ESSAY FOUR (1794) {Ak. VIII.315-24}
SOMETHING
ON THE
INFLUENCE OF THE MOON
ON THE
WEATHER CONDITION[1]
{317} Professor Lichtenberg of Göttingen, in his [usual] lively and thoughtful manner, says somewhere in his writings that, ‘The moon ought not indeed to have influence on the weather condition; but yet she has influence on it.’
A. The thesis,[2] ‘She ought not to have it.’ For we know but two faculties, by which she can have influence on our earth at so great a distance: her light,* which she as a {318} body illuminated by the sun reflects, and her
{317} *By occasion of the weakness of the moon’s light to be observed here, even in comparison but with the proper radiating light of a fixed star, which the moon stands in readiness[3] to cover, may I be permitted to add a conjectural explanation to an observation of Mr. ÏJ.A.¸ Schröter in Lilienthal, so [well] deserving on account of the more exact knowledge of the figure of the mundane bodies (Astronomical Treatise, 1793, p.193).[4] ‘Aldebaran (it is said) disappeared not directly by the advancing of the moon: and (as Mr. S. observed [sah] both the moon’s edge and Aldebaran with the strictness to be wished for) he was fully visible Ïnear the moon’s edge¸ upon the disk for 2 or 3 seconds: when, without my observing in him any diminution of light or an altered diameter, he vanished so suddenly that during the vanishing not Ïeven¸ near a whole, but perhaps a half second Ïof time¸ only, at least certainly not much more, elapsed.’ This phenomenon is, in my opinion, to be attributed not to an optical illusion, but to the time which the light requires to come from the star at the distance of the moon to the earth, which amounts to[5] about 1 1/5 of a second, within which Ï[time]¸ Aldebaran was Ïalready¸ covered by the moon. Whether now during the recollection[6] that the star is Ïalready¸ seen within the face of the moon (not merely in contact with her), as also during the perception and the consciousness that he has now disappeared, the other 4/5 of a second (which do not really belong to[7] Ïthe¸ observation) may not have passed [away] Ï[—]¸ therefore the true and the supposed,[8] though inevitable, apparent observations Ïtogether¸ do not amount to Ïabout¸ 2 seconds (as Mr S. Ïat all events¸ grants as much): Ï[—]¸ must be left to the proper judgment of this acute and exercised observer.
According to otherÏwise¸ admirable discoveries of his, concerning the structure of the moon’s surface, the half of the moon turned to us appears to be a body similar to a
power of attraction, which as the cause of gravity, is common to her with all matter. Of both we can sufficiently point out the laws, as well as, by their effects, the degree of their efficacy, in order to explain from those, as causes, the alterations which they occasion; but to excogitate [auszudenken] new hidden powers on behalf[9] of certain phenomena, which are not sufficiently confirmed by experience Ïto stand¸ in conjunction with those already known, is an attempt which a sound natural philosophy does not easily allow.[10] Thus it Ïwill¸, for instance, very much deny[11] the pretended observation that fish laid in the moonshine putrefy sooner than those lying in the shade of the [moon]: as the [moon]light, concentrated[12] by even the greatest burning-glasses or Ïburning-¸mirror[s], has not the least perceptible effect on the most sensible thermometer; —but yet to have some regard to the observation that the death of those ill with fevers in Bengal during the time of a solar eclipse is very much hastened by the influence of the moon: because the attraction Ïof the moon¸ (which at this time unites itself with the sun) unambiguously shows by other experiences its faculty of acting very perceptibly upon the bodies of the earth.
