A.L. Chizhevsky – EARTH DISTANCE OF SOLAR STORMS part 1

Editor: O. L., Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences B. M. Vladimirsky, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences L. V. Golovanov, Candidate of Geographical Sciences R. F. Usmanov, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences N. P. Tsimakovich 2090′-204. BZ-^5-28-76 004(01)-76 © Publishing House “Dumka”. 1976

FOREWORD

Life sometimes grants meetings with interesting people. Many years ago, I had the honor and great pleasure of meeting one of the founders of domestic space biology—the author of this book. The book offered to the attention of readers belongs to the pen of a remarkable Soviet scientist—Professor A. L. Chizhevsky (1897–1964) and is dedicated to an urgent problem—the study of the connections between the Earth’s biosphere and solar activity.

That the Sun is the foundation of the origin and existence of life on our planet, as well as the cause of most physical and chemical processes occurring on it, is a trivial truth familiar since time immemorial. However, its role is much greater and more complex than previously assumed. Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky had the honor of scientifically proving that for the organic world of the Earth, not only the energy constantly radiated by the Sun is essential, but also the changes in “solar activity,” or solar activity, that arise periodically. Since the flux of thermal radiation from the Sun is practically constant, and the changes occurring in the upper layers of the Earth’s atmosphere depending on solar activity seemed insignificant for the lower layers, the landscape shell of our planet was until recently considered an isolated, self-organizing system. As for living organisms, it was believed that prolonged evolution would have developed appropriate protective mechanisms against the influence of increased solar activity. In short, the life sciences continued to harbor geocentric ideas. Could this not explain why Chizhevsky’s pioneering works were not properly appreciated by his contemporaries?

This true book—a product of meticulous research and bold generalizations—first saw the light of day abroad under the title “Les Epidemies et les perturbations electromagnetiques du milieu exterieur.” The author wrote it in French at the official request of the Parisian publishing house “Hippocrate.” Published 36 years ago, it remains fresh to this day. Its content seems directly addressed to our contemporaries. Yet it will be especially valuable to researchers who approach the practical resolution of issues related to the study of solar-terrestrial connections. The vast erudition of the author and the power of his scientific synthesis, seemingly distantly related facts, are highly instructive, especially for young people entering science.

The book will undoubtedly attract the attention of a wide range of readers interested in pressing issues of modern natural science. The interest of scientists will be even more acute, as the method of presentation in it corresponds to the research method, and the strength of scientific synthesis is combined with the originality of the author’s thinking. One involuntarily recalls the words of Friedrich Engels: “The form of development of natural science, insofar as it thinks, is the hypothesis… If we were to wait until the material was ready in pure form for the law, it would mean halting thoughtful research until then, and for this reason alone we would never obtain it.”

A curious researcher of nature, A. L. Chizhevsky discovered that fluctuations in the intensity of various mass processes on our planet are synchronous. It was logical to assume that in the dynamics of biological systems at all levels of their natural organization, the non-stationary and heterogeneous influence of the Sun is reflected, and it is insufficient to consider our luminary merely as a source of radiant energy. Chizhevsky first expressed his considerations on this matter in Kaluga in October 1915 in a report titled “The Periodic Influence of the Sun on the Earth’s Biosphere.” These were only bold assumptions based on a relatively limited number of facts and observations. Further accumulation of factual material led Chizhevsky to an absolutely firm conviction: the periodicity of outbreaks of epidemics and pandemics, epizootics, and epiphytotics is directly related to disturbances in the physiological factors of the external (“cosmo-telluric”) environment. This idea prompted Chizhevsky in 1928 to begin experimental study of this issue—he reported his results in the article “Cosmic Radiation as a Biological Factor,” published in 1929 in the “Bulletin of the International Bio-Cosmic Association” (Toulon).

In 1927–1928, the “Russo-German Medical Journal,” edited by N. A. Semashko, published a series of articles by Chizhevsky, which convincingly demonstrated that numerous functional and organic disturbances in the vital activity and development of biological systems—from individual organisms to populations—are associated with changes in the physico-chemical environment, which has its source in cosmic influences, especially sharp changes disrupting the normal course of physical processes on the Sun.

Through his research, Chizhevsky expanded the understanding of the conditions for the existence of life on Earth, scientifically proving the presence of constantly acting connections between the biosphere and cosmic factors—now the concept of “external environment” included space itself. The very formulation of the problem “The Sun—Biosphere” (see the bibliography at the end of the book), already at the beginning of the 1920s and moreover on a practical basis, must be recognized as a significant achievement of the scientist.

Chizhevsky’s research attracted the keenest attention of scientists both in our country and abroad—representatives of the most diverse specialties. The wide press reacted with extreme responses—from highly enthusiastic to sharply critical. This is often the case when a new problem is raised in science and a new discovery is made that directly concerns the vital interests of humanity.

In Chizhevsky’s studies, general biology, physiology, and medicine were closely linked, on the one hand, and geophysics, meteorology, and astronomy on the other. Renowned scientists (K. E. Tsiolkovsky, P. P. Lazarev, V. M. Bekhterev, N. A. Morozov, A. A. Sadow, A. V. Leontovich, and others), as well as foreign scholars—Nordmann, Dubois, Smith, Brooks, Lessberg, and others—recognized the fundamental significance of Chizhevsky’s works, as they brought new perspectives and posed new problems to science.

“All these generalizations and bold ideas are expressed by the author in the scientific literature for the first time, which gives them great value and arouses interest,” wrote K. E. Tsiolkovsky. “This work is an example of the unification of sciences on a monistic basis of physical and mathematical analysis.”

In 1930, Chizhevsky’s book “Epidemic Catastrophes and the Periodic Activity of the Sun” was published in Moscow (with a print run of… 300 copies), in which the author published part of the statistical material he had collected about epidemics to demonstrate the closest connection between collective reactions of living organisms to almost imperceptible, minimal environmental changes caused by the periodic activity of the Sun and the epidemiological phenomena that had escaped the attention of epidemiologists and the entire practical medicine.

Chizhevsky presented a new, well-considered concept of “epidemic catastrophes,” expanding the framework of understanding the most obscure problems of epidemiology and, figuratively speaking, lifting the veil over the “machine room” of nature, where the mechanisms of epidemiological phenomena are concentrated. “Our task,” he wrote at the end of the book, “was to present in a broad general-biological context the question of the transition of the vital qualities of a virus from a latent state to an active one under the influence of changes in the surrounding physico-chemical elements.”

He absolutized his views on the mechanism of epidemic disturbances. “… We do not claim their infallibility at all. They should be considered only as a first attempt to construct a working hypothesis, nothing more” (ibid.).

At the same time, he warned epidemiologists against a simplistic understanding of the complex causes of epidemics. The scientist was not naive enough to accept the notion that a given state of solar activity directly causes the epidemic spread of certain diseases. “Such a conclusion would be entirely incorrect,” Chizhevsky emphasized, anticipating possible objections from opponents. “The activity of the Sun, in all likelihood, only contributes (as highlighted by us. — O. H.) to epidemics, facilitating their more rapid development and greater intensity. This must be understood in the sense that a given epidemic, due to a number of biological factors, could have occurred even without the influence of the solar factor, but without it, it might not have appeared in the year it actually did, nor would its development have reached the same intensity.”

Thus, Chizhevsky understood the role of the Sun’s periodic activity as that of a catalyst. He foresaw the possibility of predicting the likelihood of epidemics and increased mortality. However, statistical observations alone were insufficient for this purpose; it was necessary to conduct a fundamental study of the impact of sharp changes in the physicochemical environment, electronic processes in colloidal, dispersive, and dispersed phenomena of coagulation and stabilization of bacterial systems carrying ions of a particular sign, and other more general global patterns of biosphere interaction with periodic “solar activity.” The scientist sought to delve into the essence of physicochemical, biophysical, and biochemical processes, to grasp the intimate mechanisms of interaction between living nature and the external environment (in the broadest sense of the word), including atmospheric ions. He developed a theory of organic ion exchange (see the “Works” of the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of Ionization, which he headed in the 1930s, as well as the major monograph “Aeroionification in the National Economy,” Moscow, 1960), established extraordinary reactivity, and discovered the effect of preventing disturbances through changes in the properties of corynebacteria (see the collection “Aviation and Space Medicine,” Moscow, 1963, pp. 485–486). He laid the foundations for structural blood analysis and discovered the geometric orderliness of blood. “Structural Analysis of Moving Blood.” All of this was mentally integrated by Chizhevsky into a unified system of organism-environment interaction.

When it might have seemed that he was scattering his efforts, dispersing his focus, he moved from the general to the particular, only to later return to the original—general—questions on new levels, armed with fresh evidence. Such was the dialectic of his creativity. Of course, Chizhevsky could not solve all the questions related to the complex manifestations of solar activity in the biosphere—this task is worthy of the combined efforts of many specialists from various scientific fields. However, through his pioneering work, he laid the fundamental foundations of heliobiology, searching for and often finding key links in the “organism-environment” interaction system, making them the subject of creative and experimental research.

The new factual data and logical connections accumulated by Chizhevsky by the time he began working on the book for the French publisher further strengthened his general concept. “A new perspective on the main etiological aspects of the epidemic mechanism and the variability of bacterial virulence,” he wrote in the preface, “opens, it seems, entirely unexpected prospects for the rational control of epidemics, their rational prevention, and the therapy of various diseases. This new perspective… as electrical resonators. This perspective must be extended to living cells in general” (p. 23).

It should be noted that the text for this edition was prepared for publication by A. L. Chizhevsky himself shortly before his death. The editorial team carefully preserved the author’s style: the passion, enthusiasm, and emotional intensity that permeate the pages of the book feel entirely appropriate—the text breathes with a living word. One would need a deeply penetrating mind to recognize, as early as the 1930s, against the backdrop of deepening specialization and differentiation in the natural sciences, the objective trend toward their convergence, interweaving, and integration—a trend that has never been as pronounced as it is today.

What is particularly important in this “beneficial synthesis,” as the author puts it, is the application of methods from one science to another, a systematic and holistic approach to studying seemingly heterogeneous phenomena (astronomical and biological) between which a correlational connection is revealed. “Now we can say,” Chizhevsky writes in the first chapter, “that in the natural sciences, the idea of the unity and interconnectedness of all phenomena, and the feeling of the world as an indivisible whole, have never reached the clarity and depth they are gradually attaining in our time” (p. 24). These words could have been spoken today. However, at the time the book was written, such an idea had not yet found widespread acceptance. The knowledge that contemporary science had about solar-terrestrial connections was far from complete (and even today it cannot be considered exhaustive), and the author himself acknowledges this. Yet the timeliness of the questions he raised is beyond doubt, and, most importantly, the available factual material was sufficient to prove the close connection between living nature and the cosmic environment. There could be no doubt: “Both solar and cosmic radiation are the primary sources of energy that animate the surface layers of the Earth” (p. 29).

