These tables agree in indicating, with tolerable clearness, an increase of the 

 number of rainy days from the new moon to the second octant, that is, from 

 the day of the new moon to the eleventh day of the moon's age ; after- i 

 ward there is a gradual decrease, the minimum occurring between the last 

 quarter and the fourth octant. 



So far as these observations may be relied upon, it would follow, that in the 

 places where they were made, out of every 10,000 rainy days the following are 

 the number of those days which would happen at the different lunar phases :-- 



New moon 306 



First octant 306 



First quarter 325 



Second octant 341 



Full moon 337 



Third octant 313 



Last quarter 284 



Fourth octant 290 



Now as there are twenty-nine days and a half in the lunar month, if we sup- 

 pose the fall of rain to be distributed equally through every part of the month, the 

 total number of these 10,000 days which should happen on the eight days of t.he 

 phases, would be found by a simple proportion ; since it would bear to 1 0,000 

 the same proportion that 8 bears to 29^ : the number would therefore be 27.12. 

 Whereas, it appears from the above table, that the actual number which fell 

 upon these days were 25.02 : it appears, therefore, that less than the propor- 

 tional c mount occurred upon them. 



Pilgrim had already, in 1788, attempted to ascertain the influence of the 

 lunar phases on the fall of rain ; and he found that in every hundred cases i 

 there were 29 days of rain on the full moon, 26 at the new moon, and 25 at t 

 the quarters. 



The preceding observations refer only to the number of wet days. Schubler, 

 however, also directed his inquiries to the influence of the lunar phases, on 

 the quantity of rain and on the clearness of the atmosphere. From observa- 

 tions continued for sixteen years at Augsburg, including 199 lunations, he ob- 

 tained the following results : 



In this table, by a clear day, is such days as exhibited a cloudless sky at 

 s-even in the morning, and at two and nine o'clock in the afternoon ; those that 

 were not clear at these hours, were counted as cioudy days. These results 

 are in accordance with the former. It appears that the number of clear days 

 is more frequent in the last quarter, which is an epoch at which, by the former 

 method of inquiry, the number of rainy days was least ; also the number of 

 cloudy days is greatest at the second octant, which is a period at which the 

 number of rainy days were found to be greatest ; also the depth of rain agrees 

 with this, being the greatest about the second octant, and least at the last quar- 

 ter. Schubler extended his inquiries to the influence of the moon's distance 

 on rain ; and he found that, on examining 371 passages of the moon through 

 the positions of her extreme limits of distance, during the seven days nearest 