{319} When it then Ïcomes¸ to deciding a priori Ïupon [the issue]¸: whether the moon has or has not influence on the weather conditions, Ïthe discourse¸ cannot be Ï[based]¸ upon[13] the light which she throws on the earth; Ïand¸ by consequence there remains [nothing] but her power of attraction (according to universal laws of gravitation), from which this action
burnedÏ-out¸ volcanic dross, and uninhabited {318}. But when it is assumed that the eruptions of the elastic substances from her interior, so long as she was Ïstill¸ in the state of fluidity, directed themselves more towards the [side] turned to the earth than to the side turned away from it (which, as the difference of the attractions of the former Ïfrom that¸ of the centre of the moon is greater than that between the attraction of the centre and the side turned away [from the earth], and Ï[as]¸ elastic matter ascending in a fluid extends itself the more, the less it is pressed, must Ïalso¸, when this mundane body became rigid, have left Ïback¸ greater excavations in its interior in the former than in the latter half): Ïthen¸ it may be easily [gar wohl] conceived that the centre of gravity would not coincide with that of the bulk of this body, but would be towards the side that is turned away [from the earth], the consequence of which would then be that the water and air, which may Ïperhaps¸ be Ïfound¸ upon this satellite of the earth, quit the former side, and, by flowing to the latter, have thereby rendered this Ï[side]¸ alone[14] inhabitable. — Besides, whether the [moon’s] property, to turn round her axis in the same time in which she performs her revolution, may from the same cause (namely, the difference of the attraction of both halves in a moon that revolves round its planet, on account of its much greater nearness to [this planet] than that of the planet to the sun) be assumed as peculiar to all moons: must be left to be decided by those who are more versed in the theory of attraction.
upon the atmosphere must be explicable. Now her immediate action by this power can consist in the augmentation or diminution of the gravity of the air only; but this, if it shall be sensible, must Ïitself¸ be observed by the barometer. Therefore the above remark[15] (A) would be thus expressed: The alterations of the barometerÏ’s position¸ regularly harmonizing with the moon’s positions cannot be rendered comprehensible from the attraction of this satellite of the earth. For
1. It may be proved a priori: that the moon’s attraction, so far as the weight[16] of our air may be thereby increased or diminished, is far too small for this alteration Ïto be able¸ to be noticed on the[17] barometer (Lulof’s Introduction to the Mathematical and Physical Knowledge of the Terrestrial Globe, §312):[18] Ïnow¸ one may think of the air[19] as a fluid (not an elastic) matter [Wesen], where its surfaces Ïwould be¸ kept quite horizontal [völlig Wasserpaß] by the direction of their gravity Ï[being]¸ altered by the attraction of the moon; or at the same time, Ï[one may think of air]¸ as it actually is, Ïas¸ an elastic fluidity, where it is still the question, whether its equally dense strata would Ïeven¸ at different heights Ïstill¸ remain in aequilibrio, but to discuss[20] which latter is here not the place.
2. Experience evinces Ïthis¸ insufficiency of the moon’s attraction for a sensible alteration of the gravity of the air. For it [would] need, like the ebb and flow[21], to show itself by the barometer twice in 24 hours; but of which the smallest trace is not perceived.*
{319} *One must form to himself but right conceptions Ïof the action¸ of the attractions of the moon and the sun, so far as they may have immediate influence on the barometerÏ’s position¸. When the sea (and likewise the atmosphere) flows, and Ïso¸ the columns of this fluid ascend: many Ïthen¸ represent to themselves that their weight (like the pressure of the air upon the barometer) must, according to the theory, grow greater (consequently the barometer’s position Ï[must become]¸[22] higher); but it is directly inverted. The columns ascend but because they grow lighter by the external attraction; as they now in the open sea never get time enough to attain the whole height to which they by means of that attraction would rise [annehmen] if the sun and moon remained in the position of their greatest united influence: so at the place of the greatest flood[23] the pressure of the sea (and likewise the pressure of the air upon the barometer) must be smaller, consequently the {320} barometer’s position Ïalso [must be]¸ lower, but at the time of ebb Ï[it must] be¸ higher. — So far the rules of Toaldo[24] Ïtherefore¸ harmonize perfectly well with the theory: namely, that the [mercury in the] barometer in the syzygies falls, but in the quadratures rises: if the latter could but render comprehensible, how the attractions of those celestial bodies can in general have a sensible influence on the barometerÏ’s position¸.