At the same time, a question arose: to what extent do the physiological processes of living organisms depend on fluctuations in the influx of this energy?

In the vast ocean of life, a multitude of intertwined processes in a state of development and periodic disturbances confront the eyes of naturalists. Every living organism is influenced by countless external forces: “…every organic being at any given moment is both the same and not the same” (F. Engels, *Anti-Dühring*, Moscow, 1969, p. 17). Where, on the surface, only the play of chance seems to occur, an unshakable sequence of events reveals itself as necessary lawfulness. It should be noted that chance is always something relative and always exists at the intersection of necessary processes. The accidental and the necessary are dialectically intertwined in every individual phenomenon, while a mass of random events occurring in more or less homogeneous objects is characterized by statistical regularities that express the measure of necessity within the random, the stochastic.

It was therefore entirely natural that Chizhevsky adopted the mathematical-statistical method of research as the primary approach in the early stages of studying solar-terrestrial connections. Having analyzed vast historical material, he drew attention to the fact that, in earlier epochs, catastrophic natural phenomena were often linked to various “omens,” and systems of such signs were identical across ages in terms of the objects they foretold. Most often, these systems had a religious character, behind which lay an objective source: social relations and the reality of the surrounding nature. While admiring the poetic imagery and exaggerating the role of celestial “omens,” ancient peoples fell into mysticism. Yet, while criticizing the latter, many scientists, due to a lack of sufficient data, denied the existence of a causal connection between mass diseases, natural disasters, and cosmic factors.

Chizhevsky provides a historical overview of facts accumulated in numerous literary sources regarding the temporal connection between epidemics and mortality, on the one hand, and meteorological, geophysical, and cosmic phenomena, on the other. He synthesizes information about 19th-century attempts to uncover the relationship between morbidity and solar processes. The representativeness of the material presented in Chapters II and III supports the author’s a priori view. However, this is still far from sufficient, and he proceeds to a mathematical-statistical analysis of the correlations between epidemics and solar activity.Previously, he dwells on the origin and nature of the periodic activity of the Sun. Since then, astrophysics has advanced significantly, yet we read with undiminished interest Chapter IV on the nature of solar factors causing disturbances in the Earth’s atmosphere and crust, as well as Chapter V on the electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic perturbations on our planet arising from the Sun’s influence on the functioning of various structures of the biosphere. The material is not only interesting for reflecting the level of heliogeophysical knowledge contemporary to Chizhevsky, but—even more so—the very development of the author’s thought, directed toward solving the task he set before himself.

“We have deeply ingrained the habit of considering the Sun to be extraordinarily remote from us… However, this view is fundamentally incorrect. Its error stems from our failure to account for one most important factor—the dimensions of the luminary itself and the associated mass of the body and the size of its radiating surface, that is, the Sun’s gravity and power.” Indeed, the Earth is separated from the “light of the world” by only 107 solar diameters, and if we also consider the immense might of the thermonuclear processes occurring in the Sun, we cannot but admit that our planet lies within the field of its influence of enormous intensity. The radiant energy of the Sun is the primary source of most physicochemical phenomena in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the surface layer of the lithosphere. It was natural to suppose that sharp fluctuations in the quantity of this energy, associated with the sunspot process, could not fail to affect the phenomena mentioned. Yet this is only one side of the matter. The periodic sunspot process also gives rise to electrical and magnetic phenomena in the Earth’s crust and atmosphere. The synchronism of the manifestation of heliophysical and geophysical processes attests to their causal connection. By the time Chizhevsky wrote his book, doubts on this score were few. However, the connection of these processes with the organic world remained a matter of debate.

Accepting as evident the fact that “terrestrial life and its products are transformed solar radiation energy,” the scientist had every reason to believe that changes and deviations in the latter must inevitably be followed by corresponding changes in the former (see p. 112). He therefore turns to the consideration of data on epidemics and pandemics (see Chapter VI). Studying a colossal body of statistical material from epidemiological research and comparing the dates of successive outbreaks of mass diseases with the dates of periodic solar activity, Chizhevsky concluded that increases, expansions, and severity of epidemics and pandemics generally run parallel to the intensification of the process. “An astronomer reading the epidemiology of cholera cannot but be struck by the fact that the years of solar storms and hurricanes, so familiar to him, bring about such grave phenomena, while, conversely, years of solar calm and peace coincide with years when humanity is freed from the boundless fear of this scourge” (p. 120).

To verify the reliability of the connection between cholera and other epidemics with the periodic activity of the Sun, Chizhevsky employed a method subsequently known as the “epoch superposition method.” Since astronomical data show that solar activity on average yields an 11-year cycle, the scientist constructed a table providing a visual representation of the magnitude of solar cycles and the relative distribution of years with maxima and minima. The maxima were taken as the zero line—a kind of base. By summing the Wolf-Wolfer numbers vertically, Chizhevsky obtained the average curve of solar activity over nine periods. He then calculated the arithmetic mean from the total number of periods. Using the existing framework of solar cycles, he inserted statistical data on cholera morbidity in Russia into the same cells; by summing all the numbers vertically, he found the arithmetic mean in the same way as before. The results obtained were plotted on a coordinate system, and before the eyes appeared a picture of wonderful parallelism between two series of phenomena: solar activity and the course of cholera epidemics in Russia over 100 years (see p. 131).

This method is still widely used in heliobiological research today. The superposition of periods upon periods significantly reduces the influence of random causes on the overall result and allows the detection of regularities that govern the distribution of mass natural phenomena in time in connection with solar activity.

Chizhevsky obtained interesting correlations between the course of solar activity and influenza epidemics. Analysis of these data made it possible to forecast influenza epidemics. The reality of such a forecast was confirmed by followers of A. L. Chizhevsky (Yu. V. Aleksandrov, V. N. Yagodinsky—see *Journal of Microbiology, Epidemiology, and Immunology*, No. 10, 1966). Similar results were obtained by Chizhevsky for a number of other diseases (plague, relapsing fever, diphtheria, malaria, cerebrospinal meningitis, etc.).

It seemed natural to the author to conclude that, apparently, “the vital activity of all the Earth’s microflora is in a certain relation to the course of physicochemical processes” (p. 216), and, on the other hand, “the degree of human susceptibility to disease depends on solar activity due to fluctuations in the access of invasion” (ibid.). Chizhevsky’s research revealed the most general tendencies in the temporal development of epidemics, though, as the scientist himself pointed out, it did not solve all the mysteries of epidemiological phenomena (see p. 236). Chizhevsky rightly emphasized that it is precisely the complexity of the interaction of biospheric structures that accounts for the uneven manifestation of the connection between the epidemiological mechanism and fluctuations in solar activity.

He spoke of the interdependence and known interactions of various regions of the biosphere with one another, regulated by solar activity, leading to the formulation of the “law of quantitative compensation in the functions of the biosphere in connection with energy fluctuations in solar activity” (p. 238). Its essence is that quantitative relations in the course of one phenomenon or another over very large territories tend to be preserved through periodic compensations, yielding on average one and the same constant value or one very close to it. Generalizing this regularity, Chizhevsky concluded that within the biosphere a process of summation of positive and negative deviations is constantly taking place, which in the ideal case smooths these deviations to zero. This conclusion, in the scientist’s view, is of fundamental importance for understanding the mechanism of solar-terrestrial connections, since it allows us to imagine a wonderfully coherent picture of the interaction and interdependence of different departments of the biosphere regulated by periodic increases and decreases in solar radiation.

Chizhevsky regarded the entire complex system of Earth’s biological processes as something unified, akin to a single organism (see p. 240). It is precisely from this perspective that one should approach the analysis of the dynamics of epidemics, epizootics, and so on, as well as the prediction of environmental changes that transform the latent, dormant state of microflora into an aggressive one, initiating the development of a pathological process.

Given that astronomy has at its disposal certain means of forecasting short-term and long-term fluctuations in solar activity, “it will become possible to take timely measures on those days when the degree of morbidity rises especially sharply” (p. 246).

A logical consequence of the conclusions drawn by Chizhevsky was his turn to microorganisms as the object of heliobiological research. His preliminary acquaintance with the literary sources of domestic and foreign authors gave him grounds to believe that fluctuations in solar activity influence the intensity of plant tissue growth and, consequently, must similarly affect bacteria. In 1928–1929, Chizhevsky embarked on experimental research, which, however, was interrupted by circumstances beyond the scientist’s control. In 1934, he returned to this problem after meeting with the Kazan physician-bacteriologist S. T. Velkhov.Chizhevsky presents in his book letters from Velkhovyer describing his observations. It turned out that the receptor apparatus of corynebacteria sensitively responds to impulses of solar disturbances: the physicochemical qualities of these bacteria change, which takes them out of a state of rest into a state of active life, and, what is particularly interesting, these changes occur in anticipation of solar fluctuations. The discovered phenomenon was named in the literature as the “Chizhevsky–Velkhovyer effect” (see “Brief Handbook of Space Biology and Medicine.” Moscow, 1967, p. 296). It gained great significance in connection with the achievements of cosmonautics as a prediction of solar emissions, especially dangerous for humans beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Chizhevsky reported on this at the 1st All-Union Conference on Aviation and Space Medicine in the autumn of 1963 (the report was published in the “Proceedings” of the conference). This effect was later confirmed by the work of Soviet scientists (S.S. Belokrisenko, B.M. Vladimirsky, N.M. Gorshkov, M.G. Davidova, and others).

Processing by Chizhevsky of vast statistical material revealed a parallelism in the course of curves of total mortality and solar activity. Studying the dynamics of total mortality, the scientist quite logically considers a diseased organism as a system removed from a state of stable equilibrium. For such a system, sometimes a rather insignificant external impulse is enough for this instability to sharply increase up to the death of the organism. Such an impulse can be sharp changes in environmental physical factors, the impetus for which are the “whims” of solar activity.

