22 REMARKABLE EFFECTS OP SOL-LUNAR 



" of M^eakly and diseased bodies, is much influ- 

 ", enced by the motions of the moon. Many peo- 

 *' pie know the very day on which their intermit- 

 '' rents w]ll make their appearance; and every ftdl 

 *' and chani^e increases the number of the patients 

 " of every practitioner. It is no argument against 

 *' this influence, that diseases appear during every 

 " day of the month. Tlie human body is subject 

 " to alterations from a thousand external circum- 

 *' stances, and from many affections of the mind. 

 *' These lay the foundation of disease at every pe- 

 ** riod; but they do not overthrow the evidence of 

 *' lunar influence : although they are apt to mis- 

 " lead with regard to effects that depend on that 

 '' alone. That the human body is affected in a re- 

 *' markable manner by the changes of the moon, I 

 " am perfectly convinced, although I cannot con- 

 " stantly pretend to see the operation of the gene- 

 " ral law; nor to account at all times for its per- 

 " turbation ; and agree in thinking that an attention 

 *' to the power of the moon is highly necessary to 

 " the medical practitioner in India *," 



VII. Of Securing and Extending our Imoiv ledge of 

 Sol-Lunar Influence. 



As those discoveries regarding the effects of soU 

 lunar influence lead unavoidably to new ideas re- 



* Having neglected to apply to the author of this letter for his 

 permission to give his name to the pubhc ; and being very unwil- 

 ling to deprive the doctrine of lunar influence of the support, which 

 it cannot fail to derive from such an evidence, I will now ven- 

 ture to discover, that he is no other than Doctor Helenus 

 Scott, of Bombay. From the information of Doctor HuTTON, 

 who resided many years as Surgeon at Penang ; and of Mr. 

 James Lumsdaine, Surgeon for a number o^ years at Fort 

 Morlbro ; I have now, also, the satisfaction to know, that sol- 

 lunar influence shews its effects in a very conspicuous manner in 

 the prevailing diseases of those islands; and that an attention to 

 its laws, is of great importance oii conducting their cure, 