But as to the extraordinarily high position[25] of the sea in straits and long bays, chiefly at the time of the spring flood, Ïthis¸ is not at all taken into account in our problem:
{320} B. The antithesis, ‘The moon has nevertheless an influence (partly noticeable on the barometer, partly otherwise visible) on the weather condition.’ — A weather condition (temperies aëris) contains two parts: wind and weather. The latter is either merely visible: as a clear, partly pure, partly clouded, [and] partly overcast heaven; or Ïalso¸ sensible:[26] cold or warm, damp or dry, in breathing refreshing or oppressive. The same wind does not always, though [it does] frequently, accompany the same weather condition;[27] whether a local cause, altering the mixture of the air and together with it the weather condition, produces a certain wind, or this Ï[wind causes]¸ the weather condition, is not always to be made out: and with the same position of the barometer, even if[28] it were in harmony with the position of the moon according to a certain rule, different sorts of weather may Ïyet¸ be combined. — If the alteration of wind, however, is directed by the alteration of the moon as well for herself as Ïalso¸ in conjunction with the alteration[29] of the four seasons, Ïthen¸ the moon has influence ([either] directly or indirectly) on the weather condition: though the weather cannot be determined according to her, the discovered rules are by consequence more serviceable to the seaman than to the landman. — But in favour of this assertion analogies, at least provisionally sufficient, are obvious,[30] which, though they do not equal the astronomically computed laws of a calendar, Ïyet¸ merit attention as rules, to have regard to that [influence] in future meteorological observations. Namely:
1. At the time of the new moon may almost always be observed endeavours, at least, of the atmosphere to alter the direction of the wind, which end [dahin ausschlagen] either in [the wind’s] {321} returning to its old place after a little wavering Ïhere and there¸, or (when it has wholly or in part run through the compass, chiefly in the direction of the diurnal motion of the sun) [in its] assuming a place in which it prevails the [whole] month throughout.
2. Every quarter of a year, at the time of the solstices and equinoxes and of the next new moon after them, this endeavour is yet more distinctly perceived; and whichsoever wind predominates[31] the first two to three weeks after theÏse¸ [new moonÏs¸] likewise prevails[32] throughout the
because it is not occasioned immediately and hydrostatically by attraction, but only mediately, by a motion of the current proceeding from that alteration, therefore hydraulically; and the winds too may Ïwell¸ be so constituted[33] when they, put in motion by that attraction, are obliged in a sea of an island to blow through capes, straits, and narrow passes remaining open only to them.
whole three months [Quartal].
To these rules the predictions of the weather in the almanac[34] seem Ïlikewise¸ for some time [past] to have had regard. For, as the common man himself pretends [will] to have observed, they happen[35] at present better than before this [almanac]: probably because its author may now Ïalso¸ consult[36] Toaldo Ïon this [matter]¸. So it was in the end,[37] however, Ïvery¸ good that the design [der Anschlag] to bring into vogue almanacs without superstition (Ïeven so little¸ as the rash determination of a Williams,[38] a public propounding of religion without the Bible) did not succeed. For the author of that popular book, in order not to misuse the credulity of the people till they [become] totally incredulous and [he] consequently lose his credit necessary for a great sale, is now obliged to trace the rules of the weather conditions formerly found out, though Ïstill¸ not fully ascertained, to render them by degrees more determinate, and to bring them nearer, at least, to the certainty of an experience: so that the belief formerly adopted blindly from superstition may finally pass to a [belief] not merely rational, but even reasoning over grounds.[39] — Hence may the signs: Good [for] planting, good [for] cutting down timber [for building], still Ïalways¸ keep their places in the almanac,[40] since, whether a sensible influence is not actually due Ïto¸ the moon,[41] as with the kingdom of organised nature in general, so in particular with the vegetable kingdom, is not yet so [clearly] made out, and philosophical gardeners and foresters are thereby invited to satisfy,[42] if possible, even this want of the public. But the signs which may mislead the common man [and induce him] to try dangerous experiments[43] upon his health must be without exception[44] left out.
