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On the Horary Oscillations of the Barometer near Edinburgh, 

 deduced from 4410 Observations; with an Inquiry into the 

 Law of Geographical Distribution of the Phenomenon. By 

 JAMES D. FORBES, Esq. F.R.S.E. 



(Read 4/th April 1831 .) 



1 . THE science of Meteorology must be ranked, at the present 

 moment, among the most rising branches of natural knowledge. 

 The transition from the hasty generalization which always marks 

 the embryo state of science, to the application of sober induc- 

 tive analysis, is one so important, and so truly interesting, as to 

 repay amply the philosophical abstinence which it imposes. No 

 more important/ lesson, indeed, can be learned, than from the very 

 examples of crude speculation, which, for centuries, the progress 

 of this subject has afforded among the multitudes whose scientific 

 acquirements are limited to the art of consulting a weather-glass, 

 or registering a thermometer, little imagining that the very 

 science they affect to cultivate, ranks among its phenomena the 

 interwoven effects of remote and recondite causes, a science 

 which, to use the words of Mr HERSCHEL, is " one of the most 

 complicated and difficult, but, at the same time, interesting sub- 

 jects of physical research : one, however, which has of late begun 

 to be studied with a diligence which promises the speedy disclo- 

 sure of relations and laws, of which, at present, we can form but 

 a very imperfect notion." 



2. One of the most important features of recent improvement 

 in the mode of studying the group of facts which meteorology 



