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WEBBE — THE WEATHER, 
431 
assert that we have no sufficient knowledge to enable us to 
predict either one way or the other. Once in every lunar 
month the moon is in conjunction, as Astronomers term it> 
with the sun, and once in opposition. Once also in every 
month she is in perigee, or at that point in her orbit which 
is nearest to the earth ; and it may happen perhaps twice 
or thrice in the year that the time of the moon’s conjunc- 
tion or opposition, and the time of her being in perigee 
may coincide within two or three hours ; yet we never hear 
of any great aerial disturbances at those periods. On tho 
26th of February last, for instance, the time of full^ moon 
and the time of the moon being in perigee, concurred within 
less than an hour’s interval between them. If ever any 
atmospheric convulsions should result from the influence 
of the heavenly bodies, such should have occurred at that 
time ; but, so far as we are aware, no gale, or flood, or 
other atmospheric disturbance, nor even a change in the 
state of the tides, which might perhaps have been looked 
for to a small extent, did actually happen at that period. 
But while we condemn a blind devotion to tho imaginary 
influence of the moon as the cause producing meteorolo- 
gical phenomena, w^ are willing to admit that there is an 
influence exercised by her on the state of the air, which 
we believe is not so generally recognised as might have 
been expected. Let any one set himself to observe tho 
state of the sky on the evening of a full moon. The even- 
ing perhaps may be cloudy ; but when the full moon rises, 
or soon after, he will generally perceive, not only that the 
clouds clear away as if by magic, but also that the night 
becomes calm and serene. Nqw, what is the cause of this 
sudden transformation ? We will endeavour to explain it. 
It must be remembered that the immensely heated sur- 
face of tho moon when full must radiate or reflect upon the 