“…It would be completely wrong to assume,” writes Chizhevsky, “that diseases or deaths are caused by cosmic or atmospheric-telluric phenomena. This, of course, cannot be admitted. We can only speak of that impetus from the side of the indicated external factors, which, falling on a ‘prepared’ organism…”

In short, it is about the dialectics of the interaction of endogenous and exogenous factors, based on which it becomes clear that the time of increased mortality is determined by cosmic agents disturbing the organism, and the number of deaths depends on the organism’s readiness to perceive external influences. Chizhevsky emphasized that one should strictly distinguish: a) external influence on the organism and b) its readiness to perceive it—and this cannot be denied. At the same time, it is impossible to deny that constant, prolonged cosmic influences themselves can become provoking factors.

In the final chapter, the author presents considerations on the mechanism of these harmful effects and means of protection against them. It must be acknowledged that these lines have not only not lost their significance over the years, but, on the contrary, have acquired a particularly acute interest to this day. The author’s ideas about heliological forecasting and preventive measures found practical implementation shortly before World War II in France (M. Faure) and after the war—in the USSR (N.A. Shulz, A.T. Platonova, and others).

The problem of “Sun–Biosphere” now attracts the attention of specialists in various fields. This is reflected in the organization of seminars and conferences both in our country (Riga—1965, Odessa—1966, Simferopol—1971, Sevastopol—1972) and abroad (Basel—1965, Frankfurt-on-Main—1958 and 1968). The reports presented at them demonstrated results confirming the importance of heliobiological research.

At the seminar in Odessa, the question was raised about creating a coordination center to guide heliobiological research. A working group on the problem “Sun–Biosphere” was formed under the Astronomy Council of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In January 1970, at a special meeting of the Bureau of the Division of General Physics and Astronomy of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the issue of “On the Development of Research on Heliobiological Connections” was discussed, and the expediency of further development of such research in scientific institutions was recognized.

In October 1971, the Scientific Council on Geomagnetism under the Division of Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences held a report on the topic “Biological Effectiveness of Short-Period Fluctuations of the Geomagnetic Field and the Problem of Heliobiological Connections.” The participants of the meeting unanimously noted the significance of the influence of the geomagnetic field on biological processes. The problem under discussion was recognized as one of the most important within the framework of issues arising from the interaction of humans and their environment.

In the spring of 1972, a meeting on heliobiology issues was held at the Section of Chemical-Technological and Biological Sciences of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. It was noted that “in the USSR and abroad, research on the influence of cosmic factors, and in particular solar activity, on biological processes occurring on Earth is increasingly developing.” The growing significance of the problem of solar-biosphere connections is inextricably linked with progress in the study and exploration of outer space. At the same time, the participants of the meeting stated that “the scale and level of work in the field of heliobiology in the USSR do not yet correspond to the theoretical and practical significance of this problem.”

Indeed, the efforts of scientists working on its development are disjointed and practically uncoordinated; the problem as a whole has not yet found its reflection in the five-year plan of research work in the field of natural sciences for 1976–1980.

Recognizing the great importance of systematic development of heliobiology, the Section of Chemical-Technological and Biological Sciences of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences held a special meeting in December 1975 on the state and prospects of research development. In the resolution of the section, signed by Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academician Yu. A. Ovchinnikov, it is noted that the outstanding merit in formulating and developing this problem “belongs to A. L. Chizhevsky, who first expressed the idea of the close dependence of phenomena occurring in the biosphere on cosmic ones, the creator of the doctrine of the biosphere.”

The vast scientific material accumulated today confirms the significant influence of fluctuations in solar activity on various processes on Earth. At the same time, the resolution states that “the scope of scientific research in this field does not correspond to the urgency and great practical significance of the problem. The development of the problem is carried out without a unified plan and coordination.”

The Readings in Memory of Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky, organized by the Moscow Society of Nature Explorers since 1968 (see the collections “Sun, Electricity, Life.” Moscow, 1969; Moscow, 1972), became a true review of works on heliobiology. The programs of the Readings convincingly demonstrate the rapid development of this important scientific direction. At the latest Readings, about 50 reports were heard. Many scientists came from different cities of our country. The Readings essentially turned into an All-Union conference on the problem “Sun–Biosphere.” Is this not evidence of the growing interest in issues first

Raised by Chizhevsky and presented, in particular, in this book! Shortly before his death, the scientist was told prophetic words: “…modern dialectics teaches that any phenomenon can only be understood in connection with the surrounding world. In the age of space, science must increasingly comprehend the mechanisms of the connections between the Sun and living nature.” We are witnesses to new and ever-growing achievements in space natural science and technology—we are convinced of how deeply he was right and how fruitful the paths of cognition he opened are for today’s science and practice.

O. G. Gazenko

FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR

In 1915–1916, I began a systematic study of the influence of electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic perturbations in the external physico-chemical environment on the emergence, spread, and intensity of epidemics. Already in the report “The Influence of Periodic Solar Activity on the Emergence and Development of Epidemics” (1922, Kaluga), general characteristics of this influence were first given, and theoretical considerations were expressed. Unfortunately, this work remained unpublished due to circumstances beyond the author’s control. Only in the book Physical Factors of the Historical Process (1924, Kaluga) was I able to present in concise form my research on Asiatic cholera. The same issue was discussed in December 1926 in Philadelphia at the annual congress of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in January 1927 in New York at the Academy of Sciences, in reports on my research delivered by my scientific friend Professor W. de Smitt (Columbia University). Later, I presented more detailed reports several times at scientific societies in Moscow and Leningrad during 1926–1927.

In September 1927, in Berlin, in the pages of the Russian-German Journal, my work “On the Relationship Between Periodic Solar Activity and Epidemics of Cholera and Influenza” was published. Another work appeared in the December issue of the same journal for 1928 under the title: “On the Periodicity of European Relapsing Fever.” Further study of the development of other diseases (diphtheria, plague, meningitis, typhoid fever, malaria, etc.), and finally, research on the relationship between overall mortality and solar activity, on the synchronism of mortality, on the connection between tuberculosis mortality and the degree of intensity of electrical activity, led me to an absolutely firm point of view: the vital functions of pathogenic microorganisms are directly linked to electrical and electromagnetic perturbations in the external cosmo-telluric space, i.e., the virulence of bacteria is a function of the radiation of the cosmo-telluric environment (apart from…).

This idea prompted me, starting in 1928, to begin experimental study of this issue, and in 1929, I obtained full experimental confirmation of my view. I published this work in the article: “La radiation cosmique comme facteur biologique” — “Bulletin de l’Association Internationale Biocosmique” No. 13. Toulon, 1929, pp. 245–250. In this work, among other material, I briefly presented my experiments on studying the influence of specific solar radiation on the growth and distribution of microorganisms.

Then, during 1931–1932, I studied the role of atmospheric ionization in the vital functions of bacteria. These laboratory experiments of 1928–1929 received full confirmation in 1935 in the excellent research of the Russian scientist Dr. Z. T. Velkhov. At the same time, I can state with great satisfaction that over the past period, starting from the publication of my work in 1922–1924, this problem has attracted the attention of researchers in both Europe and America, who confirmed my main conclusions and continued this work.

I would like to emphasize here the names of Dr. M. Faure — President of the International Institute of Solar, Terrestrial, and Cosmic Radiation; Dr. H. Sardou; Dr. J. Vallot (Nice), who, independently of my work, proved that mortality is linked to periodic solar activity; Prof. W. Wliss (Strasbourg); Dr. H. Edström (Lund); Prof. A. Gleitsmann (Berlin), whose work fully aligns with the views I expressed on the natural history of epidemic diseases. The excellent works of Drs. T. and B. Duell, published last year in 1934–1935, fully confirmed my main propositions on the connection between mortality and specific solar radiation.

The problem presented in this book poses entirely new challenges for epidemiology and microbiology, which science must resolve — issues of combating epidemics, the etiology of which is illuminated in this book from a completely new perspective, hitherto alien to epidemiologists and microbiologists. Naturally, the works presented in this field, which will be further elaborated here, are only just beginning. Many unresolved questions still lie before us. But even now, we look forward with great hope.

The new idea regarding the fundamental etiological factors of the epidemiological mechanism and the variability of bacterial virulence opens, it seems, entirely unexpected prospects for the rational control of epidemics, rational prophylaxis, and therapy of various diseases. On the other hand, the new perspective opens a new chapter in the study of microbes as electrical resonators. This idea must be extended to living cells in general.

The second half of this book generally outlines preventive measures that modern science can recommend to protect against the harmful effects of specific radiation of the cosmo-telluric environment. At the same time, it must be noted that, although this problem was posed by us at the beginning of the 1920s, still very little has been done to develop it scientifically. New ideas struggle to penetrate even the minds of the most advanced scientists. The few individuals mentioned here working in this field are but a drop in the ocean of indifference, opposition, or ill will. To convince humanity, it seems, decades, and sometimes centuries, are needed. My systematic exposition of the subject would be fully justified if it served as a foundation for new research in this field.

Moscow, 1936

Chapter I

THE CRADLE OF LIFE AND THE PULSE OF THE UNIVERSE

In our time, in the realm of natural sciences, a process of great importance is taking place: the application of methods from one science to another and the synthetic unification of various sciences into one. Thus, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and others are becoming increasingly interconnected. However, there are branches of science where the rays of this beneficial synthesis struggle to penetrate with great difficulty. A number of sciences fiercely defend their independence, guarding their long-standing positions and boundaries, despite the increasing attacks of “opponents” — the accumulation of new facts and the discovery of new laws. Meanwhile, somewhere deep underground, in the subterranean layers of human thought, observations of immense importance are gradually accumulating, and the initial impulses of grand generalizations of the future are maturing.

And if someone, standing on the surface of this awakening ocean, spitefully and sharply laughs at the attempts to link the world of astronomical phenomena with the world of biological phenomena, then deep within human consciousness, for many millennia, a belief has been growing that these two worlds are undoubtedly connected. And this belief, gradually enriched by observations, transforms into knowledge.

We are no longer surprised by the most astonishing facts or discoveries. Now we can say that in the natural sciences, the idea of the unity and interconnectedness of all phenomena in the world and the perception of the world as an indivisible whole have never reached the depth they are gradually attaining in our time. Yet the science of the living organism and its manifestations still remains estranged from the flourishing of this universal idea of the unity of all living things with the entire cosmos. It seems as though the organic world has been forcibly torn from nature, placed above and beyond it. For the living, it appears, there exists only one environment — the living itself. The surrounding world — all of nature — can be disregarded, for the living is the conqueror of the dead.

And under such an idea, life ceases to be a reality and becomes akin to an abstraction, a geometric form, or a mathematical sign. Unfortunately, this has become quite characteristic, and it is only shattered when elemental catastrophes and world calamities erupt over the living. Only then, when millions of human lives are instantly swept away by molten lava or ocean waves, during earthquakes, or when entire regions perish from famine, does humanity vaguely begin to comprehend the insignificance of its physical organization before the physical forces of nature.

