Prof. Sadov repeatedly discussed our studies in the field of epidemiology, and mentioned them in his preface to the well-known book by R. Dujarrique de la Riviere "Ethiology, Epidemiology, and Prevention of Grippe" (1932). These studies were considered most valuable by numerous scientists out side the USSR, among them Prof. L. Tanon (Paris), Dr. D. Budai (Buda pest), Prof. J. Renault (Toulon), Prof. S. Sylverst (Paris), Dr. A. Gleits mann (Berlin), Dr. S. E. P. Brookes (London), Prof. V. Delfino (Buenos Aires), Prof. A. Leprens (Paris), Prof. Laignel-Lavastine (Paris), Prof. V. de Smitt (New York), and many others. Thus, more than 30 years ago our research in the field of epidemiological statistics was already con sidered by the foremost scientists to be not only interesting but also progressive.
As a result of our statistical investigations we had decided to study the overall mortality, and were able to detect the same remarkable correla tion in this field. This subject has a history of its own. In the first decade of this century, some observant physicians noted a phenomenon which could not be effectively explained for a long time: when patients with acute diseases appeared at the beginning of a physician's office hours, patients with similar com plaints could be expected for the rest of the day, and the next two or three days, followed by a certain interval almost free of such patients. Further, it was noted that patients suffering from nervous dis diseases and affections of the cardio vascular system sustained the most serious attacks at the same time, irrespective of their living conditions. An accurate account of these phenomena revealed that attacks of stenocardia, neuralgic pains, and headaches, for example, attacked a great variety of patients during the same two or three days, and then disappeared simultaneously for a certain time. Statistics showed "sudden deaths" to be strikingly synchronous. Physicians on call at first aid stations in large cities noticed that one sudden death at the beginning of their turn of duty was followed by several additional cases of the same kind within the next day or two. This incidence of diseases, aggravations, and mortality in series has long been a subject of dis cussion in the scientific medical societies of various countries, and the literature on this problem is fairly voluminous /3, 6, 23, 26-28, 31, etc./.
Attempts at correlating the "pathologic al series" with meteorological factors (temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind velocity and direction, thunderstorm discharges, etc.) have failed. Physicians working in medical meteorology have had to conclude, on the basis of ex tensive statistical data, that distinct cor relations are seldom revealed, and do not encompass the great number of coinciding disease and death cases recorded simul taneously over extensive areas in different remote places. Since meteorological con
ditions differ over vast expanses, they cannot provide a general explanation for the synchronous pattern of the pathology recorded. It was therefore concluded that powerful extraterrestrial factors act in a certain manner upon the entire planetary surface and its biosphere.
By chance, we came closer to an explanation of this enigma. It was noticed that occasionally the functioning of an automatic telephone network was suddenly intermittently, or at times even completely disrupted for several hours, although no breakdowns could be detected in the equipment; in such cases, the network returned to normal without any intervention whatever. The days of disrupted telephone communica tions were found to coincide regularly with the series of pathological cases, i. e., with the higher frequency of various paroxysms, aggravations, and deaths. The synchronous disturbances in the functioning of electrical equipment and of the human physiological mechanisms revealed an extremely distinct pattern. Magnetic and electric storms on Earth and in the atmo sphere play havoc with the electrical net works, and are induced by electromagnetic and corpuscular radiations from the Sun.
By processing the wealth of statistical data we were able to demonstrate for the first time that the fluctuations of the overall mortality correlated quite well with the solar activity curve /19, 20/. In years of maximum solar activity the peak of the mortality curve is usually high; whereas in years of minimum solar activity the peak is significantly lower. This may be explained by the influence of the dis turbed areas of the Sun passing through the central solar meridian in years of minimum activity, although their number and dimensions as well as their frequency, are very much smaller than in years of maximum activity. As an example, we present the comparative data of mortality in Russia with the curve of solar activity during the years 1867-1917 (Figure 8). The annual mortality curves in different countries were also found to coincide distinctly with the solar activity curves (Chizhevskii, Morrell, Budai, Faure, Mirbach, Vles, and others). In 1925 the author appealed to the Soviet public to help in the collection of data concerning the correlation between cases of sudden death, and geophysical and solar phenomena.* This work was organized by us with the assistance of the Main Geophysical Observatory and the People's Commissariat of Health of the RSFSR.* A two-year work period resulted in the accumulation of a vast amount of data (45,000 cases), which showed 89% of the cases to be synchronous, verifying the desired correlation. In processing the data it was further established that the first human reaction to solar disturbances occurs in the system /30/.