Turning superstition into science. Atmospheric tides science and the transformation of astrology in Enlightenment Continental Europe Ghent University
The period 1700-1840 witnessed the flowering of a new ‘atmospheric tides’ science. The basic
assumption of this science was that Sun and Moon not only generate significant tidal effects in the
earth’s seas, but in its atmosphere as well. These atmospheric tides (henceforth AT) were held
responsible for important weather changes, as well as for a variety of health issues in the human
body (e.g. insanity, epilepsy, ...