A'b. X. 



A STATEMENT 



Of the Qiiantity of Rain which falls , o?i different Days of 



the Moon. 



BY JEREMIAPr DAY, 



PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN 

 YALE-COLLEGE. 



T 



HE influence of the Moon upon the various bodies 

 oil the earth, is a subject of general observation. 

 The swelUng of the ocean has long been ascribed to this 

 cause. There is also a very prevalent, though vague 

 apprehension, that there is a connection between the vi- 

 cissitudes of the moon, and the growth of vegetables, the 

 progress of diseases, the changes of the atmosphere, and 

 other important phenomena. It is desirable that so cur- 

 rent an opinion should be brought to the test of accurate 

 observation. Should it prove to be well founded, it 

 might aid us in predicting some of those changes in the 

 atmosphere, and in the bodies around us, with which our 

 daily concerns are intimately connected. To do justice 

 to this subject, in all its extent, would require very nu- 

 merous and diversified courses of experiments. For 

 the purpose of ascertaining a single point, a calculation 

 has been made on a series of observations, during the 

 years 1804, 5, 6 and 7, on the quantity of rain which fell 

 in New-Haven, in different periods of the moon. 



The rain has been caught in a cylindrical vessel, ten 

 inches in diameter, and about twenty inches deep. It 

 is placed ten or twelve feet from the surface of the ground. 

 The water, directly after it has fallen, is poured out, 

 and measured in a tube one inch in diameter. In this 

 way, as the area of the large cylinder is an hundred 

 times as great as that of the small one, the depth of the 

 water may be determined, to the thousandth part of an 

 inch. 



The snovv- is first melted, and then measured in the 