Meanwhile, throughout the ages—both in turbulent and peaceful epochs of its existence—life has been bound to the surrounding nature by millions of invisible, elusive connections. It is linked to the atoms of nature with all the atoms of its being. Each atom of living matter is in constant, unceasing relation to the vibrations of the atoms in the environment—the nature; each atom of the living resonates with the corresponding vibrations of the atoms of nature. And in this thought, the living cell itself is the most sensitive apparatus that records within itself all the phenomena of the world and responds to these phenomena with corresponding reactions of its organism.

Thus, the fundamental question arises: can we study the organism as something separate from the cosmoteuturic environment? No, we cannot, for the living organism does not exist apart from this environment, and all its functions are inextricably linked to it. Indeed, the physical and chemical processes occurring in the environment induce corresponding changes in the physicochemical, physiological functions of the living organism, reflecting on its cardiovascular activity, its nervous system, its psyche, and ultimately on its behavior.

Yes, fluctuations in atmospheric pressure, the degree of air humidity, temperature, the amount of sunlight, and so on cause oscillations in the state of many functions of our organism, our nervous tone, to varying degrees, ultimately affecting our behavior.

An infinitely vast number and an infinitely diverse quality of physicochemical factors surround us from all sides—the environment of nature. Powerful interacting forces emanate from cosmic space. The Sun, the Moon, the planets, and countless celestial bodies are bound to the Earth by invisible ties. The motion of the Earth is governed by gravitational forces that induce a series of deformations in the air, liquid, and solid shells of our planet, causing them to pulsate and produce tides. The positions of the planets in the solar system influence the distribution and intensity of the Earth’s electric and magnetic forces.

But the greatest influence on the physical and organic life of the Earth is exerted by the radiations streaming toward it from all sides of the Universe. They bind the outer parts of the Earth directly to the cosmic environment, unite it with it, constantly interact with it, and therefore both the external form of the Earth and the life that fills it are the result of the creative influence of cosmic forces. Hence, the very structure of the EarthThe shells, their physico-chemistry, and the biosphere are manifestations of the structure and mechanics of the Universe, rather than a random play of local forces. Science infinitely broadens the boundaries of our immediate perception of nature and our worldview. It is not the Earth, but the cosmic spaces that become our homeland, and we begin to sense in all its true grandeur the significance of celestial bodies’ movements for all earthly existence—their motion and the movement of their messengers—radiation. These radiations are primarily electromagnetic oscillations of varying wavelengths and produce light, thermal, and chemical effects. Penetrating the Earth’s environment, they cause every atom to vibrate in unison; at every step, they induce the movement of matter and fill the air ocean, seas, and lands with elemental life. Encountering life, they impart their energy to it, thereby sustaining and strengthening it in its struggle against the forces of inanimate nature. Organic life is possible only where there is free access to cosmic radiation, for to live means to allow the flow of cosmic energy in its kinetic form to pass through oneself.

The cradle of life and the pulse of the Universe

In addition to electromagnetic oscillations, streams of the finest particles of dissociated matter—electrons and ions—are directed toward the Earth, carrying vast reserves of cosmic energy. Unfortunately, we know little about the role of these particles in the life of the Earth’s outer shells, but they undoubtedly play a very significant role, which we can only guess at.

Thus, the vast majority of physico-chemical processes unfolding on Earth result from the influence of cosmic forces, which fully determine life processes in the biosphere. Therefore, the latter must be recognized as the place of transformation of cosmic energy. Our scientific worldview is still far from a true understanding of the significance of cosmic radiation for the organic realm, which, by the way, has only been partially studied by us. Perhaps these radiations determine, within certain limits, the evolution of the organic world. But in this field, we know nothing beyond the fact that these radiations cannot fail to influence us—they must do so, for all organic life arose and developed under their influence, and every cell is permeated by radiations emanating from cosmic abysses.

Cosmic radiation, which penetrates thick lead plates as easily as thin gauze, reaches the Earth’s surface layers and the deep layers of seas and oceans. There, beneath thick layers of water, in the darkness of eternal night, a bizarre and diverse life of deep-sea flora and fauna unfolds. One cannot help but ask: how do the electromagnetic waves reaching them, along with the highly penetrating cosmic radiation, affect deep-sea plants and animals? We know that cosmic radiation is not homogeneous. It consists of a whole series of individual components with varying penetrating power and “hardness.” Different components of terrestrial matter, responding in their own way to each component, must manifest externally in different forms. This penetrating radiation inhibits physiological functions of the organism, as was demonstrated in my experiments of 1928–1929. I am convinced that further study of this question may have practical significance, which I have addressed in special articles. Of course, this is a matter for the future.

Much closer to modern medicine are other questions. We have only partially approached an understanding of the immense role played by solar radiation in the organic life of the Earth. What is the Sun for modern humanity? No more than a natural phenomenon, similar to many others! It was not so for our ancestors… For them, the Sun was a mighty god who gave life, a radiant genius that inspired minds. The entire mythology of antiquity is imbued with the dazzling symbolism of the solar ray!

The intuition of our ancestors led them to the same conclusion as the achievements of science! People and all earthly creatures are truly “children of the Sun”—creations of a complex world process with its own history, in which our Sun occupies not a random but a lawful place alongside other generators of cosmic forces.

Undoubtedly, the primary stimulant of Earth’s vital activity is the Sun’s radiation, its entire

spectrum, ranging from short — invisible, ultraviolet waves to long red ones, as well as all its electronic and ionic streams. They serve as “transmitters of states” and force each atom of Earth’s surface shells to resonate in harmony with the vibrations that arise on the central body of our system. In the vast diversity of manifestations of this resonance, where our thought drowns in the boundlessness of forms, colors, and sounds, we have gradually learned to understand the interconnectedness and unity of disparate phenomena and to represent them in a single synthetic picture of the life of the solar-earthly world. The splendor of polar auroras, the blooming of a rose, creative work, thought — all of this is a manifestation of the radiant energy of the Sun. Science already knows that life on Earth owes its existence primarily to the solar ray. Yet, few scientists have fully grasped this truth! However, the Sun influences the private life of Earth not only through photosynthesis or thermal phenomena; it also has other pathways — the direct impact of certain parts of the sweet spectrum on physicochemical transformations and the vital activity of microorganisms. In understanding this influence, science has only just begun to chart its course.

Undoubtedly, in the solar spectrum, we have a whole range of “specific” rays that exert a special effect on living organisms. It was in 1928–1929 that I began laboratory-experimental clarification of this deeply intriguing question and obtained evidence that fully confirms the just-expressed thought. Both solar radiation and cosmic rays are the primary sources of energy that enliven the surface layers of the Earth. The question arises: to what extent does the living cell depend in its physiological life on the influx of cosmic radiation and the fluctuations or changes to which cosmic radiation is subjected? Until recently, we could only give a negative answer to this question. However, under the pressure of experimental evidence, science has prepared the ground for accepting a new idea and has compelled the initiation of new research into the direct influence of cosmic energy radiation on our organism and its individual parts.

Studying extraterrestrial influences could only be achieved with a large amount of statistical data. While observations of individual cases could not provide us with anything reliable in this direction, studying simultaneous phenomena in large masses, studying simultaneous reactions at the same time, helped us identify certain patterns whose causes needed to be clarified. If cosmic forces leave their mark on humans, one might assume that, at the same time, in different regions of the globe, the average direction of certain phenomena would be approximately the same (morbidity, mortality, nervous-psychic excitability, etc.). In 1915, I first posed this question and began to study it. The course of research was extremely difficult due to many circumstances. Nevertheless, I was fortunate enough to discover a whole series of remarkable correspondences between various phenomena in large masses and cosmic factors. Statistical studies conclusively showed that in those years, those months, those weeks when the electromagnetic and radioactive activity of the Sun increases, the Earth, across its continents and in different countries, also sees an increase in mass phenomena, such as diseases, mortality from various causes, and much more. A wonderful correspondence between solar and terrestrial phenomena is revealed. At the same time, we know that the periodic activity of the Sun is not entirely an independent process. There are compelling reasons to believe that it depends on the arrangement of the planets of the solar system in space, on their constellations in relation to one another and to the Sun. Many years ago, astronomers suggested that the Sun is the most delicate instrument that reflects all planetary influences through corresponding changes. Thus, terrestrial phenomena that depend on the periodic activity of the Sun are, so to speak, under the control of planets that may be much farther from us than the Sun.

Research conducted to clarify the influence of planets on the activity of the Sun has yielded entirely positive results: periods of solar activity reveal periods of planetary motion. But this is not the limit of possible conjectures. The entire solar system is part of the system of stars in our stellar galaxy. It is possible that both the eruptive activity on the Sun and biological phenomena on Earth are co-effects of a single common cause — the great electromagnetic life of the Universe. This life has its own pulse, its periods, and rhythms. Future science must resolve the question of where these rhythms originate and from whence they emerge. Statistically, I have established that solar perturbations directly affect the cardiovascular, nervous, and other human systems, as well as microorganisms. But can we limit this sphere of phenomena only to the patterns that have been identified? Never. The cradle of life and the pulses of the Universe cannot be confined. We must strive to deepen our research into cosmic phenomena.

In science, it always happens that the coarsest phenomena, those that strike the eye directly, are revealed first. The phenomena we have identified fall into this category of gross phenomena. But this is only the beginning of science, its first steps — the first attempt. We are still very far from uncovering the subtle details that undoubtedly exist in the complex interplay of cosmic environment on humans. In this field, we know almost nothing. Moreover, it is unlikely that we can currently predict anything with certainty or accuracy. In making such attempts, we always risk straying onto a false path. We can only be certain that the process of organic life’s development is not an autonomous, autochthonous, self-contained process but is the result of terrestrial and cosmic factors, with the latter being the most significant, as they determine the state of the terrestrial environment. At every moment, the organic world is under the influence of the cosmic environment of existence and most sensitively reflects in itself, in its functions, the changes or fluctuations occurring in the cosmic environment.