Here is now a conflict[45] between the theory, which denies a faculty to the moon, and experience, that grants it Ïto her¸. {322}
The Resolving[46] of this Conflict.
The attraction of the moon, her only motive power, by which she can have influence on the atmosphere and perhaps also on the weather conditions, acts directly upon the air according to static laws, i.e. so far as this is a ponderable fluidity. But hereby the moon is very much unable to occasion a sensible alteration in the position of the barometer, and, so far as the weather condition immediately depends upon the cause of that [position], Ï[it is]¸ likewise Ï[unable to occasion an alteration]¸ in this [cause]; consequently (according to A), she ought so far to have no influence on the weather condition. — But when one assumes an imponderable matter (or material substances),[47] extending itself [(or themselves)] far above the height of the ponderable air (and on that account more[48] exposed to alteration by a stronger attraction of the moon), covering the atmosphere, which [matter], moved by the moon’s attraction and thereby [either] mixed at different times with our air, or separated from it, is able by an affinity with the latter (therefore not by its weight) partly to strengthen, partly to weaken its elasticity, and so mediately (namely, in the former case Ïby¸ the occasioned deflux [Abfluß] of the lifted-up columns of air, in the latter by the afflux [Zufluß] of the air to the lowered Ï[columns]¸) to alter its weight:* Ïthen,¸ it is found possible that the moon may have influence indirectly on {323} the alteration of the weather condition (according to B), but properly according to chemical laws. — But between the thesis: The moon has no influence directly on the weather condition, and the antithesis: She has an influence indirectly on it—there is no contradiction.
This imponderable matter must perhaps also be assumed as incoercible (not to be shut up), that is, such a [substance] as cannot otherwise be shut up[49] by other substances than by its being in chemical affinity with them
{322} *This exposition properly refers [geht zwar eigenlich] only to the correspondence of the weather condition with the position of the barometer (therefore to A); Ïand¸ it still remains to explain from the same principle that of the winds with the aspects of the moon and of the seasons (according to B), in all sorts of weather and positions of the barometer (whereby it is always to be well-noticed, that absolutely only the influence of the moon and perhaps the much smaller one of the sun likewise, but only by their attraction, not by the heat, are in question [die Rede]). ÏNow¸ it is astonishing that the moon in the aforementioned astronomical points places and predetermines wind and weather in a different manner over different countries though lying in the same latitude. But as several days, yes[50] weeks, are required to the establishment and determination of the prevailing wind, in which time the actions of the moon’s attraction on the gravity of the air, by consequence on the barometer, must annul one another, and therefore can produce no precise direction of it: so I cannot otherwise render that phenomenon in any manner comprehensible to myself than by conceiving many circular or vortical [wirbelförmige] motions analogical to the waterspouts,[51] without and beside one another, or even within one another (including one another), Ï[motions]¸ occasioned by the moon’s attraction of that imponderable matter extending Ïout¸ beyond [über] the atmosphere: which [motions], according to the difference of the ground (of the mountains, of the waters, [and] even of the vegetation upon them) and its chemical reaction, may make its influence {323} on the atmosphere different in the same parallel circle. But here experience quits us too much, even but to opine with tolerable probability.
(such as takes place between the magnetic [effluvium] and pure iron[52]), but [which] acts freely throughout all the others: when the communion of the air of the higher (jovial) regions, lying Ïout¸ beyond the region of lightning, with the subterraneous (volcanic) [air], found deep under the mountains, which manifests itself not indistinctly in many meteors, is taken into consideration. Perhaps thereto belongs likewise the constitution of the air[53] which renders some diseases in certain countries at a particular time epidemic (in fact,[54] raging), and which shows its influence not merely on a nation of men, but Ïalso¸ [on] a nation of a certain species of animals or plants, whose vital principle Dr. Schäffer in Regensburg, in his ingenious book On Sensibility,[55] places not in them, but in an external matter, analogous to that [imponderable matter] pervading them.
