Chapter 27: Lunar Periodicity

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Abstract
In Nature many phenomena recur again and again in the same order. These are the cycles, which can be of very diverse duration. Geological cycles require millions of years and are a fascinating reality for only a small group of adepts. The daily cycle, on the other hand, the eternal alternation of day and night, is self evident to everybody, because man himself as well as many of the living creatures of his daily environment synchronize their periodic activities, feeding hours, and rest with this natural cycle. Few realize that many short-lived small organisms show a different pace of living, and that to them the 24-hour cycle is comparable to our annual cycle. Much has been written about this daily rhythm in nature, even in mathematical formulae. Many creatures exhibit a daily rhythm with such a great precision, and are so hard to disturb by experimental conditions, that the rhythm is considered as endogenous, as resident in the protoplasm (Park, 1941). It is hard to believe that. It would be very surprising indeed if careful and prolonged experimentation with artificial cycles, not differing too much from the natural 24-hour cycle, would not induce organisms of the so-called endogenous type to adopt eventually the new rhythm. The tenacity with which man, and still more so many other living beings, sticks to the usual 24-hour cycle under artificially changed conditions should sound a warning to the investigator who wishes to study natural cycles experimentally. The annual cycle, the eternal sequence of the...

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