Moonstruck

Old men of primal tribes, squatting by night around cave hearths, muttered imprecations against the moon and called it bad medicine. Peasants shun the night air and say that folk who sleep unroofed will be moonstruck. Civilization still calls its deranged members "lunatics."

Superstition often has scientific roots. Last week, two Indian scientists, Drs. Lai and Bhatnagar, reported having stimulated the growth of typhoid and cholera germs by playing upon them beams of polarized light./-

This work supplemented the known fact that plants are stimulated by polarized light. Since sunlight is somewhat polarized, it suggested a partial explanation of why some fevers rise in the afternoon. Since moonlight is very highly polarized, it hinted at acute observation by the authors of the "superstition" about sleeping in moonlight.

/- Light whose waves move mainly in one direction, like waves in the ocean, instead of ubiquitously, like radio waves from an unmodified transmitter. Reflected light is largely polarized, even coming from a con vex reflector.