SUMMARY In the incidence patterns of cholera, diphtheria and croup during the past when they were of epidemic proportions, we document a set of cycles (periods), one of which was reported and discussed by A. L. Chizhevsky in the same data with emphasis on the mirroring in human disease of the ~11-year sunspot cycle. The data in this study are based on Chizhevsky’s book The Terrestrial Echo of Solar Storms and on records from the World Health Organization. For meta-analysis, we used the extended linear and nonlinear cosinor. We found a geographically selective assortment of various cycles characterizing the epidemiology of infections, which is the documented novel topic of this paper, complementing the earlier finding in the 21st century or shortly before, of a geographically selective assortment of cycles characterizing human sudden cardiac death. Solar effects, if any, interact with geophysical processes in contributing to this assortment.

This tribute to her parents by one co-author (NDP) is the fruit of a more than a decade-long search by the senior author (FH) for the details of the lives of Bernhard and Gertraud (“Traute”) Düll. These pioneers studied how space/terrestrial weather may differentially influence human mortality from various causes, the 27-day mortality pattern being different whether death was from cardiac or respiratory disease, or from suicide. FH is the translator of personal information about her parents provided by NDP in German. Figuratively, he also attempts to “translate” the Dülls’ contribution in the context of the literature that had appeared before their work and after their deaths. Although the Dülls published in a then leading journal, among others (and FH had re-analyzed some of their work in a medical journal), they were unknown to academies or libraries (where FH had inquired about them). The Dülls thoroughly assembled death certificates to offer the most powerful evidence for an effect of solar activity reflected in human mortality, as did others before them. They went several steps further than their predecessors, however. They were the first to show possibly differential effects of space and/or Earth weather with respect to suicide and other deaths associated with the nervous and sensory systems vs. death from cardiac or respiratory disease as well as overall death by differences in the phase of a common 27-day cycle characterizing these mortality patterns. Furthermore, Bernhard Düll developed tests of human visual and auditory reaction time to study effects of weather and solar activity, publishing a book (his professorial dissertation) on the topic. His unpublished finding of an increased incidence of airplane crashes in association with higher solar activity was validated after his death, among others, by Tatiana Zenchenko and A. M. Merzlyi.

No abstract

The number of physicochemical factors of the environment is extremely high. The geophysical components of the environment are under the influence of cosmic forces. The sun, the moon, the planets and the stars are connected with the Earth by invisible bonds. Gravitation, radiation, electromagnetic fields and corpuscular ceilings of the Sun and stars are far from a complete list of the cosmic forces acting on the Earth. Changes in the activity of the Sun are reflected in the biosphere directly through photosynthesis of plants, and indirectly through changes in climatic conditions on the Earth, which affects various biological processes. One of the first scientists, who paid attention to the dependence of pandemics with solar cycles, was Alexander Chizhevsky.In this study, we perform a meta-analysis of statistical data on diphtheria, based on the data published by Chizhevsky in the 20th century. We here add for the association of terrestrial and solar magnetism with these infectious diseases that were common in the past, using nonlinear analysis, cosinor-analysis and cross-wavelet coherence. We showed the geographic differences hidden in Chizhevsky’s data on diphtheria. Wavelets of Wolf numbers and of the antipodal geomagnetic index show maxima corresponding to the anticipated ~11.7-year cycle, also seen from the spectra plotted vertically next to the color key. The numbers indicate the period length (in years) corresponding to local maxima in amplitudes; but the color code matters most. The wavelet also reveals the presence of an about 22.1-year component differing from the smaller about 19.7-year peaklet observed for Wolf numbers. Both these peaks are less prominent than the about 29.5-year peak found for diphtheria.