* * *
This ‘something’, then, is but small, and indeed little more than the acknowledgment of ignorance: but which, since a de Luc[56] has proved to us that we by no means perspect [einsehen] what a cloud is and how it is possible (a matter which was child’s play[57] twenty years ago), can no longer be particularly[58] surprising and astonishing. ÏYet¸ it happens to us herewith just as Ïwith¸ the[59] catechism, which in our childhood[60] we perceived [inne hatten] to a hair and believed to understand [thoroughly], but which, the older and the more considerate we grow, the less we understand, and for that reason Ïwe¸ well deserve to be sent back Ïyet¸ again to school: if we could but find anybody Ï(other than ourself)¸[61] that understood it better.
{324} But when Mr. de Luc hopes Ïfrom his people¸ [that] Ïtheir¸ more diligent observation [of his cloud] may one day [or other] still afford us a weighty insight[62] into chemistry: it is not Ïgood¸ to think Ïabout it thus¸,[63] but it was probably Ïso¸ cast as a stumbling block[64] only for the antiphlogistics. For its laboratory [Fabrik] lies in a region where we cannot reach[65] Ï[it]¸ to make experiments Ïthere¸; and it may with reason be Ïmuch¸ sooner expected that chemistry will furnish new insight into meteorology, than vice versa.
1. R. has ‘on the temperature of the air’ for K.’s ‘auf die Witterung’ here and in most of its other occurrences in this essay. K. does refer at numerous points throughout this essay to the aspect of the weather relating to the temperature of the air (see especially the Latin on p.49 [Ak. VIII.320, line 3]); nevertheless, I use the more literal translation, as explained in Essay One, note 176. Distinguishing in this way between the normally synonymous terms Witterung and Wetter turns out to be significant at several points (see e.g. p.49 [Ak. VIII.320]).
2. R. has ‘position’ for K.’s ‘Satz’. Cf. p.49 (Ak. VIII.320), the first line of section B, where R. uses ‘antithesis’ for K.’s ‘Gegensatz’.
4. ‘Joh. Hieronymus Schröter, astronomer, 1745-1816. Astronomichal Yearbook for the Year 1796, edited by J.E. Bode, Berlin, 1793, pp.192ff. Aldebaran’s Covering of the Moon etc. [is written] by the Chief Magistrate, Schröter.’ (Ak. VIII.503)
10. R. has ‘make’ for K.’s ‘einräumt’. I have revised R.’s word order at several points in this sentence.
13. R. has ‘it is ... to be decided ... cannot be in question’ for K.’s ‘es ... darauf ankommt ... zu entscheiden ... kann von ... nicht die Rede sein’, and places the latter phrase later in the sentence.
17. R. has ‘observed by the’ for K.’s ‘am ... bemerkt’. I use noticed for K.’s ‘bemerkt’. Elsewhere, such as in the previsou paragraph, R.’s ‘observed’ translates K.’s ‘beobachten’.
18. ‘J. Lulof’s Introduction to teh Mathematical and Physical Knowledge of the Terrestrial Globe. Translated from the Dutch by Abraham Gotthelf Kästner. Göttingen and Leipzig, 1755. See p.444.’ (Ak. VIII.503)
19. R. has ‘whether the air be thought’ for K.’s ‘man mag sich nun ... denken’. I have revised R.’s word order later in the sentence.
22. R. has ‘the mercury in the barometer be’ for K.’s ‘der Barometerstand’. I use position for K.’s ‘-stand’.
23. ‘Fluth’ can mean ‘flood’, but it is also the word for ‘flow’ in ‘ebb and flow’. See note 21, above.
