MOON'S INFLUENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIX, Issue 9631, 11 June 1919, Page 3

MOON'S INFLUENCE.

SOLVING A MYSTERY

Abbo Hi. MonuiXj Director of th-e Observatory oi' Uourgcs, France, holds that if we admit that the moon may exercise some influence upon the vegetable world, there seems to be no reason that the growth of animals is not affected also by the same influence. Everyone knows the effects of the spring time upon the animal organism, and no one haw- been able to assign a reason therefor. At the ' very time when the seed seems to push its way out it appears that a ''renewal" takes place in 1 men and animals. j If, then, the moon, by its action, aids in the growth of the seed, or the chemical, combinations of the vegetable cell, we may conceive the possibility of a similar action upon the animal cell, which really differs very little in its inner constitution from the other. In fact, observations on this point are not lacking. Volumes would be needed to contain all of them. M. Latourtc, of Dieppe, has lately written: , " I have a number of chickens in my. place, and I have raised a great many, during the last 40 3 rears. I have found that when a hen is set so that tho : chickens are hatched in the period of the first quarter of the full moon the young pierce their shells more easily and are more vigorous than the others born in the last quarter of the full moon."

This confirms altogether the observations of M. Galje-Defond, who writes: "The moon is not without influence upon the good or bsid result of the setting, whether of chickens or birds." The growth of animals born at,the beginning of the lunation follows the same rules as tlio plants. It seems to be quicker than that of animals born on the decrease of j the moon. . So our ancestors were not so far wrong when they clippeclv<;heir_ hair and beard at the new'moon. Wine, too, seems to be subject to this influence, for it; is not wise to make wine during the decrease of the moon. We know now that the fermentation of the wine is dependent upon the development of a microorganism, a cellule, and if wo admit the influence of the moon on organic creatures, wo now understand that this law has a bearing upon this general law.

Light is only a. form of energy, and wo are. very far 'from having analysed air of its, radiations,

Possibly we may. look to this mysterious influence, which ,aids in the development of the cell and the general activity of the- human body, for the explanation and origin of the word lunatic, given formerly to those subject to loss of reason or intermittent insanities.

The ancienfe had no doubt whatever as to the action .of the moon on the mental condition of certain persons...-

No matter what the opinion may be about mental diseases and the mechanism of their development, it 'is not> at ■all ■ridiculous" to compare, them-with the effects of the moon upon nervous diseases, up to a certain point: Mead cites the case oi' » child who always had convulsions at full moon,, and Pison observed a paralysis which- recurred always at new moon, that is, when the moon was least active-..

According to Marfurnfc, t'ho ■■fits of some epileptics recur at full moon. .- We may not be able to say. precisely how oiir satellite can act on these patients, but avo may, nevertheless, remark that all nervous diseases, and in certain cases fcho.se skin diseases which affect the ends of our nerves, appear to be directly■■denendent upon some electric influence. For it is certain that the amount of electricity in the air, especially in elevated places, may vary according to the lunar influence, so both kinds of phenomena may be connected.

What scorns to corroborate, these rather bold views is the whole or organic facts gathered in hospitals concerning maladies, more or lc.«>>uervous : vertigo, hysteria, somnambulism, etc., nil connected and affected more or less by the moon.

This was the opinion of the celebrated Gall,, who noted that certain weak patient.s were affected to the point of irritability by the- new and full moon. The noted physician and astronomer, Olbers, tried to verify all of thes" facts experimentally, and, after a long series of experiments, he denied them categorically.

Those of an opposite opinion object to this point of view that the facts noted in France are. much less numerous* than in warmer countries

The most notable case on record is that in the first volume of the " Memoirs nf the Royal Academy" of Madrid. The patient was subject to periodical difficulty in breathing, but ■"hvays at the. approach of t'ho full or new moon. This strange malady lasted

several years

It is nrobahly due to lack of observation (if these facts thnt European pathologists are little disposed to accept the idea of lunar influenco iipon ma ladies. But it is the opinion of some alienists that their patients are more exHted at full moon than ;i t new moon. Exporioncp alone can prove the point.

TCut this may lie affirmed unquestionably: our organism is at times much more, sensitive than the instruments hitherto invented by modern physicians, and that tho human body is r^r-eptivo many unknown radiations; thai we have an electric or magnetic sense, by which we recognise, variations iufuiitesi really small, and that the savants of our time, when they speak of nervous influx, hide an enormous amount of ignorancd under that term. The moon, that great satellite, so close to, our earth, which causes such great perturbations on our world mechanically, can not be treated as a nejdigibl" factor, no matter how we look at it.

Its influence upon life seems indubitable, but at what uoint is it brought to bp?\r ?_ This is the new question for the scientist to solve.