JOURNAL 



OP 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, CHEMISTRY, 



AND 



THE ARTS. 



DECEMBER 179 8. 



ARTICLE I. 



Memoir on the Climate of Ireland, By the Rev. WiLLIAM liAMJirOK, ofFavet, in the 

 County of Donegal \ late Fellow of Trinity Csllege, Dublin; M.R.I. A. Correfponding Mem- 

 ber of the Royal Society of Edinburgh^ tsfc* 



T 



J-T is generally fuppofed that the feafons in ouTifland hare fuffered a confiderable change, 

 almoft within the memory of the prefent generation. The winters of our climate arc faid 

 to have laid afide their ancient horrors, and frequently to have aflumed the mildnefs and 

 vegetative powers of fpring ; while fummer is reprefented as lefs favourable than hereto- 

 fore,- lefs genial in promoting vegetation, and lefs vigorous in forwarding the fruits of the 

 earth to maturity. 



It is indeed true, that in this inftance popular opinion does not ftand fupported by the 

 concurrent tellimony of meteorological obfervatioiis i there .is no clear evidence derivable 

 from them, that the prefent feafons are materially different from former ones j and therefore • 

 philofophers and meteorologifts naturally afcrib^ to the; querulous difpofition of the farmer, 

 the chill fenfations of old age, or the predlledli^rt Svhith every one feels for the cheerful days 

 of childhood, the adoption of an opinion that feems fo eafily to flow from thefe fources. 



But let it be remembered, that the inftruments^of atmofpherical obfervations do not ex- 

 tend to alt the circumftances which influence tiie erOpS of the farmer, or the fenfations of 

 the man. The thermometer may mark the general temperature of our climate as un- 

 changeable ; and the pluviometer may afcertaifi its ufaal moifture ; whiift a clouded atmofphere 

 or a tempeftuous wind fhall mar the progreflfive maturity of harveft, and ihaiterthe languid 

 frame of declining age. .: /^rvj;' 



-■•(( -i^ '' '. » IrUb.Acad.;tfb<^OV-. .■■ . 



VsoL.n. -Dec 1798. .3D <• Heat 



