PERIHELION AND PESTILENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 278, 30 November 1878, Page 5

PERIHELION AND PESTILENCE

If there is anything in "astrological . criology,"we are approaching, one ofthe most pestilential periods of the 4 earth's history. Since theocommence- ; meat of the Christian era the periehlia ' of the (oar great planets of the- solari system— Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn,, aad-u Nepiane— have not been coincident;. * And io tho language of Dr Knapp,wh6 fr, has traced the history of the greatest f epidemics that ever affiietei the humatt>< race to the perihelia of these planets, -,<-., "there will soon be lively times for - the doctors." Tha theory is that when; one or more of the large planetaiaV nearest the sun tbe temperature and <~ condition of our atmosphere are so dis-> \: \ turbed as to cause iojurious. viciaitudee, terrible rains, prolonged droughts, etc., resulting in the destruction of 'crops, aod pestilence among human beings and domestic animals. :v.Xv

Dr Knapp has collect3d a mass ;o£ -r s 'as tical data, all going to show ;that ; perihelion data have always baefcj, marked by unusual mortality, auiitbati sickness and death have invariably): 7 corresponded with the planets io; perU ibelion at the same time. The revolu- •: tion of Jupiter round the Sun Is accomplished in a little less than 12jt>«rs, "... of Saturn in a Hfctls loes than 30 years, ot Urands in about 84 years, and ol - Neptune in about 164 years. If it be ■ true, therefore, that the perihelia of 'I these planets occasion atmospheric coo- '■ di lions unfavorable to life, pestilential ' periods should occur once in a dozen > i years, and aggravated and still more - wide-ipread epidemics at longer interr ' ,f vils. In tracing tha history of ep'- : '--il demies for more than 2000 years, Dr "ci Knapp finds tbe facti in all cases to- ! validate the theory. Thus in the sixth ,;; and again ia the sixteenth cooturies, 1 " three of these planets were coincident' ' iv perihelion, and thosa were the most- r " pestilential times of the Christian era. ,:

But soon we are to have, for the first* 1 ; time in two thousand years, all' lour of' "' these plaaots against us. They wili.be at their nearest approach lo the sun ia ' or soon after 1880, so that for n feW : " years, say from 1880 to 1885, the ;: vitality of every living thing will, be ;! put to a severe and trying ordeal; §Sme' ,! ' parsons think they ho°, in the siguY'of i! ' ih.3 times, evidences of the great dia-: asters in the iramodiate future. The : excessive heat, the unexampled cold, tha prevalenco of floods and disasters at. ' eea, the general faiiuro of tha potato' crop, the wids-spread chill fever amoogr— human baings, and theeq'ial prevalence . of the epizootic among animals,' Vara mentioned a? among the premonitions ■• A of the rapidly-approaching perihelion. Well, "to ba forewarned is. to be.;. forearmed." Accidents excepted,, ,s&!.'! kaow very well that tba pers'oVs VoC.' '. more vigorous constitutions and,'.' more" "< hygienic habits will have the batter chaace to survive whatever adverse influences the extraordinary perihelia will .!,, occasion. It is well-kuowa to physicians that, in all pestilence, plague, , ' typhus, small-pox, cholera, murrain, ; . &c, tha in'e nparate, the dissipated, and those who3e sanitary conditions,.; were bad, furnished tho victims. „

We do not write to alarm anyone,!,/ nor to make a Sensation. We state the, , facts which all history attests. Readers ,-,'. can jud'e for themselves what iuport- ', anae to attach to the subject. That they : . conj oiat perihelion of all the large pi mats, '. < of the solar system, on of whioh,:,;. Jupiter, is a thousand time as large as-! the earth, must disturb our atmosphere.,, , and temperature very considerably, ia ; f. probable; that this disturbanca muat;ba , . iojarioos to health and life is certain;;,:, aad that these periods have heretofore . >• pestilential, is a matter of record.' , f HOW* much we shall suffer during the / ne.it dozen or fifteen years, depends .. '•very much upoa how nearly we live a-; i life in accordance with t.ie laws of life, . ; . — Science oj Health.