Meteorology, 89 



(i on the Gogmagog Hills, June 8. 1829. In some specimens of this last 

 there were four or even five stems to one root. It may be as well to add, 

 that the var. /3 has never before, so far as I know, been found at such 

 a distance from the sea. I am, Sir, yours, &c. — Charles C. Babington. 

 St. John's College, Cambridge, Feb. 12. 1830. 



Art. III. Meteorology. 



The East Wind. — The ill effects of the east wind on health have always 

 been noticed. It is well known that air, as it grows warmer, becomes 

 capable of holding in solution (or drinking up) a greater quantity of 

 moisture ; a current of cold air rushing into a place which is warmer will, 

 therefore, dry up a great deal of wet. For this reason, damp clothes in 

 winter, placed in the open window of a warm room, dry uncommonly fast. 

 Now, it is well known that nothing is more pernicious to the health than 

 a sudden drying up of the perspiration. Whether this be owing merely to 

 the cold caused on the skin by the evaporation of so much moisture, or to 

 the deranging of some other link in the animal economy, need not be 

 asked ; it is sufficient that the fact is so. For this reason, exposure to 

 any current of air which is acquiring heat, and is therefore becoming drier, 

 is uncommonly prejudicial. Every one has observed how disagreeable 

 are currents of air m warm rooms ; in fact, the warmer the room, and the 

 nearer we are to the fireplace, so much. the more annoying is a draft from 

 any of its crannies. Such a current, increasing in heat as it passes from 

 the cold of the external air to the warmth of a room, will absorb double 

 its former moisture, and of course will dry the perspiration on the body 

 faster than it can be supplied, causing by that means rheumatism in all its 

 forms, toothache, headache, &c. Now, it is evident that the same reason 

 which causes a draft from the open air into a room to be disagreeable, will 

 cause any Avind jjlowing from a cold region into one that is warmer, to 

 have exactly the same effects. The east wind is in this predicament ; it 

 blows from a colder continent, which retains the cold of winter longer 

 than the marine tract on which we are situated, the temperature of which 

 is more equal, and at such times warmer. Damp or misty winds are 

 also proverbially hurtful, and their injurious effects seem to arise from 

 the moisture continually deposited by them on the body, which is evapo- 

 rated by the natural heat, and causes in that process an unusual and hurt- 

 ful degree of cold, or diminution of the animal temperature. — N. 



London Fogs. — Mr. Davy, the brother of Sir Humphry Davy, was, 

 I believe, the first person who broadly laid it down that fogs arise when- 

 ever the air becomes colder than the water. From this principle we 

 can draw the following conclusions: — 1. Fogs will be most frequent in 

 autumn, after the earth has been heated during the summer, the air cooling 

 faster than the earth. 2. Fogs will be greatest after the hottest summer. 

 3. Fogs show that the air has become suddenly colder, and therefore are 

 a sign of snow. 4. Fogs will be rare in hot climates, where the air is 

 usually very hot. 5. Fogs will be very frequent in the arctic regions, where 

 the sudden depressions of temperature are enormously below the mean 

 temperature. 6. Fogs will be most frequent over shallow water, which 

 sooner partakes of the temperature of the bottom, than the deep water. 

 The end of the deep water is known, near the banks of Newfoundland, 

 by the sudden commencement of the fogs. The thick fogs which appeared 

 during Captain Franklin's last expedition prove that the sea is very 

 shallow, and the mean temperature not very low, upon that part of the 

 arctic coast. 7. If the London fogs have increased during late years, it 

 will prove either that the mean temperature has increased, or that the 



