VOL. xxn. No. 11.] 



POPULAR SCIENCE KEWS. 



161 



such insignificance that these methods and the 

 lapse of time have been insufficient for its discovery, 

 yet, even if we admit the existence of change in 

 the value, insignificant as it must be in amount, 

 it must still be a question what the direction of 

 that change is, and what its effect, therefore, on 

 the tendency of matter. It seems almost certain 

 then, without considering more in detail what 

 their nature may be, that there are retarding in- 

 fluences effective on the earth's diurnal motion 

 which are practically counterbalanced by equally 

 well-known accelerating causes, and that the earth 

 is in the middle period of its existence as a member 

 of our system, of which the three stages are, 

 "Youth with increasing, middle age with uni- 

 form, and old age with decreasing, velocity of 

 rotation." 



It would be possible to reason out a pole-ward 

 tendency in the waters of the earth if we could 

 assume that they occupied a spheroid of less cor- 

 responding diameters than those of the mean earth ; 

 l)ut this is not a tenable argument, because we 

 know that the land above sea-level is much less 

 than the depressions below the same. This, to- 

 gether with the fact that the waters of the earth 

 are of less specific gravity than the mean earth, 

 obliges us to conclude that the surface of the 

 water-spheroid is at a greater distance from 

 the centre of the earth than the mean surface of 

 the same from the same : therefore, whatever the 

 amount of the tendency on this account, its 

 direction must be equator-wards. 



It is not possible to produce evidence of the 

 direction of the actual movementa of the waters 

 of the earth, because of the difficulty of deciding 

 between the effects of local and what might be dis- 

 tinguished by the" term of "physical" disturb- 

 ances. The evidence at the present, obtained 

 from observations extending back nearly two cen- 

 turies, proves that the waters of the earth are 

 leaving the arctic circle at the rate of about four 

 feet a century; and, although this is not advanced 

 as proof that there is a physical tendency equator- 

 wards, it is meant to point out that there is no 

 present evidence for the direction of the assumed 

 tendency. 



The particles of a sphere, or spheroid, are in 

 equilibrium when the normal to the curvature (or 

 the perpendicular to the tangent at such points) 

 coincides with the vertical (or the plumb-line) at 

 every point. If there is a want of coincidence 

 between the two, the resulting tendency will be in 

 the same direction as that towards which the ver- 

 tical, or plumb-line is deflected, with reference to 

 the normal. Now, within the limits of accuracy, 

 that the different methods permit of, which have 

 been used to determine the figure of the earth, 

 there appears to be a coincidence between the ver- 

 tical and normal to the mean curvature ; the irreg- 

 ularities in this mean curvature, although not 

 pointing to any systematic departure from the true 

 spheroid, do not permit of our concluding other 

 than that there is equilibrium in the arrangement 

 of the particles of the earth; and, although the 

 existence of an arctic ocean is generally considered 

 sufficient evidence to prove this tendency, in 

 opposition to the equally certain existence of an 

 antarctic " continent," it seems to me that an equa- 

 torial tendency might be just as reasonably main- 

 tained by reason of the very decided accumulation 

 of the waters of the earth there. 



There was a time, and that not so many years ago, 

 when, in accordance with this popular line of argu-, 

 ment, it was assumed that the earth's atmosphere 

 had its greatest depth at the poles, — an opinion 

 that prevailed till the careful compilations of 

 Buchan proved that the tendency of the atmos- 

 phere was to collect about the equator, or, more 



strictly speaking, in such order that the minimum 

 pressure is at the poles, the maximum at about 

 latitudes 4(°, with a belt of less pressure at the 

 equator; and although it is not my intention here, 

 to argue out a corresponding arrangement for the 

 waters of the earth, this arrangement of the atmos- 

 phere is very positive evidence against the belief in 

 the pole-ward tendency of matter at the surface of 

 the earth; whilst, on the other hand, it is corrobo- 

 rative evidence of the most positive kind, of either 

 one of the conditions I have pointed out as the 

 only possible — a condition of equilibrium or a 

 tendency towards the equator. 



Thb Qcjebkc Observatory, July, 1888. 



[Original in The Popular Science Kews.] 

 THE ORIGIN OF THE SNEEZING FOEMPLA. 



BY LEILA W. USHER. 



The custom of saying " God bless you," or 

 some equivalent expression, when a person sneezes, 

 is ancient and very widely extended. In fact, it 

 is doubtful if there is a country in the world where 

 traces of it cannot be found. Consequently the 

 very general belief that the custom took its rise in 

 one of the symptoms of the plague in Italy in the 

 days of Gregory the Great cannot be credited. Its 

 origin dates much farther back; even, it may be 

 said, beyond the limits of history. For in the 

 religious ideas and social customs of primitive men 

 is found the clew to this strangely universal super- 

 stition. Among these primitive people the sneeze 

 was sometimes considered as an auspicious sign, 

 sometimes as a most unlucky omen ; but that it was 

 due to the presence of spirits, either good or evil, 

 was the belief of all. For early men supposed the 

 soul to go in and out of the body, and so with 

 other spirits, especially such as are thought to enter 

 into the patient and affect him with disease. 

 Therefore, in case of illness, a person by the act 

 of sneezing is bejieved to cast out the evil spirit 

 that has been the unfortunate cause of his suffer- 

 ing. 



