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JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND AETS. 



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.[SECOND SERIES.] 



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Art, I. — On'^Certain Meteorological Coincidences; by 

 ^ . ^ . J. H. ALEXANbER, Esq. 



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That the phases of the Moon exercise no appreciable influ- 

 •ence upon the weather, either as cause or concomitantj as agency 

 or sign, is a dogma accepted and professed by most geometers and 

 ilbmeteorologists, and, indeed, by savans generally; while the hulk 

 of the unscientific pornon of the community, and those whose 

 pursuits are carried on chiefly in the open air, scich as sailors, sur- 

 veyors; agriculturalists, etc.,' are convinced that tHey trace a con- 

 nection between tlii gtate. of the Moon and state of the atmos- 

 phere, as real and hardly less constant and uniform than if it were 

 predictefi for them in a systematic theory. - 



I dor niSt purpose to discuss the accuracy of these opposite views 

 here; for which, there^.would be required a greater collection of 

 observed material, and-ext^nding throughlftnger periods than, I 

 believe, the science of meteorology has *y^t been enriched with, 

 and also individual facuhies of learning,' acliteness, and patience, 

 in an excellent and rare decree. * • 



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But I may remark in passing that, with rjiost persons, the Scien- 

 tific denial above mentioned is probably limited, in fact as vSt 

 terms, to the oppredahilityoX the influence in question with our 

 means of observing, not to the actuality of possibility of the yi- 

 nuence itself. At least such would most likely be the position 

 taken upon reflection. For it would be hard to deny that the 

 pulses and tides of the atmosphere are less harmoniously linked 

 in with planetary attractions, or less under the domain of the prin- 

 ciple of univer^-il gravitation, than the tides of the ocean or the 



Second Skuieb, Vol Xll, Kgl 3-L— July, 1851. 1 



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