Lieut.-Col. Sabine on the Cause of Mild Winters. 317 



means of causing light to evolve electricity and magnetism, 

 are thoughts continually pressing upon the mind ; but it will 

 be better to occupy both time and thought, aided by experi- 

 ment, in the investigation and development of real truth, than 

 to use them in the invention of suppositions which may or 

 may not be founded on, or consistent with fact. 

 Royal Institution, Oct. 29, 1845. 



L. On the Cause of remarkably Mild Winters which occa- 

 sionally occur in England. By Lieut.-Colonel Sabine, 

 R.A., For. Sec. R.S. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 



THE unusual character of the winter which we have just 

 experienced, together with its effects which we are now 

 witnessing upon our gardens and fields, and its influence on 

 the public health as evidenced by the bills of mortality, should 

 make it an object not only of scientific, but of general interest, 

 to endeavour to trace out the cause of so remarkable a phe- 

 nomenon. By a memorandum with which the Astronomer 

 Royal has been so obliging as to furnish me, it appears that 

 the mean temperature in December, January and February, 

 exceeded the mean temperature of the same months in the 

 preceding year by the amounts respectively of 8 0, 7, 5 0, 3, 

 11°*2; on an average above 8° for three months. An excess 

 of temperature of such amount and such continuance, must 

 surely, one would suppose, have some sufficiently notable 

 cause. I am not aware that any probable cause has yet been 

 suggested ; but should you oblige me by inserting this com- 

 munication, it may at least be of use in commencing the dis- 

 cussion, and possibly in eliciting the opinions of others, whose 

 views on the subject the public may naturally desire to know. 

 The winter which within my recollection most nearly re- 

 sembled the present, was that of 1821-1822, and undoubtedly 

 the resemblance is in many respects very striking. For the 

 peculiarity in that year there was a cause assigned, adequate 

 1 believe to account for all the phenomena, and of which the 

 existence was proved : I allude to the extension of the Gulf- 

 stream in that year to the coast of Europe, instead of its ter- 

 minating as it usually does about the meridian of the Azores. 

 In the winter of 1821-1822, the warm water of the Gulf-stream 

 spread itself beyond its usual bounds over a space of ocean 

 which may be roughly estimated as exceeding 600 miles in lati- 

 tude and 1000 in longitude, carrying with it water several de- 



