Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/533

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activities (or cessations of activity in the case of death) with a slight increase in atmospheric movement. In the case of arrests for assault and battery and for insanity (both males and females), and of misdeeds in the penitentiary, all of which had shown deficiencies for calms—and some of them very large ones—excesses were shown for wind movements between 100 and 150 miles per day, while misdemeanors in the schools were also above the normal before a movement of 200 miles had been reached. On the other hand, policemen off duty and death, both of which had been excessive in number during calms, took a sudden drop as the wind arose, and showed deficiencies for the next wind group (100-150 miles). Suicide, drunkenness and clerical errors alone showed gradual changes with the wind. The appearance of the curves as a whole is such as to lead me to place calms in a class by themselves as far as wind influences are concerned. High winds seem to have an influence peculiarly their own, gradually merging into that peculiar to moderate and slight movements, but when the aerial stagnation of 100 miles per day or less is reached a sudden change takes place, and certain human phenomena suddenly increase in numbers, while others drop almost to a vanishing point. Which are the ones in excess? Absence from school, absence from police duty, clerical errors and death. But absence from school means sickness, absence from duty the same, clerical errors the same in milder forms, and death the same at its maximum.