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The researches of the new school of physics, beginning with Crookes, have shown that electrically charged rays (alpha, beta or gamma) are deflected by electric or magnetic fields, and produce ionization of gases through which they pass, i.e., electrons are dislocated from their atoms, and the resulting particles, called ions, become carriers of electrical currents. These gaseous ions may also become nuclei for the condensation of water vapor, just as dust particles help to form clouds and precipitate rain. It is, of course, possible that Venus affects terrestrial weather directly by magnetic or electrostatic influences. But it is more likely that it interferes with the solar radiations on their way to the earth. The sun is constantly bombarding our globe with negative or cathode rays. At the period of the 8-year transits of Venus, these rays pass through the disturbed atmosphere of Venus, are deflected, ionized, and when they strike the earth's atmosphere, produce an increased rainfall, which in turn stimulates greater crops, a fall in prices, and an economic depression.
This very sketchy outline of Moore's theory needs amplification to be convincing, but the body of evidence he has built up is impressive. And he is not alone in his ideas. Many first-rate economists, as Sauerbeck, Poynting, Aftalion, Bresciani-Turroni, Hollander, Mitchell; astronomers and astrophysicists, such as Turner, Schuster, C. T. R. Wilson, Birkeland, Nodon, Stratton, Huggins, Bauer, Douglass, W. W. Campbell; weather sharps such as Bigelow, Clough, Henry, have arrived at very similar conclusions, or have corroborated various steps in the grand generalization. We are forced to believe that there is good evidence for the linking together of planetary phenomena and economic cycles.
*GENERATING ECONOMIC CYCLES-H. L Moore-Macmillan. ($2.50.)