ; because then the horns will appear blunt in all states of the air, the 

 elliptic arc on the deficient side of the moon presenting its concavity to the cir- 

 cular limb, and forming with it an obtuse angle. Again, the degree of the 

 moon's light on the 4th day furnished a prognostic. It ought then to be strong 

 enough, if the air was clear, for terrestrial objects to cast a shadow. :}; If their 

 shadows were not discernible, it was a sign that the air was impure, and bad 

 weather was to be expected. But this prognostic did not take place before the 

 4th day, because the light of the moon was yet too weak for shadows to be 

 formed in the purest state of the air. It did not take place after the 4th day, 

 because the enlightened part was so much increased, that shadows would be 



• See tfte Aioir;)/*fi« of Aratus and the Scholia of Theon. — Orig. 



■\ 2i)//</al« i'' ir' 'if xcctrit «V' 'ii//tcciri Trctvlx rirvwui, 

 ''aPiA' <ir«/«.«» TfiiccTvi TtTfXTaivi Ts xiXtHxi, 



'E5 i\^aSii t^lifAiiit)'' tji^iTcu n e! aurltut TfTposj 

 Mii>«5 ii!-i»;t;°j"'"''. Af«r, ^uoifjuiix, — Orig, 



t . crt jrfvrti itTtcKiOictrai nirohi eiCyii 



"oira-er fTts-xif^iir iVi TtTfaror iifixf I'iircc. AficT-. A(m-i)ju>u«, 



TtTSfTiCM V""]"'''*! <) CTEAiftii Kf^trai i'liiairiat fxiul^tit it tu (ptirt iturni' TfiTtiM "/elf i iuturcti hV -in 

 wuiKUiJUHv ri <ptiTt( a^fccruai. Theon in locum. — Orig. 



