STARS AND FAMINES.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 507, 10 April 1880, Page 2

STARS AND FAMINES.

A lecture on the interesting question of the influence of planets and sun-spots on the weather was given in the Wesleyan Church, Carlyle, on Monday evening, by the Rev P. W. Fairclough, “ Perihelia of the Giant Plansts” formed the astronomical text on which ho discoursed, and although the lecture lud been announced only on Sunday evening, the attendance was very good. The lecturer began with an elementary description of the Solar System, which was illustrated with several diagrams. He then showed that the giant planets do not exceed the earth and other minor planets in weight (i.e., in attractive power) as greatly as they do in bulk, Jupiter being very little heavier than if he were all water, and the other giant planets lighter still ; while the earth is 5| times heavier than if it were all water, Mercury and Venus being still more dense. It was then shownt hat the orbits of planets are not circles, but elipses, or true ovals, the sun not being situated quite in the centre, so that, in one portion of its orbit, each planet is nearer to the sun than it is in any other portion. This nearest point is called the perihelion. With the help of a diagram it was shown how these perihelion points are situated with respect to each other. They are not on one side of the sun, but on every side. Nothing farther from a “ conjunction” could be imagined. The lecturer pointed out that these perihelion points moved slowly round the sun, so that the point of a planet’s nearest approach to the sun is never twice in the the same lougtitude until the perihelion made a complete circuit of the orbit, and came back to its starting point. But this motion of tho perihelia would, in the course of ages, bring them, though now scattered on all sides of the snn, into one line. That would be a “ coincidence of the perihelia.” Such a coincidence” is calculated to have occurred ten millions of years ago, and will occur again at the end of one hundred millions of years from the present. Those who represent the present case as a “ coincidence of perihelia” and as a “ conjunction," are either totally ignorant of the subject of which they speak and write, using terms which they do not understand, or they are guilty of wilfully misrepresenting facts for the purpose of creating a sensation. It was said that Jupiter, who exercises more than ten times the power of all his other giant planets, will be in perihelia this year, while some of the others will not be in perihelia for five years. In the meantime, Jupiter will have travelled to bis greatest distance from the sun. The perihelia were therefore not even contemporary, let alone “coincident.” Then came an abstruse part of the lecture, relating to “ disturbing power,” showing that the inner and smaller planets, owing to their nearness to the sun, have greater disturbing power than the outer giants. These small planets—Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars—that are quite ignored by alarmists, pass through their perihelia in ahnst every year, Mercury nearly four times a year ; and, though exercising more influence than the outer planets, do not destroy tho world. Sun-spots were next treated of, and illustrated. They observe a cycle. In five years and a half they pass from the greatest number to the least, and in a like period from the least number to the greatest. The cycle is therefore eleven years. Scientific men are not “surprised” at the disappearance of the spots, any more than they are at an eclipse. It happens according to rule. It has been guessed that these spots affect our weather, and it has been attempted to show that Indian famines occurred when there were fewest spots. But the lecturer read a list of tho famines of this century, which showed that there had been one somewhere iu almost every year ; and, of course, the influence of sun-spots could not be confined to India. Astronomers begin to doubt seriously whether the planets cause the sun-spots, and whether the sun-spots cause famines and other evils. The lecturer then urged that no astronomer has taken notice of the present craze, except in the way of contempt; that whatever influence, if any, one planet exerts, the same do all the planets ; and none but a fortune-teller would talk of the “ malifie” influence of one heavenly body, { and the “ benefic” influence of another ; that there were always plagues going on, I for in the last twelve years, during which '

J upiter, the most powerful and the “ benefic" planet, had completed bis whole orbit, there had been 3 tidal waves, 4 droughts, 3 frosts, 9 plagues of insects, 10 floods, 12 famines, 24 earthquakes, and 37 storms, all very terrible in their effects. The alarmist collects facts for a particular period, and pretends that they are exceptional, but a study of il Walford on Famines, &c.,” would show that all periods are alikq. Finally, the world and the universe were planned to last ; and to destroy or greatly change them would require a stupendous miracle. There is no reason to suppose that such a miracle is about to be wrought; for there are no means of calculating when God will perform miracles, and it is not to be supposed that any fortune-teller, or even Mother Shipton, has been deputed to reveal to mortals the secrets of the Eternal,