THE TERRORS OF PERIHELIA SILENCED.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 931, 2 April 1881, Page 5

THE TERRORS OF PERIHELIA SILENCED.

In response to the subject of absorbing interest now under discussion by scientists as to the simultaneous arrival of all the major planets to their perihelia, inflicting dire results and bringing about the most fearful calamities known to history, and resulting in the most devastating disasters to men and beasts, Professor Lewis Swift has written a letter to the Rochester Herald, in which he says :—For the last two years the popular mind has been excited io an unusual degree over the statements made by a few visionary enthusiasts, who, with a great flourish of apparent wisdom, have spread before the world the prediction that, owing to the simultaneous arrival of the major planets to their perihelia during the present year, the most dreadful calamities ever recorded in history are to occur, such as earthquakes on a vast and destructive scale, devastating tornadoes, widespread pestilences, great loss of life by shipwrecks, famine and wars, and a thousand other things too dreadful to contemplate. In all communities there is a certain class who will give a listening ear to anything, no matter how absurd, that partakes largely of marvellousness ; hence this belief, which has not a particle of evidence to support it, is widespread in all civilised countries. I am constantly receiving letters asking when the planets will severally be in perihelion (nearest the sun), and when we are to look for a fulfilment of these predictions that will make the year 1881 famous for all coming time. These questions convince me that the delusion still exists, and has sunk deep in the minds of men, and that perhaps it would be advisable to prepare a statement setting forth the facts as they exist, and, with slight variations, will continue to exist as long as time lasts. All planets move in orbits or paths more or less elliptical, the sun occupying the common focus of them all. It, therefore, necessarily follows that a planet is sometimes nearer the sun than at others. In our age (but it will not always be so) the earth is about three million miles nearer the sun on the 1st of January than on the 2nd day of July. On January 1st, therefore, the earth is in perihelion, and of course is in that situation once a year. Every planet is in perihelion once dur-

ing its year. Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, has a smaller orbit than ours, and hence its year is correspondingly shorter, being only eightyeight of our days, and must therefore be in perihelion every eighty-eight days. On the contrary Neptune, the most distant planet known, has a year equal in length to 164 and one-half of ours, and is consequently only once in perihelion during that time. It follows that the time must come when all eight planets will be in perihelion at once. It is only a question in simple arithmetic how often this will happen. It has been stated and insisted upon that this rare event, which probably has not occurred since the Mosaic creation, would take place during the present year. That this is not the case the following will show : —Mercury, February 21, May 20, August 16, November 12, 1881; Venus March 6, October 16, 1881; Earth, January 1, 1881; Mars, May 26, 1681 Jupiter, September 25, 1880; Saturn, August 20, 1885 ; Uranus, March 25, 1882; Neptune, October 23, 1882. It is not denied that this is a close agreement, when it is considered how long some of the periods of revolution are. But what of it ? Who has ever proved or presented evidence that has any semblance or proof that planets arriving at their perihelion points have the least perceptible influence on either the sun or earth, or any of the other planets ? Each planet, even the giant Jupiter, is a pigmy compared to the sun ; in fact, he will outweigh all of them combined by more than 700 times. What effect, then, can the simple difference in distance of any single planet say of Jupiter, have on the heat and light and spots, &c , on the sun, almost 500,000,000 miles distant ? The planet Mercury is comparatively near the sun, and almost as dense as lead, and the eccentricity of his orbit is so great that he is over 29,000,000 miles nearer the sun at perihelion, than at aphelion, but has anyone ever perceived any changes on the sun once in eighty-eight days ? Has any recurrence of magnetic storms, earthquakes, or an excess of calamities of any kind ever been noticed during his perihelion passages ? If not, then it is safe to say that none exists, and the subject may be classed with the thousand other delusions which exist in the minds of men, and for which no remedy is known save a thorough and universal education of all classes of society.