We can easily imagine this dependence if we recall that even a slight change in the temperature of our Sun would cause the most fantastic, most improbable changes throughout the organic world. And there are many such important factors as temperature: the cosmic environment brings us hundreds of different forces that are constantly changing and fluctuating. Some electromagnetic radiations coming from the Sun and stars can be divided into a very large number of categories differing from one another in wavelength, energy quantity, degree of penetration, and numerous other properties. Corpuscular, radioactive radiations, cosmic dust, gaseous molecules filling all the space of the world are also powerful creators of terrestrial life and riders of its fate. A change in certain qualities of cosmic or penetrating radiation could instantly destroy any life on Earth or alter its forms beyond recognition. Ultraviolet rays with short wavelengths from the Sun could have a devastating effect on the entire biosphere if not for the barely perceptible layer of ozone in the upper regions of the atmosphere. A change in the number of electrons or cosmic dust arriving on Earth would so affect meteorological phenomena as to cause the most unpredictable perturbations in the plant, animal, and human worlds. We cite these as examples of extreme possibilities whose probability of occurrence is small. The Universe is in dynamic equilibrium, and the influx of various energy factors occurs constantly: some gradually increase or decrease in quantity, while others undergo periodic or aperiodic vibrations. Terrestrial organic life experiences all these changes in the energy functions of the cosmic environment, as a living being, by its physiological properties, is the most sensitive resonator.

A flux of electrons and protons that erupts from a solar flare and passes by Earth causes immense disturbances throughout the physical and organic world of the planet: the lights of the auroras flare up, Earth is engulfed by magnetic storms, the number of sudden deaths sharply increases, and the number of accidents caused by shock to the nervous system rises sharply, among other things.

An extremely important role is played by the electromagnetic oscillations emitted by sunspots or prominences and reaching the Earth’s surface. Particular significance should be attached to short-wavelength electromagnetic oscillations. These oscillations can be generated on the Sun’s surface in the regions of sunspots and prominences and reach the Earth’s surface due to their high penetrability. Recent studies of the biological effects of short-wave radiation have shown that these radiations possess powerful biological and physiological effects and thus prove to be particularly strong agents of the external environment. If disturbed areas on the Sun produce short electromagnetic waves in outer space that reach the Earth’s surface, then, undoubtedly, these waves are among those powerful biological agents with which the Sun is so rich. Various cells of living organisms and various unicellular organisms are differently tuned to receive the energy of the Sun’s short-wave radiation. Thus, we are surrounded on all sides by streams of cosmic energy flowing to us from distant nebulae, stars, meteor showers, and the Sun. It would be entirely incorrect to consider the Sun’s energy alone as the sole creator of terrestrial life in its organic and inorganic aspects. It should be assumed that, over a very long period of the development of living matter, the energy of distant cosmic bodies, such as stars and nebulae, exerted a tremendous influence on the evolution of living substance.

Living matter had to align its development with cosmic radiation fluxes and develop appropriate receptors to utilize this radiation or protective mechanisms to shield the living cell from the influence of cosmic forces. Yet one thing is certain: the living cell is the result of cosmic, solar, and terrestrial influences and is the very object created by the creative tension of the entire Universe. And who knows, perhaps we, the “children of the Sun,” are merely a faint echo of those elemental cosmic vibrations that, passing around the Earth, lightly touched it, tuning it in unison to dormant possibilities within it.

We have grown accustomed to adhering to a crude and narrow anti-philosophical view of life as the result of a random interplay of merely terrestrial forces. This, of course, is not the case. Life, as we see, is far more a cosmic phenomenon than an earthly one. It arises from the influence of the creative dynamics of the cosmos on the inert material of the Earth. It thrives on the dynamics of these forces, and every beat of the organic pulse is synchronized with the beat of the cosmic heart—the grand ensemble of nebulae, stars, the Sun, and planets.

Over vast spans of time, the influence of cosmic forces on the Earth has established certain cycles of phenomena that repeat correctly and periodically in both space and time. From the 3–105 rotations of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, oceans, daily, annual, and multi-year periodicity in the physico-chemical life of the Earth to the accompanying changes in the organic world, we find cyclic processes everywhere, all arising from the influence of cosmic forces.

If we were to graphically represent the diversity of this cyclicity, we would obtain a series of sine waves superimposed upon one another or intersecting. These sine waves, in turn, would be etched with fine serrations, also forming zigzag lines, and so on. In this infinite array of rises and falls of varying magnitudes, the pulse of the universal heartbeat is expressed—the grand dynamics of nature, whose parts resonate harmoniously with one another.

If we were to continue our analysis further, we would see that the maxima and minima of cosmic and geophysical phenomena correspond precisely to the maxima and minima of various phenomena in the organic world. We would observe that one cycle of biological phenomena aligns in time with the maxima or minima of its well-defined clockwork of maximal or minimal tensions during certain cosmic or geophysical elements. The maxima and minima of another biological cycle coincide with the maxima and minima of this or that cosmic or geophysical phenomenon.

And now, seeing all these curves rising and falling in unison, our imagination envisions the vibrant dynamics of the cosmo-terrestrial environment as an endless ocean covered with rows of swelling and breaking waves, among which the life and behavior of an individual organism resemble an insignificant and powerless chip of wood, obedient in its movements—just as in this ocean—to every whim of the surrounding physical elements.

Before the eyes of natural researchers, in the vast ocean of terrestrial life, a picture of grand and turbulent surges unfolds, in which the individual disappears without a trace. Floating in a rickety boat upon this sea, battling the force of each oncoming wave, the swimmer is immersed in the noise and tumult of the raging elements.

The cradle of life and the pulse of the Universe, and its horizon is bounded only by the nearest waves. The sea appears to him as a chaotic and lawless entity. Yet if he ascends high above the turbulent surface, the scene before him changes completely. The noise and tumult no longer disturb him, and from this height he sees how majestic and orderly the wave formations move, rising and falling, and in this motion he discerns a strict rhythm. The chaotic structure of this or that phenomenon, from a dynamic perspective and with a shifting viewpoint, undergoes the same transformation and reveals itself in its motion as an inexorable force of cosmic or solar energy.

Gazing at this newly unfolded panorama, we cannot help but marvel at the strict mathematical precision that, unchanged, manifests in the fluctuations of these phenomena over time—fluctuations that once seemed arbitrary and coincidental to us. We see how the most rigorous qualitative and quantitative laws govern their course, and we begin to sense our own insignificance before this elemental life, subdued by exhausting and external forces.

Amid the vast diversity of mass phenomena, at all times, clear and distinct rhythms reveal themselves in their lives—now rising in their peaks, now plunging into deep troughs.

Yet we must not limit our inquiry to the confines of the solar system and admit that in shaping mass phenomena in all their aspects, other forces of the cosmos—still hidden—cannot but participate. Slowly but surely, science approaches the elucidation of the fundamental sources of sustenance concealed in the distant depths of the Universe. And before our astonished gaze, a picture of a grand structure of the world unfolds, its individual parts bound together by the strongest ties and relationships, of which we have only vague inklings.

In the light of this perspective, we see how, from the inert and amorphous substance of the Earth, the most complex systems emerge, their parts resonating in the finest harmony with various regions of the world. And involuntarily, the ancient idea comes to mind: that our knowledge of natural phenomena is nothing more than the echo of true processes occurring in the Universe, perceived by our cognitive organs.

Until recently, the judgments and conclusions of natural researchers bore the indelible imprint of the notion of the autonomy of biological life, its independence from external cosmic forces, and the special paths along which the organic world evolves. This imprint systematically hindered the free study of the question, and anything contradicting it was deemed heresy or madness and was actively opposed. Science must now embark on a new path, unburdened by preconceived notions, and wage a battle against outdated traditions in the name of free inquiry into nature, which brings us closer to the truth.

Yet on the other hand, we must emphasize the great significance of the science that studies natural phenomena. Undoubtedly, humanity masters the forces of the surrounding world, learns to control them, harnessing them for its benefit, or learns to defend itself when they bring destructive or harmful influences. The ultimate goal, the final triumph of human knowledge, lies in the subjugation of nature and victory over it. But to conquer nature, one must first study it—and study it to the greatest possible depth. Without this deep understanding, victory over nature is impossible, and attempts to fight it are futile.

My statistical and experimental work has demonstrated the immense role of extraterrestrial, solar, and specific radiations—electromagnetic and corpuscular—in the emergence and development of epidemic diseases, human pathology, and mortality.

The cradle of life and the pulse of the Universe

As soon as astronomy and physics discovered this or that phenomenon, it became evident that the biosphere of the Earth is in a certain dependence on them: humans, animals, microorganisms, and plants all feel their effects.

Epidemiologists have turned away from studying these phenomena, as if they were of no concern to them. Cosmic and solar radiation—corpuscular and short-wave, electrical and magnetic phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere and crust that influence the life of the biosphere—remain outside the purview of medicine. How far behind it is from modern astronomy, astrophysics, and geophysics! Ancient physicians were far more broad-minded and tolerant.

There is a tendency to reduce the key phenomena of epidemiology solely to social factors. Despite the undeniable power of the latter, as has been conclusively proven, one cannot ignore the study of other factors that may, to some extent, influence the course and development of epidemic diseases.

It is necessary to consider that further research will show what place in the series of socio-economic and biological factors should be occupied by the influences of the physical and chemical environment in general, solar and cosmic radiation, atmospheric electricity, and terrestrial magnetism in particular. And whatever that place may be, within the general dynamic complex of factors determining epidemics, science must pay its due attention. However, it can already be said that, in the case of a number of infectious diseases, the influence of socio-economic conditions is not of primary importance. For example, influenza epidemics, unlike cholera, dysentery, and typhoid, often arise entirely independently of any specific socio-economic conditions and affect all strata of the population.

In the development of a number of epidemics, we observe an extraordinarily diverse range of viruses, their remarkable variability over decades—all attempts to explain which have generally ended in failure, remaining unresolved to this day. We may hope that, thanks to the joint efforts and international solidarity of scientists, science will learn to combat epidemics, overcome them, and thereby extend human life to the greatest possible limit.

Chapter II Fantasies and Omens of Antiquity

Even in ancient times, it was observed that there are epochs when nothing disturbs the peaceful course of life, which is facilitated not only by humans but also by nature itself. Yet there are times when both the natural world and the human world are in turmoil: natural disasters, floods or droughts, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, mass infestations of harmful insects, and sweeping diseases among animals and humans afflict entire countries. In such times, the discerning observer cannot fail to notice the existence of a connection between the organism and its environment.

This idea of the connection between living organisms and the external world runs like a red thread through the vast historical experience of humanity: we encounter it both in the realm of pre-scientific thought and in the works of naturalists. It is evident that the notion of a link between humans and the forces of the external world emerged at the dawn of human existence. On the foundation of this idea arose and flourished the oldest of the sciences—astrology—which, if we set aside its mystical errors, taught about the interconnection of all things and all phenomena.

