112 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



quently lies in a direction bearing about forty degrees east. 

 4 D, July, 181 4. 



ST. CLAIR DEVILLE's WEATHER PROGNOSTICATIONS. 



During the winter of 1873-4, the eminent French geolo- 

 gist Deville astonished the world by a number of weather 

 predictions, whose fulfillment has been beyond all anticipa- 

 tion. M. Deville has very often published similar prognosti- 

 cations, which were always successful, but never perhaps in 

 so striking a way. Having at hand an immense number of 

 trustworthy observations, continued for many years in all 

 Europe, and especially in France, he has discovered that 

 there is monthly a large thermometrical oscillation, which 

 he calls dodecuple, from the Greek word signifying twelve. 

 This oscillation generally takes place in the second week of 

 the month, but is not equally marked every month, and is 

 not always a depression, but sometimes an elevation of tem- 

 perature. The November oscillation, for instance, is a de- 

 cided elevation of temperature. February, March, and May, 

 on the contrary, have a cold period. The range of the oscil- 

 lations, as well as their exact position in time, varies for dif- 

 ferent years, very probably because there is more than one 

 single cause in operation to produce them. Happily, M. De- 

 ville has discovered an indication which enables him to 

 foresee which oscillations are to be the largest or the small- 

 est. He finds that each dodecuple oscillation of the temper- 

 ature is preceded by a similar dodecuple oscillation in the 

 barometric pressure, the difference of time between both os- 

 cillations being ordinarily five days. Consequently, having 

 noticed a large barometric oscillation on March 2, he was 

 certain that by the 8th of the month the regular thermomet- 

 ric oscillation for March should appear very decidedly. The 

 deviation of the thermometric oscillation is uncertain to the 

 extent of four or five days. Accordingly, on the 2d of March 

 he predicted a very cold period to be approaching, begin- 

 ning with the 9th and ending with the 13th of the month 

 a prediction that was fully verified, and was the more es- 

 pecially noticed because the cold was initiated by a heavy 

 tall of snow, the first of the year, in that city. M. Deville is 

 of opinion that the phenomenon observed by him is owing 

 to the presence of certain cosmical streams of meteoric bod- 



