CHAP. 41. (41.)—OF THE REGULAR INFLUENCE OF THE DIFFERENT SEASONS.
There is moreover a peculiar influence in the different
degrees of certain signs, as in the autumnal equinox, and
also in the winter solstice, when we find that a particular
star is connected with the state of the weather[1]. It is not
so much the recurrence of showers and storms, as of various
circumstances, which act both upon animals and vegetables.
Some are planet-struck[2], and others, at stated times, are affected
in the bowels, the sinews, the head, or the intellect.
The olive, the white poplar, and the willow turn their leaves
round at the summer solstice. The herb pulegium, when
dried and hanging up in a house, blossoms on the very day
of the winter solstice, and bladders burst in consequence of
their being distended with air[3]. One might wonder at this,
did we not observe every day, that the plant named heliotrope always
looks towards the setting sun, and is, at all
hours, turned towards him, even when he is obscured by
clouds[4]. It is certain that the bodies of oysters and of
whelks[5], and of shell-fish generally, are increased in size and
again diminished by the influence of the moon. Certain
accurate observers have found out, that the entrails of the
field-mouse[6] correspond in number to the moon's age, and
that the very small animal, the ant, feels the power of this
luminary, always resting from her labours at the change of
the moon. And so much the more disgraceful is our ignorance, as every one acknowledges that the diseases in the
eyes of certain beasts of burden increase and diminish according to the age of the moon. But the immensity of the
heavens, divided as they are into seventy-two[7] constellations,
may serve as an excuse. These are the resemblances of certain things, animate and inanimate, into which the learned
have divided the heavens. In these they have announced
1600 stars, as being remarkable either for their effects or
their appearance; for example, in the tail of the Bull there
are seven stars, which are named Vergiliæ[8]; in his forehead
are the Suculæ; there is also Bootes, which follows the seven
northern stars[9].
1. "cum tempestatibus confici sidus intelligimus."
2. "afflantur." On this term Hardouin remarks, "Siderantur.
Sideratio morbi genus est, partem aliquam corporis, ipsumque ssepe
totum corpus percutientis subito: quod quum repentino eveniat impetu, e cœlo
vi quadam sideris evenire putatur." Lemaire, i. 317.
3. Cicero alludes to these opinions in his treatise De Divin. ii. 33; see
also Aul. Gellius, ix. 7.
4. The heliotropium of the moderns has not the property here assigned
to it, and it may be doubted whether it exists in any plant, except in a
very slight and imperfect degree: the subject will be considered more
fully in a subsequent part of the work, xxii. 29, where the author gives a
more particular account of the heliotrope.
5. "conchyliorum;" this term appears to have been specifically applied
to the animal from which the Tyrian dye was procured.
6. "soricum fibras;" Alexandre remarks on these words, "fibras
jecoris intellige, id est, lobos infimos.....;" Lemaire, i. 318; but
I do not see any ground for this interpretation.
7. It does not appear from what source our author derived this number;
it is considerably greater than that stated by Ptolemy and the older
astronomers. See the remarks of Hardouin and of Brotier; Lemaire. i.
319.
8. The Vergiliæ or Pleiades are not in the tail of the Bull,
according to the celestial atlas of the moderns.
9. "Septemtriones."