One branch of astrological knowledge—astrological medicine—asserted that pathological processes occurring in a living organism are directly influenced by cosmic forces through their powerful and mysterious “influence.” This “influence”—influ-entia, as the Romans called it—determines the state of the organism both in health and in disease. Even in the modern medical term “influenza,” the echo of the magical connection between natural phenomena and the human organism can still be heard.

On the same fertile ground, the seed of anthropogeography was sown, which, from the time of Herodotus (485–425 BCE) and Thucydides (born c. 460 BCE), consistently confirmed the dependence of living organisms and their manifestations on their environment.

Fantasies and Omens of Antiquity

The first attempts to identify a correlation between atmospheric phenomena and morbidity led to the recognition of a connection that ancient physicians termed “constitutio anniversaria” and “constitutio temporis.” In modern languages, we have various terms for this connection: Witterungskrankheiten, Saisonkrankheiten, maladies saisonnaires, and so on. Finally, in the Russian chronicle term “povetrie,” we hear an echo of the unconscious belief in elemental forces.

Even ancient physicians, drawing from their observations the existence of a dependence between humans, animals, and their environment, sought to explain certain pathological phenomena in the human body as the result of this environment. Describing the devastating disease that struck the inhabitants of the island of Aegina, the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE) noted that the affliction affected not only animals and humans but also plants. The same idea was expressed by another Roman poet, Lucretius (98–55 BCE), in his description of the sea in Attica. Even earlier, Sophocles (496–405 BCE), in *Oedipus Rex*, pointed to how disease spread from field crops to animals and unborn infants.

From the accounts of Thucydides, we know that the epidemic that raged in Attica between 436 and 427 BCE was accompanied by violent earthquakes, sea floods, droughts, and crop failures. Thucydides remarks that during the Attic plague, all the forces of the external world seemed to unite against humanity, which, according to popular belief, usually accompanied the appearance of pestilence.

The Greek historian also provides specific indications that the intensification of the plague in 427 BCE coincided with particularly ominous phenomena in the external world: the volcanoes of the Lipari Islands were in a state of extraordinary activity; Euboea, Orobis, the island of Atalanta, and other places were flooded as a result of severe earthquakes; in Athens, the tremors destroyed the Prytaneum and other buildings.

The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, in the 1st century BCE, attributed the primary influence on the plague in Athens to atmospheric conditions: air temperature, evaporation, and the absence of etesian winds.

Dio Cassius (2nd century), Jerome (340–420), and Orosius (5th century) all make similar references to the fact that in 5 CE, a famine and severe earthquakes occurred simultaneously in Italy. During the reign of Claudius (51–52 CE), Greece and Italy suffered simultaneously from famine and earthquakes. At the same time, famine also struck Judea and Palestine; in Jerusalem, the hunger reached catastrophic proportions. Ten years later, during the reign of Nero (54–68 CE), earthquakes and famine recurred. After the great eruption of Vesuvius under Emperor Titus (79–81 CE), in 97 CE, a severe pestilence arose, “such as does not occur often” (Svetonius).

In various accounts of the Antonine (or Helenic) Plague, specific references are made to the fact that this terrible pestilence

Period from 165 to 180 AD was accompanied by formidable natural phenomena: earthquakes, floods, locust plagues, droughts, etc. For example, a general disturbance in nature can be seen during the period from 251 to 266 AD. The strongest tremors of the Earth occurred in Cornwall, Rome, Africa, and Asia; the eruption of Etna took place. W. Seibel meticulously collected information regarding numerous powerful natural phenomena that preceded and accompanied the era of the plague epidemic of 580–581 AD, or the Plague of Justinian. According to this detailed work, from 513 AD a series of unusual natural phenomena began, which ended only in 570 AD. Seibel divides this period into three parts:

I. 512–533 AD. In 526 AD — a strong intensification of all natural phenomena.

II. 533–547 AD. The same intensification occurred in 544 AD.

III. 547–570 AD. The first group of phenomena, according to Seibel, took place even before the onset of the great plague; the second coincided with its first, main outbreak; the third preceded and partly accompanied the second strong development of the plague.

From 513 AD — the year of the eruption of Vesuvius — a period of devastating earthquakes began, reaching its peak in the famous Antioch earthquake, when about 250,000 people perished and the city of Antioch was destroyed.

In 542 AD, the plague appeared in Constantinople; in 543 AD, earthquakes periodically shook all of Europe; in 544 AD, ancient prophecies and visions came true as a terrible flood struck the Thracian coast; in 545–547 AD, ground tremors and floods were observed in European countries. Starting from 551 AD, a new cycle of natural disasters opened with the strongest earthquake in all countries of the ancient world along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Earthquakes continued with somewhat less intensity than initially until 557 AD. From this point, the general upheaval in nature, along with the plague, began to move from east to west.

W. Seibel, citing the testimonies of Procopius, Pheophanus, and Cedrenus, also mentions that in 526 AD there was such a significant dimming and darkening of sunlight that it lost its brilliance and resembled moonlight. “Mostly,” says Procopius, “the Sun appeared as it does during an eclipse; its light was neither pure nor as usual. From that time, war, famine, and other misfortunes never ceased to destroy people.” Seibel believes that the dimming of the Sun depended on the contamination of the air by those foreign vapors that often accompany severe epidemic diseases. Chroniclers of that time also mention a fiery meteor, destructive storms, the appearance of three comets during the period of severe plague, the movement of locusts in the final epoch of the epidemic, the unusual proliferation of fish, and a whole series of extraordinary phenomena in the plant and animal world. It is also noted that in each such period the development of the plague was most intense in the second year — from 1348 to 1351 AD. Almost in all descriptions, we notice an aspiration

Chapter II

42 To correlate the outbreak of a plague epidemic with natural phenomena and to explain its emergence in a particular place through such correlations. Special attention should be given to the descriptions provided by Covino (Covi-no), Mussis (Mussis), Emperor Kantakuzen (Kan-takuzen), Boccaccio (Boccaccio), Petrarch (Petrarca), K. Megenberg (K. Megenberg), Mascho, Cosle, and Spanish physicians. All of them note that among natural phenomena, both cosmic and geophysical factors play a leading role: the state of the Sun, stars, the Moon, earthquakes, fogs, and harmful vapors in the atmosphere. Given that these accounts, recorded in different countries, often point to similar or analogous phenomena, they deserve consideration.

One of the most important documents from the initial period of the epidemic belongs to Mussis. This author describes terrible omens that preceded the “Black Death” epidemic in the Far East, in China: it rained snakes and frogs, which, crawling into human dwellings, killed them with poisonous bites. In India, an earthquake destroyed many cities, after which flames descended from the sky and burned them to the ground, along with people and animals. In many places, “streams of blood flowed from the sky, and stones fell.” Of course, one cannot seriously accept all these descriptions, yet it should be noted that the greatest disturbances in nature were previously recorded in East Asia. Chinese chroniclers report that in 1333, many abnormal natural phenomena occurred. That year was marked by heat and droughts that caused famine, followed by continuous rains that flooded entire districts and claimed up to half a million lives. The next year, droughts and widespread diseases again destroyed up to five million people. By 1337, the elemental forces of nature in the East had reached a peak of intensity, with earthquakes, floods, famine, devastating locust swarms, and terrible epidemics relentlessly destroying the inhabitants of the East. The same phenomena recurred with no less force in the period from 1345 to 1348, and only after 1348 did the fury of the elemental forces somewhat subside.

Some contemporaries, according to G. Hecker (Haeser), claim that similar events also preceded the spread of the Black Death in other parts of the world. Megenberg primarily describes earthquakes that preceded and accompanied the epidemics. Thus, in 1348, the year of the greatest spread of the Black Death, Europe was struck by several strong earthquakes, moving from south to north and from east to west, destroying dozens of flourishing cities and hundreds of castles, forests burned over vast areas, and rivers overflowed their banks. People went mad, not knowing what to do or where to hide. Tens of thousands wandered the roads, suffering from hunger and thirst, and finally collapsed from exhaustion and died.

Vinario, Covino, and other contemporaries of the Black Death describe various deviations in meteorological factors during that period. They mention impure air, heavy vapors, dense clouds obscuring the sky, and oppressive heat that exhausted the body and constricted breathing. Extraordinary stench and vapors rising from the earth were noted in various places: in Egypt, Greece, Dalmatia, and Germany. In Italy, in 1347, people were terrified by “mysterious vapors” (“ingens vapor”) moving from north to south. Mussis, among other things, mentions the influence of new moons on the exacerbation of epidemics.

Astronomers of that time, as one might expect, insisted that the cause of all the misfortunes that befell humanity was the ominous conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Covino, in his poem “De convivio Solis in domo Saturni,” in 1132 stanzas, expounds astrological views on the influence of constellations on human destinies and explains the plague epidemic by the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn.

Finally, Hecker, based on his comprehensive research, acknowledges that “the Black Death was a pandemic disease. Its origin was closely linked to extraordinary upheavals in nature, through which it spread across all countries known in the 14th century.”

Let us also note the following, extremely interesting for us, indications given by the same Vinario in his work on the plague. He notes a series of successive outbreaks of plague and its gradual weakening with a period of about 11 years (see Table 1).

Table 1

Year	Morbidity	Recovery
1348	2/3 of the population	Almost no one
1361	1/2 of the population	Very few
1371	1/10 of the population	Many
1382	1/20 of the population	Very many

During this terrible plague pandemic, it was noted that even in the animal world, there were indications that the disease did not spare animals. In Africa, the corpses of dead animals immediately turned black; their backs split open, they grew thin, weakened, and died within a few days. Similar phenomena were observed in England. It is said that birds allegedly flew away from places afflicted by the disease, and fish disappeared from sea bays.

The epidemic spread of syphilis at the end of the 15th century, representing a prominent and unique example in the history of this disease, was also accompanied by a series of unusual natural phenomena noted by educated contemporaries. Astrologers and poets, in their works, expressed the superstitious views of that time on this mass disease, again attributing the main cause of epidemics to unfavorable planetary conjunctions (Theodorici Ulseni Frisii Seb, Brant).

In addition to this almost universal belief in the influence of unfavorable planetary conjunctions, unusual storms, downpours, and floods, which manifested with particular intensity in the last decades of the 15th century, were also considered culprits of epidemics. Under the influence of these disturbances in nature, according to ancient fantasies and prophecies, a general change in the nature of the disease occurred: syphilis developed in new, previously unknown forms; for the first time, typhus appeared in Spain and sweating sickness in England, as well as a series of plague outbreaks in many European countries.

