1857.] 



Mr, Vivian^ on Meteorology. 



437 



unravelled ; the directions for future inquiry are limited and marked 

 out ; the solution of all problems connected with it is only a ques- 

 tion of time. 



Science may be congratulated on these results. Time was when 

 the attempt to reduce vital phenomena to law and order, was re- 

 garded as little less than blasphemous : but the mechanician has 

 proved that the living body obeys the mechanical laws of ordinary 

 matter ; the chemist has demonstrated that the component atoms of 

 living beings are governed by affinities, of one nature with those 

 which obtain in the rest of the universe ; and now the physi- 

 ( logist, aided by the physicist, has attacked the problem of nervous 

 action — the most especially vital of all vital phenomena — with 

 what result has been seen. And thus from the region of disorderly 

 mystery, which is the domain of ignorance, another vast province 

 has been added to science, the realm of orderly mystery. 



[T. H. H.] 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 22. 



The Duke of Northumberland, K.G. F.R.S. President, 

 in the Chair. 



Edward Vivian, Esq. M.A. M.R.I. 



On Meteorology, with Observations and Sketches taken during a 

 Balloon Ascent. 



A SERIES of curves, showing the results of daily observations since 

 1842, and contributed during the last six years to the Meteorological 

 Reports of the Registrar-General, were exhibited. From these the 

 following summary of the climate of the south-eastern coast of 

 Devon, as compared with the averages of England, was deduced — 



Torquay 

 England 



Mean 

 Temp. 



60° '3 

 48°* 3 



Max. 

 Temp. 



76° 

 83^ 



Min. 

 Temp. 



27° 

 IS*" 



DaUy 

 range. 



Days 

 of rain. 



9°'9 

 14°- 5 



Inches 

 of rain. 



155 

 170 



27*8 

 25«5 



Vaponr Vapour | ^^^ 



m cubic required to j^^jj^i^. 



foot of I produce 



air. saturation. 



3'4 

 3*4 



ity. 



72 



'82 



