ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 373 



the attention of medical men to the importance of the registration of 

 disease in connexion with the conditions of the atmosphere. We 

 hare often pointed out the present unsatisfactory method of general- 

 izing with regard to the influence of climate and weather on the 

 results of disease. The following supposed case, from the paper 

 alluded to, illustrates our remarks :--" A patient was seized by an 

 attack of bronchitis on the 7th of April in any year, and during the 

 prevalence of a cold northeasterly wind ; that the patient died on the 

 14th ; and that on the 17th the death was registered ; but meanwhile, 

 that, on the 1 3th, the wind had changed to a mild southwesterly breeze ; 

 it is obvious that the registration of the death on the 1 7th could have 

 no value as a medico-meteorological fact." The facts that are wanted 

 to be of value in such a case are, the dates of the first seizure and the 

 state of the weather previous to that time. A moist and warm atmos- 

 phere, or a cold and dry one, may suddenly set in and terminate a 

 number of cases which have been very variously commenced. In 

 order to supply the information desired, the Association Medical 

 Journal has undertaken to publish Meteorological Tables in con- 

 nexion with the history of particular cases of disease. In this way 

 we have no doubt that some important facts will be elicited. Already 

 the physiologist is in possession of a large number of facts which show 

 the influence of the great forces of Nature on the life of the organic 

 world ; and the prosecution of this subject by the medical man will be 

 but the following out of these researches, and giving to us a more 

 intimate knowledge of the laws which control the existence of organic 

 beings on the earth. London Athenceum. 



ON THE RISING OF WATER IN SPRINGS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE 



RAIN. 



The following paper was read to the American Association by 

 Prof. Brocklesby, of Hartford, Conn. 



My attention was particularly called to this phenomenon during 

 the close of the summer of 1852, while residing for a few weeks in 

 Rutland, amid the highlands of Vermont. 



In the western portion of the town is a lofty hill, rising to the 

 height of about 400 feet above the Otter Creek valley. Near the sum- 

 mit of the hill a small spring bursts forth, the waters of which are 

 conveyed in wooden pipes to the barn yards of two farm houses situ- 

 ated on the slope of the hill ; the first being about a quarter of a 

 mile distant from the spring, and the second nearly one-third of a 

 mile. At the latter house I resided. 



The waters of the spring are not abundant, and during the summer 

 months frequently fail to supply the aqueduct. Such was the state of 

 the spring when I arrived at Rutland ; for the summer had been ex- 

 tremely dry, the brooks were unusually low, and the drought had pre- 

 vailed so long that even the famed Green Mountains had in many 

 places begun to wear a russet livery. The drought continued, not a 

 drop of rain falling, when one morning a servant, coming in from the 