According to Fracastoro (Fracastoro), a contemporary author, the syphilis epidemic spread mainly due to the “epidemic constitution of organisms,” which arose under the influence of external causes, and after the cessation of this influence, through direct transmission from the sick.

General spread of syphilis at the end of the 15th century, with modifications to the “epidemic constitution,” can also be found in many other observers. Even references to the influence of dangerous combinations of constellations are merely a mystical expression of this shared idea. We also find evidence that many contemporaries and later researchers of the “sweating sickness” epidemic in England believed this disease owed its widespread prevalence to a series of meteorological phenomena. The most important of these phenomena is considered to be the exceptionally high humidity of the air that characterized the periods of these epidemics, namely: 1486, 1507, 1518, 1529, and 1551. The same circumstance explains why England usually served as the birthplace and site of the greatest development of this epidemic, since the annual rainfall over its territory is very high.

In the 16th century, scholars attempted to explain various epidemics by the influence of constellations. Thanks to the revived Platonism, and in Germany to the Neoplatonic teachings of the father of pharmaceutical chemistry, Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus (Paracelsus, 1493–1541), “unfavorable constellations” were cited. Paracelsus, an avowed advocate of astrology, combined his knowledge with alchemy, mathematics, and medicine.

The year 1478 is explained by the fact that it was a leap year. In the Netherlands, destructive natural phenomena and deadly epidemics, as well as “epidemics” of a military nature, were added to the heavy yoke of Spanish tyranny. “It seemed,” writes Curths, “as if nature had conspired with man to destroy the country.”

The spread of the epidemic of “miasmatic swamp diseases” in the second half of the 17th century, based on a number of reliable sources, was directly linked to meteorological phenomena, with clear fluctuations in the development and course of the epidemics corresponding to fluctuations in the latter. B. Ramazzini (Ramazzini), who carefully observed the fluctuations of the marsh fever epidemic in 1693, noted that this epidemic intensified each time during the New Moon. The New Moon also intensified other diseases that occurred simultaneously: dysentery and typhus. The influence of atmospheric conditions on plague infection in the same century was also noted by P. Castro (P. Castro).

Many physicians of the 18th century also observed the connection between natural phenomena and the development of various diseases. At the beginning of the century, a connection was noted with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, auroras, and other phenomena (Baglevi). Of course, superstitious views of the era played a large role in establishing these connections. Far more valuable are the indications of the relationship between the state of the years and the spread of epiphytotics and epizootics (Raiet, Laubender, Heisinger, Lorinser, Konold, Ramazzini). There are indications that calming in the general order of nature coincided with a sharp reduction in epidemic diseases (W. Hillary, I. Rutty, J. Huxhami).

However, already from the second half of the 18th century, a new period of the most severe epidemic diseases and major natural events began, the connection between which was considered entirely undeniable (Janisch). It was noted that weather conditions exerted a decisive influence on the intensification and weakening of fever epidemics: after heavy rains, there was a constant weakening of the disease, while high barometric pressure led to its intensification. A similar connection was also noted between an increase in cases of dysentery and sharp fluctuations in meteorological elements (Baser).

The period from 1770 to 1775 was marked by abuse and the foretelling of ancient portents, the development of natural disasters, and epidemic diseases. The following decade saw a series of epizootics, among which the plague of cattle that swept across Europe should be noted. This disease was accompanied by the strongest upheavals in the structure of nature: earthquakes, storms, thunderstorms, dry fogs, and so on.

The 18th century is notable for the fact that it was the first time meteorological instruments were applied to the study of these phenomena and epidemics. In the 19th century, these observations were the focus of attention for many renowned physicians, and their methodology was brought to a high level of perfection. However, ignorance, as well as the ignoring of many factors of the surrounding environment, yielded no lasting results.

No regularities between the two series of phenomena were found. Ancient written records, chronicles of all peoples and all times, folk epics, legends preserved in chronicles, are full of comparisons between phenomena in the physical form of nature of the Earth or the environment of humanity. The desire to compare these phenomena is based both on astrological beliefs and on everyday events, which invariably confirms and reinforces this aspiration. Various celestial phenomena were considered by people as harbingers of ominous or difficult events in the human world, as signs or omens, which nature itself allegedly uses to warn humanity with the words: “be prepared.” Strange coloration of the snow sky, streaking clouds, rays, pillars and fans of polar lights, halos around the Sun and Moon, terrible storms, signs on the Sun, under which the ancients read meaning, noises accompanying the northern lights or thunderstorms—these “voices of prophecy,” or various signals whose origin was unknown, tremors of the earth, the appearance of comets—all these most beautiful and terrifying phenomena of nature were considered by man as harbingers of impending storms, as harbingers of devastating pestilences—signs, in a word. It is quite incomprehensible that in their conclusions, the ancients greatly exaggerated the role and significance of celestial omens and even fell into gross errors, carried away by the poetry of comparisons. Only one thing is certain: the ancients far surpassed us in the sharpness of their observations of natural phenomena and in the refined skill of logical conclusions.

Large geophysical and meteorological phenomena, such as polar lights visible in Central Europe or natural disasters like devastating earthquakes or destructive floods, do not occur every year. If these phenomena occurred annually, they would not be linked to certain epidemics or other mass events, as periodic natural phenomena are linked to epidemics. There is another remarkable confirmation of the validity of the ancient observations that the connections they noted between omens and mass social events, such as epidemic diseases, are not the product of fantasy but the result of centuries of observations of recurring patterns. We find confirmation in the remarkable fact that the system of omens among all peoples and in all eras was identical in terms of the objects that signified events. Despite the fact that this system was rooted in religious grounds, it always had a social aspect as its object in the life of ancient peoples. For a Chinese and a Russian chronicler, a Gaul and a Mongol, a ray of the polar light or a halo around the Sun signified the same thing—a dire misfortune from pestilential air or other calamities.

Thus, throughout the centuries-long history of mass diseases, we see a persistent emphasis on the influence of nature on man. However, despite the fact that since the 17th century, thanks to the invention of the first meteorological measuring instruments by Galileo and Torricelli, observations have been conducted to clarify this influence, it must be acknowledged that to this day not a single cardinal question in this direction has been resolved. Only some general features have been clarified. But there is one field of medicine that has paid close attention to the influence of the external physical environment on our organism—psychiatry. The fact that physical and chemical phenomena of the external world affect the ancient mental functions and often determine our behavior was known even in antiquity. Its roots, again, go back to astrology and ancient anthropogeography. At present, psychiatry has accumulated a vast body of observations awaiting its Copernicus. To the credit of Russian doctors, it should be noted that they have invariably participated in the study of this problem (Greizenberg, M. I. Nizhegorodtseva, P. I. Kovalevsky, and others), as have foreign researchers (Faissac, Turell Eyselein, Lombroso, Krypiakieviez, Pederson, Dexter, and others).

Therefore, it would be extremely unjust to consider that studies of the relationships between various epidemics and simultaneously occurring major upheavals in external nature yield nothing instructive and are merely the result of pre-scientific thinking. On the contrary, we find in the memoirs of physicians—contemporaries of various epidemics—a rich material for the most interesting conclusions. Just as chroniclers in their chronicles noted the relationship between social and cosmic or geophysical phenomena, so too did physicians, describing the course of certain epidemics, compare them with various natural phenomena. And these relationships are not mere coincidence but that subtle and elusive connection, the unraveling of which modern science still struggles with.

“Terrible convulsions of nature,” wrote the renowned historian P. Niebuhr (1776–1831) in his *Roman History* (*Römische Geschichte*), “often accompanied and coincided in time with various epidemics and the like.” If the observations of historians and scholars of all times and peoples are correct, if indeed the epochs of natural catastrophes accompanied by the appearance of various “omens” coincide with the development of certain epidemic diseases, then first of all several questions must be clarified: 1. Do such catastrophes occur in a certain part of the Earth or, covering a certain period of time, encompass the entire Earth? 2. Do such epochs recur periodically, and has their period been determined? 3. If periodicity exists, how isunderstood, and were attempts also made to link this periodicity with the course of any cosmic phenomena? Let’s see how science approached answering the questions posed at that time.

Chapter III SEARCHES FOR MYSTERIOUS CONNECTIONS

At the end of the 17th century, the eminent Italian physician, “father of occupational hygiene,” B. Ramazzini (1633 – 1714) made serious general meteorological conclusions in his epidemiological works. Starting from Ramazzini’s time, we encounter a whole pleiad of researchers who dedicated their works to clarifying the connection between morbidity and meteorological phenomena. Among them we see Th. Sydenham (1624-1689), Willis (1621 – 1675), Morton (1835-1If, in the end, an epidemic does penetrate these areas, it develops there at a rather slow pace. The question arises: what causes this strange phenomenon, which sometimes occurs despite the inhabitants’ communication with neighboring regions gripped by a severe form of the epidemic? Is it due to special properties in the organisms of the residents or geophysical factors that somehow hinder the development of bacteria precisely in this area? Thus, an epidemic may or may not arise. The time of its onset is unknown in medicine, as is its end. An epidemic may halt in one small area, spread across an entire country, a continent, or cross an ocean. It may claim many victims even under the most advanced sanitary conditions, or it may proceed quite harmlessly in the absence of any notion of sanitation. An epidemic may rage unchecked by powerful defense measures, penetrate the most meticulous borders, and then, as if out of nowhere, after a few waning fluctuations, cease altogether. The questions that arise must therefore be considered entirely open, at least regarding most epidemic diseases. Their resolution, it seems, “extends far beyond the realm in which modern medicine is competent.”

Indeed, it often happens that, contrary to the opinions of bacteriologists and epidemiologists, a disease breaks out when it pleases and subsides unexpectedly for everyone. The disappearance, then the reappearance of an epidemic, the disappearance and reappearance of microorganisms in the environment, and significant fluctuations in the virulence of microorganisms have always led to the belief that pathogenic microbes themselves represent explosive material, ready to ignite from a trivial spark. The role of unknown cosmic forces in this obscure epidemic process has long been recognized.

Thus, one of the most striking features of the epidemic mechanism since ancient times has been recognized as its spontaneous and catastrophic nature. The only exceptions are periodic seasonal phenomena, known since the time of Hippocrates. It seems we would not be mistaken if we said that epidemiology knows very few constant (in time and space) patterns characterizing the course of one or another epidemic. It can be asserted that social disasters such as war and famine are accompanied by the development of typhoid epidemics. Within the limits of such truisms, our knowledge of the connection between the course of an epidemic and phenomena in the geophysical, biological, or social environment usually ends.

