Origin of Eight-Year Generating Cycle 97 



Up to this point no account has been taken of the 

 small eccentricities in the orbits of the Earth and Venus 

 and of the unequal motions of the planets in the differ- 

 ent parts of their orbits. The consequences of these 

 facts are so well known that they have been calculated/ 

 and it is sufficient for our purpose to observe that the 

 eight-year sequence in the transit regions — the Venus 

 cycle — still persists when the eccentricities of the 

 orbits and the varying motions of the planets are taken 

 into consideration. 



We see, therefore, that in 1761 and again in 1769 the 

 Earth, Venus, and the Sun were in a straight line in the 

 transit region pp' ; they were again in a straight line in 

 1874 and 1882 in the transit region qq'. Between the 

 limiting dates 1761 and 1882, at intervals of approxi- 

 mately eight years, the Earth, Venus, and the Sun, in 

 this sequence, made their nearest approach to being in 

 a straight line. After 1882 until the date of the next 

 transit in 2004, the Earth, Venus and the Sun will 

 make this maximum approach to a straight line, in this 

 sequence, at intervals of approximately eight years. 



Now the longest record we have of economic cycles 

 is given in Figure 20, which is the record of the crops in 

 England. That invaluable sequence runs from 1760 to 

 1914. The maxima of the crop cycles occurred at 1762 

 and at intervals of eight years thereafter. The Venus 

 cycle had maxima in June, 1761, and approximately 

 eight years thereafter, so that at intervals of eight 

 years before and after the dates of the last transits in 

 December, 1874, and 1882, the maxima of the economic, 

 meteorological, and Venus cycles were congruent. 



^ Proctor, Transits oj Venus, pp. 111-118. 



