Objects and Uses of Meteorologj/, 153 



tionto the altitude — the developement of the principles deter- 

 mining the quantity and state of the aqueous portion of the 

 atmosphere, — and the acquirement of knowledge, in short, on 

 every subject of science presented by the atmosphere itself, or 

 by its modes of relation to the aqueous and mineral kingdoms, 

 and the general laws of its influence on organised matter. 



This branch of Natural History also comprehends the exa- 

 mination of two great series of phenomena, not strictly com- 

 prised by the foregoing enumeration ; by which, on the one 

 side, its boundaries are united with those of Physical Geogra- 

 phy, and, on the other side, with those of Astronomy. The 

 temperature of the interior of the earth itself, and that of the 

 ocean, as well at the surface as at every accessible depth — 

 subjects of the greatest interest, with respect not only to the 

 present state of the earth, but also to its former physical con- 

 dition — are so intimately connected with the temperature 

 and other affections of the atmosphere, that the study of them 

 becomes, in fact, a department of Meteorology. And the va- 

 rious kinds of luminous and igneous meteors which appear 

 within the atmosphere, though some of them originate, in all 

 probability, in distant regions of the solar system, — such as the 

 zodiacal light, the polar lights, or Aurora Boredlis and Am- 

 trails ; the meteors called shooting-stars, and the stupendous 

 masses of matter in combustion called Jire-halls, which casjfc 

 down upon the earth immense blocks of red-hot iron, or 

 showers of heated stones, — constitute another wide field of 

 meteorological enquiry. 



It has been deemed proper, in commencing the meteoro- 

 logical department of the Magazine of Natural History^ to set 

 out with a general outline of the bearings of Meteorology on 

 the investigation of some other principal objects of the natur- 

 alist's attention. On resuming this article in a future number, 

 we shall proceed to a more specific and detailed view of the; 

 subjects of meteorological research. 



April 10. 1828. 



{To be continued.) 