Only slowly does science begin to recognize certain stable patterns in the course and development of epidemic diseases. These patterns often escape the attention of specialist epidemiologists because they are more likely to belong to the realm of physical rather than biological phenomena, as biological phenomena are largely autonomous. It is during epidemics that we most often encounter phenomena that defy biological explanation, such as sudden and sharp outbreaks, flare-ups, or exacerbations of diseases, or, conversely, sudden weakening and cessation despite the preservation of all other conditions. Attempts to explain these essential phenomena by autonomous changes in the vital properties of the pathogenic agent have, as is well known, been unsuccessful.

At the same time, from the depths of centuries, the conviction has grown that powerful influences of the physicochemical environment play a role in this capricious and bizarre interplay of viruses. Indeed, a whole series of geophysical phenomena has been taken into account in studying the connection between external factors and epidemic diseases. While carefully examining the influence of atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature fluctuations, changes in groundwater levels, and so on, it has only been possible in isolated cases to identify patterns that consistently and universally held true. In most cases, the following occurred: while in one place a drop in barometric pressure was observed to increase the number of cases of a particular epidemic, in another place the same effect followed an increase in pressure. In one location, excessive dryness of the air had the same effect as complete saturation with water vapor in another. Disease often spreads and progresses at both low and high temperatures. In short, as regards the aforementioned geophysical phenomena, they generally exclude themselves from the etiology of disease.

It is true that one might argue that sharp changes in any of these meteorological factors can disrupt the stable physicochemical equilibrium of the organism and thereby, temporarily weakening it, create conditions for easier penetration of the pathogenic agent. Indeed, such phenomena are often observed, which has repeatedly led to linking atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, and so on with sudden spikes in the number of cases or deaths. Undoubtedly, sharp changes in any meteorological element can have a detrimental effect on the organism, disrupting the stable equilibrium of physicochemical processes and thus helping to weaken the body’s resistance and promote disease. Undoubtedly, for humans, the most dangerous moment is the one immediately following a sudden change in the course of one or another meteorological element. Subsequently, the organism begins to adapt to the created physical conditions and restores the disrupted dynamic equilibrium. It can be thought that the culprits of such physical shocks to the organism are not the meteorological factors themselves, which gradually increase or decrease in intensity or effect, but rather the magnitude of the jump, the magnitude of the transition from one degree to another. Thus, in attributing the influence of these meteorological phenomena on morbidity, we may be making a gross error by ascribing such exceptional significance to them. This influence is merely a secondary, decisive impulse for some organisms. The primary cause lies elsewhere.

There are certain meteorological, geophysical, and cosmic factors, still unknown to us, that serve as the main lever setting the epidemic mechanism in motion and causing all those effects that baffle epidemiologists. As early as D. Arago (1786–1853) proposed a theory of the influence of chemical agents in the air on the onset of cholera epidemics. Later, M. Faraday (1791–1867) defended the idea of the impact of a certain state of atmospheric electricity, which causes the formation of ozone, on cholera. The influence of atmospheric ozone on disease was specially studied in Montpellier during the period of 1857–1858. Herapath attempted to substantiate the view that an increase in the negative charge of the atmospheric electric field predisposes to cholera. Conversely, Quetelet, linking atmospheric electricity to cholera cases, believed that their increase occurred at low atmospheric electric tension. During the cholera epidemic of 1837–1838, many physicians attributed the cause of cholera to changes in “the electricity and magnetism of the earth and air.” Most fully, as early as 1848, the Russian physician Givartovsky first posed the problem of the connection between cholera cases and atmospheric electricity based on his own observations.

Hirsch notes that precise observations by F. Schultze (1840–1921), Voltolini, Wette, and others showed that ozone plays an unexplained role in the emergence of cholera. In the mid-nineteenth century, Boekel in Strasbourg and Saintpierre in Montpellier attempted to clarify the question of ozone’s influence through observations. It can be noted here that Fovau de Courmelles pointed to the absence of certain diseases in the south, attributing this circumstance not so much to the hot climate as to the tension of atmospheric electricity and the presence of ozone.The latter, in his opinion, plays a huge role in lung diseases as a strong antiseptic agent. Finally, Lamon in Munich as early as the 1860s was one of the first to point out the possible connection between epidemics and disturbances in the Earth’s electric and magnetic fields, which in turn depend on the influence of a cosmic factor. After the severe epidemics that occurred in the mid-19th century, many Russian and foreign doctors concluded that during cholera epidemics, the atmospheric electricity charge was predominantly unipolar in nature and of a negative sign. Focusing on this phenomenon, F. Inozemtsev wrote: “Every time we observed atmospheric storms, we saw that the number of cholera patients admitted to hospitals suddenly increased significantly, and the number of deaths was also higher than before the storm. The general daily data on morbidity and mortality showed the same thing on stormy days, because everywhere the number of new cases and deaths was disproportionately high compared to the course of the epidemic—it increased.”

Another Russian researcher, N. Skolovskiy, in 1908, delivered reports on the role of meteorological phenomena, and in particular, partially on epidemics. Finally, in B. Moor’s (W. Mooer) 1886 edition, we find references to sunspots, which, as Moor wrote, according to some researchers, may exert a certain influence on the state of the environment, promoting the development of epidemics.

It is also worth noting the repeatedly observed circumstance that during cholera pandemics, even in countries spared by cholera, simultaneous outbreaks of acute gastric diseases occurred. Changes in certain constitutional characteristics of humans predispose them to diseases of a certain type.

The lower curve shows the same phenomenon in Lindenburg. The latitude difference between Manila and Lindenburg is 37° (according to Bongards).

Chapter III

Modern epidemiologists and bacteriologists. For example, A. Kraft (A. Craft, Chicago, 1919) sees a similarity between influenza and caisson disease and believes that primary damage is caused to the body by some chemical factor that paves the way for the infection itself. An even more definite opinion was expressed by K. Richter (C. Richter, San Francisco, 1921). In his view, this chemical agent is ozone. Richter associates the presence and reduction of ozone with cyclones and anticyclones. Richter’s idea echoes the earlier statements about the nature of influenza made by Schönbein (Schonbein) at the beginning of the last century.

While the above meteorological factors—such as temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.—undergo gradual fluctuations and even show different readings in two nearby locations due to the complexity of the general air mass movement system, there is a small group of phenomena that simultaneously cover vast areas, maintaining their constancy over large territories. Examples of the first group include disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field, which, as is known, can be observed simultaneously in many parts of the Earth. Records of magnetic storms obtained at different observatories are entirely similar in their main details. An example of the second group is the state of the atmospheric electricity field. Examining the curves of atmospheric electricity variations recorded in different locations shows that uniform variations occur almost simultaneously in many distant points. We can confidently view the course of atmospheric electricity in any part of Europe as typical for the entire European continent during this period.

H. Bongards conducted simultaneous observations of the amount of radioactive emanations in Lindenburg and Manila, obtaining for these distant locations an absolutely identical periodicity of 27–28 days. Comparing the data from these two points with the spectroheliograms of calcium clouds on the Sun, Bongards concluded that the source of the emanations detected in the Earth’s atmosphere is solar activity.

Modern biology provides important reasons to assert that the vital activity of plant and animal organisms is in a certain dependence on various meteorological phenomena, with electric phenomena occupying a leading place among them, since electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic phenomena are in the closest dependence on cosmic events, primarily on the influence of the Sun. Therefore, the question of the relationship between solar activity and various epidemic diseases should be investigated first.

This line of research is explained by the fact that changes and their periods in solar activity have been studied incomparably better and over a much longer period than any changes in the Earth’s magnetic field or the atmospheric electric field.

Chapter IV

The Vortex of Solar Storms

Before turning to the consideration of the relationship between epidemics and solar activity, it is necessary to focus our attention on the events and nature of the Sun’s periodic activity. Without this examination, all the phenomena that unfold under the Sun’s influence in the electric and magnetic fields of our atmosphere—the very place where we live—will remain incomprehensible. The connection between organic beings and the cosmic-telluric environment is too profound to ignore the greatest energy generator—the Sun with all its fundamental features.

Despite the fact that even in ancient times humans intuitively grasped the paramount role of the Sun in the life of our world, deified it, created the finest myths, legends, tales, and sagas about it, and dedicated the most beautiful temples to it, the science of the Sun began only when European scientists Fabricius, Scheiner, Galileo, and Harriot independently began studying sunspots on the surface of the celestial body in 1610–1611.

After a series of disputes that were more theological than scientific in nature, the existence of spots was recognized as undeniable, and systematic observations were established. These observations laid the foundation for solar physics. Just two years later, based on data about the movement of spots, Galileo, along with Fabricius and Scheiner, discovered the rotational speed of the solar body around its axis, determining the full revolution period to be 26–27 days.

From that time onward, for three centuries, hundreds of outstanding astronomers have turned their gaze to sunspots to clarify their nature.

The Vortex of Solar Storms

Sunspots are gigantic formations that, during certain periods, become visible to the naked eye, which allowed Chinese chroniclers in ancient times to record spots and make various assumptions about them. Groups of spots sometimes reach colossal linear dimensions, up to 250,000 km, covering areas of hundreds of millions of square kilometers. For example, the February 1917 spot was about 250,000 km across.

The lifespans of spots also vary widely, as do their sizes. Very often, spots are observed that exist for only a few days before disappearing without a trace, but there are spots that persist for three or four solar rotations, meaning nearly three months. As is known, one rotation of the Sun around its axis takes approximately 27 days (synodic rotation period). Thus, a spot that remains active for 13.5 days crosses the solar disk, only to disappear from view for the same period.

From the moment a spot appears at the edge of the Sun until it reaches the plane of the central solar meridian, about a week passes. However, these timeframes are not entirely precise, as the Sun does not rotate like a solid body, where all parts move together. A spot located in the equatorial zone, if it exists for a long time, completes a full rotation with the Sun in 25 days, while a spot at 45° latitude completes its full rotation in 27.5 days. Closer to the poles, the Sun’s rotation period is even longer.

A remarkable circumstance is that spots do not form at all latitudes. They are born mainly in two belts located on either side of the equator—specifically between 10° and 30° latitude (the so-called “royal latitudes”).On the equator itself, spots occur very rarely, and they appear even less frequently beyond 35° latitude. An increase in the number of spots leads to an expansion of the zones where spots are observed. It has long been noted that the number of spots is highly variable: there are years when large spots continuously pass across the solar disk one after another, and, conversely, sometimes only a few small spots—5 to 10—can be observed over an entire month.