Abstract
IN a recent little book, “The Story of the Weather,” by G. F. Chambers, I have come across one of those ex cathedrâ statements which, I think, illustrate the curious disposition of the mind (even the scientific mind) to circumscribe and limit truth. “No one in his senses,” our Meteorological Office is quoted as saying, “can believe in the moon's influence on the weather.” Is the matter, then, clear as noonday, or as an axiom of mathematics? Supposing we have, thus far, no proof of such influence, how can we possibly be certain that no such influence exists, or will ever be demonstrated? I happen to be, unfortunately, one of those “lunatics”; but I rather think I am in good company. The author of the book himself, oddly enough, just before approving, apparently, the above dictum, expresses his firm conviction (p. 197) that the full moon scatters clouds! (a point, however, which I cannot say I have studied).
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M., A. Dogmatism on the Moon and the Weather. Nature 58, 368 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058368b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058368b0
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