98 DISCOVERY CH. 



of proverbs which express the views of different peoples 

 in different provinces as to lunar influence upon weather, 

 but it is worth while to give the results of a few inquiries 

 into alleged connections. Until similar studies have 

 tested the various assertions as to the dependence of 

 weather upon changes of the moon, science is not 

 justified in denying the existence of any such relationship. 

 Honest doubt is commendable, but when it leads to dog- 

 matism it passes outside the realm of scientific thought. 

 One widespread belief for which no justification has 

 been found is that " La Lune mange les Nuages," or, 

 in the language of sailormen, " the full moon eats up 

 the clouds." Sir John Herschel refers to the tendency 

 of clouds to disappear under the Full Moon as a meteoro- 

 logical fact for which it is necessary to seek a cause, 

 but his conclusion has found no support from systematic 

 observations. To obtain information upon the subject, 

 the Rev. S. J. Johnson compared the state of the sky 

 at moonrise and at midnight on the day of Full Moon 

 for fifteen years ; and his observations, communicated 

 to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1894, confirmed 

 the opinion now held by almost every astronomer, 

 namely, that the Full Moon has no effect in breaking 

 up clouds. Mr. W. Ellis made a detailed examination 

 of Greenwich observations with the view of discover- 

 ing whether any such effect exists. The results of the 

 inquiry showed that there is in general a maximum 

 cloudiness in the forenoon and a minimum in the evening, 

 but this has no relation to the position or phase of the 

 moon. A change from a cloudy to a clear state in the 

 evening sky is much more likely to attract attention 

 when occurring near to Full Moon, and this may have 

 given rise to the popular belief that the moon itself 

 possesses the faculty of clearing away clouds. 



