Many have affected to doubt the planetary influence on the human constitution, but, to me, there appears every reason to accredit the opinion. I have seen so many instances, among my own most intimate friends, as well as a thousand ordinary cases among soldiers, camp-followers, villagers, &c., that my mind was fully made up on the subject long before I had the opportunity of perusing the treatise of Dr. Francis Balfour, of the Bengal Medical Establishment; from which I offer to the consideration of my readers the following interesting extracts.
‘In Bengal, there is no reason to doubt that the human frame is affected by the influence connected with the relative situations of the sun and moon. In certain states of health and vigor, this influence has not power to shew itself by any obvious effects; and, in such cases, its existence is often not acknowledged. But, in certain states of debility and disease, it is able to manifest itself by exciting _febrile paroxysms_; and the propensity, or aptitude, of the constitution to be affected with febrile paroxysms in such cases, may be denominated _the paroxysmal disposition_.’
‘Febrile paroxysms universally discover a tendency to appear, and to disappear, in coincidence with those positions of the sun and moon that regulate the rising and falling of the tides. The diurnal and nocturnal encrease of sol-lunar power acting on constitutions, in which the propensity of the paroxysmal disposition is complete and perfect, produces paroxysms every twelve hours, in coincidence with the periods of the tides; and constitute types which, on account of this regular coincide, I denominate perfect.’
‘The diurnal and nocturnal encrease of sol-lunar power acting on constitutions in which the propensity to paroxysm is incomplete, or imperfect, has power only to produce paroxysms in coincidence with every second, third, or fourth, period of the tides, or others, more remote; constituting _types_, which, on account of this irregular coincidence, I have called _imperfect_.’
Doctor Balfour states, in a note, that, ‘In several cases of the plague, recorded by Dr. Patrick Russell, the febrile paroxysms returned obviously every four hours, in coincidence with the periods of the tides; and his predecessor and relation, the author of ’_The Natural History of Aleppo_,‘ asserts positively, that the generality of the fevers there, and, indeed, in almost all acute cases, are subject to exacerbations once or twice in twenty-four hours.’