130 Generating Economic Cycles 



ing planetary influence upon the Sun and his finding 

 with regard to the effect produced upon the Sun by 

 Venus touch very closely the fundamental theory that 

 Venus exerts an electro-magnetic influence upon the 

 Earth either directly, or indirectly, through its effect 

 upon solar radiation on the way to the Earth. The 

 distance of Venus from the Sun is to the distance of the 

 Earth from the Sun as .723 to 1.000. At the time 

 of inferior conjunction the distance, on the average, of 

 Venus from the Sun is to its distance from the Earth 

 as .723 is to .27". Consequently, if we assume with 

 Professor Schuster that the electrostatic influence di- 

 minishes with the inverse cube of the distance, then 

 at the time of inferior conjunction, the influence of 

 Venus upon the Earth should be nearly eighteen times 

 as great as its influence upon the Sun. 



The evidence already submitted would seem to war- 

 rant the hypothesis that Venus is a seat of a magnetic 

 or an electric field. ^ Furthennore, Professor Schuster's 

 argmnent that Venus may produce an electrostatic 

 influence upon the Sun would seem to tell with even 



1 Reference may be made to an undertaking to estimate the direct 

 influence of the planets upon the declination of the magnetic needle. 

 According to Ernst Leyst, there is a measurable influence, and one of 

 his conclusions is that the degree of effect is dependent in each case upon 

 the distance of the planet from the Earth and its position with resj^ect 

 to the Earth and the Sun. "Die Erdnilhe der Planeten bewirkt also 

 ein Anwachsen der westlichen Declination und die grossere Entfernung 

 der Planeten von der Erde, zur Zeit der Conjunction der ausseren 

 Planeten und der oberen Conjunction der Venus bewirkt eine Abnahme 

 der westlichen Declination." ' ErnstLeyst: "IJber den Magnetismus 

 der Planeten," Repertorium fur Meteorologie, Bd. xvii. No. 1, St. 

 Petersburg, 1894, p. 20. Leyst's results have been criticised as being 

 inconclusive. 



