No Fear Of Planetary Disaster

Id response to the subject of absorbing ntereHt now under dhoiUMOn by scientists as to the Miuultaneous urrvil of' all the major planets to their perihelia, infiicting dire resulta and bringing aboat the most f'earfül calamities known to hiotory and re-ultinir in the most eVMtatittg ili-aater t) men and beasts, Prot Lewis Swift has writ ten a letter to the Rochester Heral(i,in)which lic says : For ttifi last two years tlic popular mind lias been exeited to an anmoal dereeover the Mtaieiucnis made by a tew vijionaryon thañwta, who, with a great fljurish ot appiireiit wisdom, have spread before the wurM the preiiction that, owing to the si iQultanuouM arrival of' the major planets to their puriheha dtiritur the preaent year, ihe BMSt dreadt'ul calamities ever recorded in hi.ilory are to ocour, such a earthquakes on a va.st and destructivo seale, devastating tornailoos, widespread pestilence, great loss of life by shiiwreclts, fauiine and wars and a thousHiid other things too dreadful to contomplate. In all coinmunities there i a certain class who will give a listeninu ear to an tliiiitr, no matter how absurd, that par takes largely of' maivelousness ; henee this belitf', wliich has not a partiële oteyideneo to support it, is widespread in all civilired countnes. 1 am con8tantly receiving letters aaking when the planeta will severally be in penhelion (nearest the t-uo,) and when are we (o lonk fora fulfillnientof tliese )redntions that will make the year 1881 fám.m.s forall coming time. These qucHionscimvince me that tn dakwoB -uil exi.-ts, and has sunk doep iu the tuinds of men, and that perhaps it would be advi.sable to prepare a .statement setting forth the facts as they exigt, and, with light variatinns, will continue to exist as long as time last. All planeta move in orliita or paths more or les elíptica!, the sun oecupying theoommon focu.4 of them all. It therefore necessarily follows that a planet ia wmetimes nearer the nun than at others. In our age (but it will not always be sol the earth 'n about tliree million miles nearer the sun on the lst of January than oO tlu: lid day of July. On January 1, therefore. the earth is in perihelion, and ofcourseis in that situation once a year. Kvery planet is in perihelion onee during it year. Meroury, the planet nearest the sun, has a smaller orbit than ours, and henee iinyear is oorrespondingly shortcr, being only88 of our days and must therel'ore lo in perihelion every SH days, On the contrary Neptune, the most distant planet known, has a year cqual ia length to one hun irnl and sixty fbur and half of ours, and is con sequently only odob in peribelioa duriiig that time. It followi that the time niu-i i-oiiie when all the tiglit pliiatl will bt in periheiiou at once. It is only a iiuestion in simple aritlioietk) how often tlus will happen. It has been stated, and insis'ed upon, that this rare event, which probably has not occurred since the Mosuic creation, would take place durint; the present year. That lliis will not be the case the following table showa : Mercury. Fi'b. 91, May 20, An(?. 16. Kor. Il', ISsl Venus Man-lui, Oei. lii, ltM Kartli jan. , ism Mrs May M, 11 JupHer s.pi.j.,, iwi Stiturn AU(f. BO, 1888 L'ranus Maren '. 1S82 Neptune oet, It is not denied that this is a close agreement when it u consiiicred how long some of the periodsof revolution are. But what of it ' Who has ever proved or prcsented evidonce that has any semblaoue of proof that planets arriving at their perihelion points have the least perceptible influence on either the un or earth or any of' the other planeU? Kach planet, even the giatit Júpiter, isa pigmy compared to the eun ; in fact he will outweigh theincombined by more than 70() times. What effect then can the simple difference in distancc of any single planet, say of' Júpiter, have on the heat, light, spots, etc , on the sun aluiost 500,000,000 miles dititant 'Í The pliinet Mercury is eomparatively near the su and aluiost as denso as lesd, and the eccentricity of his orhit is so great tliat he is over 29,000,000 miles ucarer the suo at perihelion than at aphelion, but has any one ever perceived any chaneei on the sun once in eihty-eif;lit days? ilas any recurMBOB of ïuagnetic stonus, earthquakes, l lagues, or an exces of calamities of any kind ever been notioed during his peribelKin paMleM? I( ri'Jt, tlicn it is safe losay rn -:- "-J ¦¦¦¦ ohiMt niay he classed wan the thounand other deüuMODs wmm exist ín the minds oi' men, and lor which no remedy is known save in a thorough, nd universal educstion of' all classes of society.