WHAT MOON DOES

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19887, 16 May 1936, Page 26 (Supplement)

WHAT MOON DOES

Most Births When Near Horizon SEA ANIMALS FATTER (Own Correspondent—By Air Mail). LONDON, April 5. Scientists all over the world are ■taking astonishing discoveries about the moon. We all know that the gravitational pull of the moon causes ocean tides; but —did you know that when the moon is in a certain position whole continents are stretched as mucn as sixty feet, and that when the position changes they snap back again and are stretched for sixty feet in the other directionf This remarkable fact has just been discovered by astronomers in Shanghai Observatory co-operating by means of radio with astronomers in the observatories of Nauen in Germany and Bordeaux in Frauce. Prom elaborate calculations based on the varying time lag in the reception of time signals they conclude that the gravitational force of the moon is keeping the whole land mass of Europe and Asia in a state of movement which they describe as a sort of cosmic delirium. How far the lives of men and women are affected by this constant movement i* not known, but other scientists are slowly discovering the enormous lntluonco of the moon on living things. A Parisian physician has collected statistics to show that the largest number of births occur when the moon is ueur the horizon. Investigators in different countries have proved that certain' sea animals, and particularity sea urchins, are al ways plumper at full moon. In Britain the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has proved that the best catches of herring may always be expected at full moon, and that record catches generally coincide with a full moon in the second week In October. There are two possible explanations of this. The greater degree of moonlight may attract the shoals to the surface, or the movement of the water caused by the moon may affect the ocean currents and cause concentrations of the myriads of tiny ocean creatures and plants which form the food of herrings and other fish. At the moment research is in progress to trace the connection between the moon and weather and between the moon and the growth of plants. Bome scientists think that the agelong belief that moonlight is the cause of lunacy may be capable of scientific proof.