478 



LUNAR INFLUENCES. 



time to get through his business, seriously assured them that the eclipse was ) 

 postponed for a fortnight. 



Two of the most remarkable examples recorded of the supposed influence 

 of the moon on the human body, are those of Vallisnieri and Bacon. Vallis- 

 nieri declares that being at Padua recovering from a tedious illness, he suffered 

 on the 12th of May, 1706, during the eclipse of the sun, unusual weakness 

 and shivering. Lunar eclipses never happened without making Bacon faint ; 

 and he did not recover his senses till the moon recovered her light. 



That these two striking examples should be admitted in proof of the ex- 

 istence of lunar influence, it would be necessary, says M. Arago, to establish 

 the fact that feebleness and pusillanimity of character are never connected 

 with high qualities of mind. 



Menuret considered that cutaneous maladies had a manifest connexion with 

 the lunar phases. He says that he himself observed in the year 1760, a pa- 

 tient afflicted with a scald head (teigne), who, during the decline of the moon, 

 suffered from a gradual increase of the malady, which continued until the 

 epoch of the new moon, when it had covered the face and breast, and produced 

 insufferable itching. As the moon increased, these symptoms disappeared by 

 degrees ; the face became free from the eruption ; but the same effects were 

 reproduced after the full of the moon. These periods of the disease continued 

 for three months. 



Menuret also stated that he witnessed a similar correspondence between 

 the lunar phases and the distemper of the itch; but the circumstances were 

 the reverse of those in the former case ; the malady obtaining its maximum at 

 the full of the moon, and its minimum at the new moon. 



Without disputing the accuracy of these statements, or throwing any sus- 

 picion on the good faith of the physician who has made them, we may observe 

 that such facts prove nothing except the fortuitous coincidence. If the rela- 

 tion of cause and effect had existed between the lunar phases and the phe- 

 nomena of these distempers the same cause would have continued to produce 

 the same effect in like circumstances ; and we should not be left to depend for 

 the proof of lunar influence on the statements of isolated cases, occurring under 

 the observation of a physician who was hi-mself a believer. 



Maurice Hoffman relates a case which came under his own practice, of a 

 young woman, the daughter of an epileptic patient. The abdomen of this girl 

 became inflated every month as the moon increased, and regularly resumed its 

 natural form with the decline of the moon. 



Now if this statement of Hoffman were accompanied by all the necessary 

 details, and if, also, we were assured that this strange effect continued to be 

 produced for any considerable length of time, the relation of cause and effect 

 between the phases of the moon and the malady of the girl could not legiti- 

 mately be denied ; but receiving the statement in so vague a form, and not 

 being assured that the effect continued to be produced beyond a few months, 

 the legitimate conclusion at which we must arrive is, that this is another ex- 

 ample of fortuitous coincidence, and may be classed with the fulfilment of 

 dreams, prodigies, &c., &c. 



As may naturally be expected, nervous diseases are those which have pre- 

 sented the most frequent indications of a relation with the lunar phases. The 

 celebrated Mead was a strong believer, not only in the lunar influence, but in 

 the influence of all the heavenly bodies on all the human. He cites the case 

 of a child who always went into convulsions at the moment of full moon. 

 Pyson, another believer, cites another case of a paralytic patient whose tl 

 was brought on by the new moon. Menuret records the case of an epileptic 

 patient whose fits returned with the full moon. The transactions of learned | 



