Solar Biology

EDITOR'S PREFACE. Y
ing that they exert a decided influence over each other, the knowledge
of which has led to the discovery of additional planets.
In 1846 it was observed that Uranus (then recently discovered)
when in certain positions deviated from its course, which implied
the existence of a then unknown planet. Several astronomers
brought their telescopes to bear upon the indicated portion
of the
heavens, and Neptune was discovered, and thus the cause of the
eccentricity explained. The attractive influence of the sun and
moon in heaping up the waters and causing the phenomena of the
ocean tides is also well understood.
We can trace how the alchemy of the Middle Ages has been
transformed into the exact, elaborate, and useful science of chemistry,
and a corresponding progress has also been made in astronomy
and other branches ;
but have all lines of research been
exhausted? is there nothing more to learn? Far from it; our
present knowledge is relatively but as a drop in a bucket, and
Solar Biology introduces a field of research which, through observation
and experiment, will come in time to be recognized and
appreciated as being as demonstrable as chemistry or astronomy.
If the sun, moon, and planets exert an influence on the earth
as a whole, they must necessarily affect each thing in particular,
and their relation to man, and the nature he derives by virtue of
their positions is what Solar Biology undertakes to demonstrate.
Conceding that they exert an influence in a general way,
is it not
presumptuous to attempt to draw the line, and say their relation
to the nature and character of man cannot be traced? We might
as fittingly say that it is
enough to know that the sun gives light
and heat ;
but it is found that the ray of light can be analyzed,
can be separated into its different colors, its various vibrations
ascertained, chemical action
determined, and many other wonderful
and useful things demonstrated. Solar Biology, so to speak,
turns the spectrum of planetary influence upon the phenomena of
human life, and analyzes its significance.