,
where ophthalmia is very prevalent on account of constant irritation
from the fine sand in the air, the eye, weary with the heat and aridity
of the day, would be impaired if uncovered in the air to the rays of
the moon. Carne's statements are consequently quite credible. He
tells us: "The effect of the moonlight on the eyes in this country is
singularly injurious; the natives tell you, as I found they also
afterwards did in Arabia, always to cover your eyes when you sleep
in the open air. The moon here really strikes and affects the sight,
when you sleep exposed to it, much more than the sun; indeed, the
sight of a person who should sleep with his face exposed at night,
would soon be utterly impaired or destroyed." [390] For the same
reason, that strong light oppresses the slumbering eye, "the seaman
in his hammock takes care not to face the full moon, lest he be
struck with blindness." [391] Nor can we regard the following as
"an _extraordinary_ effect of moonlight upon the human subject." In
1863, "a boy, thirteen years of age, residing near Peckham Rye, was
expelled his home by his mother for disobedience. He ran away to a
cornfield close by, and, on lying down in the open air, fell asleep.
He slept throughout the night, which was a moonlight one. Some
labourers on their way to work, next morning, seeing the boy
apparently asleep, aroused him; the lad opened his eyes, but
declared he could not see. He was conveyed home, and medical
advice was obtained; the surgeon affirmed that the total loss of sight
resulted from sleeping in the moonlight." [392] This was sad
enough; but it was antecedently probable. No doubt a boy of
thirteen who for disobedience was cast out of home in such a place
as London had a hard lot, and went supperless to his open bed. His
optic nerves were young and sensitive, and the protracted light so
paralysed them that the morning found them closed "in endless
night." This was a purely natural result: to admitting it, reason
opposes no demur. But we must object, for truth's sake, to the
tendency to account for natural consequences by assigning
supernatural causes. The moon is no divinity; moonlight is no
Divine emanation, with a vindictive animus; and those who
countenance such silly superstition as that moonstroke is a
mysterious, evil agency, are contributing to a polytheism which
leads to atheism: for many gods logically means no GOD at all.

Another branch of this umbrageous if not fructuous