24. ‘Giuseppe Toaldo, Professor of Astronomie and Meteorology at Padua, 1719-1727. By him, Novae tabulae barometri aestusque maris [New Barometric Tables on the Heat of the Sea (?????)], Patavii, 1773, as well as the “Small System concerning the Influence of the Moon on the Variation of Weather” in his “Doctrine of Weather Conditions for Farming. A prize essay established [gekrönte] by the Royal Society of the Sciences at Montpellier. Translated from the Italian by Joh. Gottlieb Steudel. Third Edition. Berlin, 1786”. §§129ff.’ (Ak. VIII.503)
29. R. has ‘alteration ... variation ... vicissitude’ for K.’s three uses of ‘[-W]echsel’. I have revised R.’s word order in the last part of the sentence.
30. R.’s ‘in favour of ... are obvious’ translates K.’s ‘Es Zeigen sich ... zu’, which literally means ‘They [the analogies] point to ...’. And R. has ‘previously’ for K.’s ‘vorläufig’.
32. R. has ‘usually’ for K.’s ‘auch’. K.’s ‘der pflegt ... der herrschende zu sein ...’ could be more literally translated as ‘... is to be the ruling guardian [during] ...’.
34. R. has the more literal ‘calendar’ for K.’s ‘Kalender’ here and elsewhere in this paragraph. But the context clearly indicates that K. is referring to almanacs.
35. R. has ‘fall out’ for K.’s ‘treffen’. K. is here referring to the belief that the predictions in question have come true.
38. R. has ‘like’ for K.’s ‘eben so wenig wie’. The sense of ‘little’ here seems to be ‘insignificant’. Ak. VIII.503 notes: ‘David Williams, 1738-1816, well-known through his numerous proposals for ecclesiastical and pedagogical reform. An Essay on Public Worship ..., London, 1773. Furthermore, see Liturgy on the Universal Principles of Religion and Morality, London, 1776, and Lectures, [London,] 1779.’
39. R. has ‘on the’ for K.’s ‘über die’. K.’s ‘vernünftelnden’ here suggests a heightened degree of subtlety in one’s reasoning.
40. R. has ‘the places ... remain’ for K.’s ‘ihr Platz ... bleiben’. I have revised R.’s word order to conform more closely to K.’s.
41. R. has ‘whether the moon ... be not actually allowed a sensible influence’ for K.’s ‘dem Monde ... nichte wirklich ein werklicher Einfluß zustehe’.
42. R. has ‘those philosophically skilled in gardens and forests ... to supply’ for K.’s ‘philosophische Garten- und Forstkundige ... Genüge zu thun’. But the skill suggested by ‘-kundige’ relates to gardening and forestry, and not necessarily to philosophy.
43. R. uses this paraphrase to interpret K.’s ‘zur Pfuscherei’, which could be translated literally as ‘to bungling’.
48. A literal translation of K.’s ‘eben dadurch auch besser’ (e.g. ‘even thereby also better’) would be too awkward.
49. K. has ‘(unsperrbar) ... g e s p e r r t werden kann’. The verb sperren can also mean to spread out, block, or cut off. Here it seems to carry the connotation of ‘(irresistible) ... cannot ... be resisted’. I have slightly revised R.’s word order earlier in the sentence.
51. R. has ‘typhones’ [sic] for K.’s ‘Wasserhosen’, but K. seems rather to be referring here to geisers. I have significantly revised R.’s word order in this part of the sentence.
55. ‘Joh. Chr. Gottlieb Schäffer, physician in Regensburg, 1752 to 1826, “On Sensibility as a Life Principle in Natural Organisms, Frankfurt-au-Main, 1793.’ (Ak. VIII.503)
56. ‘Jean André de Luc, Swiss physicist and meteorologist, 1727-1817. See New Ideas on Meteorology. Translated from the French. Berlin and Stettin, 1787 and 1788.’ (Ak. VIII.503)
59. R. has ‘This is exactly circumstanced as our’ for K.’s ‘Geht es uns doch hiemit eben so, wie mit dem’.