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.