242 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ment, the filar micrometer. In an essay on a brilliant meteor 

 that occurred in 1676, Montanari explains how he measured 

 the altitude of his own station of observation above the sea 

 by the use of the mercurial barometer, then known only by 

 the name of Torricelli; but even this seems not to have been 

 the first time which he applied the instrument to a similar 

 purpose, for, in a letter written in 1671, he speaks of measures 

 made in 1667 upon the summit of Pellegrino, at an altitude 

 of 6500 feet above the Adriatic. The method of computation 

 idopted by Montanari is, if we mistake not, peculiar to him- 

 self, and is well worthy of introduction into more modern 

 elementary treatises upon the subject. According to an ap- 

 pendix to Govi's memoir, it seems that Montanarrs method 

 subsequently found its way into England, and came to the 

 notice of the illustrious Halley before he bad published his 

 barometric formula. Atti delta B. Accad. Scienze, Tarin y 

 1873,587. 



DR. TONER'S DICTIONARY OF ELEVATIONS. 



Dr. John M. Toner, of Washington, has published a work 

 entitled the "Dictionary of Elevations and Climatic Register 

 of the United States," with the altitude, mean annual temper- 

 ature, and total annual rain-fall of many localities, and an in- 

 troductory article on the orographic and other physical pe- 

 culiarities of North America. This material was collected by 

 Dr. Toner in the course of his researches in reference to the 

 distribution in altitude of certain diseases, especially the yel- 

 low fever, and he has rendered a good service in presenting 

 it in a concise form for general reference. The author calls 

 attention to the fact that religion builds by preference on the 

 high places of the earth, and that both in the Old World and 

 the New it is on the loftier summits that we find the temples 

 and shrines of the various peoples. This, it is supposed, may 

 relate somewhat to the fact early impressed upon the notice 

 of mankind, that the inhabitants of lofty elevations are not 

 only nearer to heaven, but also more remote from earthly 

 disease. 



Further inquiries in reference to the influence of altitude 

 upon natural productions and upon cultivable crops, as well 

 as upon human health, will be largely facilitated by this un- 

 pretending treatise of Dr. Toner, who is very decidedly of the 