For instance, the North-American Indians, as 

 well as the natives of the Indian Archipelago 

 and also the Polynesians, believe not only in the 

 existence of a Supreme Power, but also in the 

 existence of inferior spiritual beings, resembling 

 the fairies of Northern Europe. And these people 

 believe the sick to be affected by these spirits 

 rather than by any natural cause : consequently the 

 medicine-man proceeds to expel the evil spirit in- 

 stead of otherwise attempting to cure the diseased 

 body. Thus, we see, arose the superstition that a 

 sneeze is a sign that a sick person will be restored 

 to health: and so all who go to see him ask if he 

 has sneezed; and if he has not, they then say, 

 "The disease is great." The Norwegian peas- 

 ants still believe that if a sick person sneezes, 

 he will not die; and their custom when a child 

 sneezes, is to say " Grow: it is a sign of health." 

 They also believe that any thing a person is think- 

 ing of when he sneezes will be sure to come true. 

 Then, among the savages of Borneo and Central 

 Africa there is the belief that man has a double 

 form, the one corporal and the other spiritual ; and 

 that even in life the soul, or spirit, may leave the 

 body; and that sickness, or evil spirits, deprive the 

 body of its spiritual companion. The natives of 

 Nicaragua, California, Java, and West Australia 

 describe the soul as the air or breeze which passes 

 in and out through the mouth and nostrils; the 

 Greenlanders are said to reckon two separate souls, 

 — the breath and the shadow ; while the Tyrolese 

 peasants still fancy that a good man's soul issues 

 from his mouth at death in the form of a little 

 white cloud, — all going to show how universal 

 has been the belief in the existence of spirits that 



had the power to go in and out of the body, and 

 were naturally believed to be most liable to enter 

 or be expelled at such times as one sneezed or 

 yawned. Among the Algonquin Indians a sick 

 person is supposed to have his shadow, or other 

 self, temporarily detached from his body ; and the 

 convalescent is at times reproached for " exposing 

 himself before his shadow was safely settled down 

 on him." Then, in the arctic regions and in Aus- 

 tralia sickness and death are supposed to be caused 

 by the influence of spirits who have been employed 

 by enemies to injure them; and the same idea is 

 seen in Scotland and Northern Africa, where they 

 believe that there are ghosts of the living who are 

 exceedingly troublesome and vindictive; while 

 in Polynesia not only animate, but inanimate, 

 things are supposed to lose their spirits, — the little 

 gods stealing the shadows of those things to which 

 they take a fancy. Then, too, it seems that to 

 primitive man the mortality of the body was an 

 incredible fact; and it was therefore believed that 

 a person who died was simply carried away by the 

 "good people," meaning the fairies. The dead 

 man accordingly was not dead: he retained his old 

 appearance, and often visited his friends, especially 

 at nightfall; and they thought, that, since his de- 

 parture from this life, his powers and privileges 

 were mysteriously enlarged and extended. Because 

 of this belief, the Hindu, for example, slays him- 

 self before his enemy's door, in order to acquire 

 greater power of injuring him. Tylor, in his . 

 Primitive Culture, says that " there were toward 

 the close of the last century two Brahmans out 

 of whose house a man had wrongfully, as they 

 thought, taken forty thousand rupees, whereupon 

 one of the Brahmans proceeded to cut off his 

 mother's head, with the professed view, entertained 

 by both mother and son, that her spirit excited, by 

 the beating of a large drum for forty days, might 

 haunt, torment, and pursue to death the taker of 

 their money and those concerned with him." In 

 fact, so widespread is found to be this superstitions 

 belief regarding the influence of spirits, ghostSj 

 and fairies, that we here get a clew to the practice 

 of invoking the name of the Deity as protection 

 against their agency; for in the name of the Deity 

 is thought to rest the mysterious power of driving 

 away all evil spirits, as well as rendering them 

 powerless to do harm. So the Highlanders believe 

 that when a person sneezes, he is liable to be stolen 

 by fairies, unless protected by some one invoking 

 the name of the Deity. And the New-Zealander, 

 with a similar idea, makes use of a charm to pre- 

 vent harm when a child sneezes. But the Scan- 

 dinavian and Celtic races credited their spirits 

 with even more serious influence, for they thought 

 a sneeze or yawn enough to convert a person into 

 a real fairy, unless the name of the Deity was in- 

 voked in time to prevent the disaster. 



The negro races of Africa also regard the act of 

 sneezing with great dread, for they believe it to 

 indicate the influences of " ancestral spirits," 

 which they must make haste to propitiate. The 

 Zulu must have the same idea, for he exclaims 

 when he sneezes, " The ancestral spirit is with 

 me, for it is that which causes me to sneeze; 

 let me hasten to praise it ! " Then, the Moslem, 

 when he sneezes, is saluted by his friends with 

 the formula, "Praise to Allah!" — a custom, it 

 is said, that is conveyed from race to race wher- 

 ever Islam extends. And in Guinea, even during 

 the last century, when a principal person sneezed, 

 all present fell on their knees, kissed the earth, 

 clapped their hands, and wished him happiness 

 and prosperity. A custom involving the same 

 idea is still kept up in the Tyrol : it is that of 

 crossing one's self when one yawns, lest something 

 evil should come into one's mouth. In France an 



