190 Scientific Intelligence. Meteorology. 



had made large geological and mineralogical collections. But 

 we more especially remark, that he had crossed the chain of the 

 Taurus with an engineer officer, who had taken the heights of 

 many spots. M. Libri attaches great importance to these ob- 

 servations, and conceives they will be much valued by philoso- 

 phers. For, if it has been demonstrated by the invariability of 

 the length of the day that the mean temperature of the earth 

 has not varied during 2000 years, the constancy of the tempe- 

 rature at the surface, and especially the maxima and minima 

 of temperature, are very far from having been demonstrated. 

 Moreover, those ancient observations, which are at all fitted for 

 establishing comparisons, are very rare, and the problem still 

 remains unsolved, on account of the want of the necessary ele- 

 ments. Now, these observations of which M. Texier speaks, 

 will enable any one to discuss those which Xenophon made in the 

 same localities, during the retreat of the ten thousand. Xeno- 

 phon speaks of perpetual snows, of the wine freezing in their 

 leathern bottles, and of the symptoms of somnolency and of 

 asphyxia, similar to those which Solander and his companions 

 experienced in their voyage to the southern regions. Accord- 

 ing to the remarks of M. Texier and his travelling companion, 

 the height of Taurus being determined, it can be ascertained 

 whether the same phenomena are reproduced in the present 

 day in seasons corresponding with those in which Xenophon 

 crossed this chain. 



6. Researches an Living Barometers, by M. U'Hombres Fir- 

 mas. The author,in a memoir on this subject, proposes to prove, 

 that man in a state of health can support, without inconvenience, 

 great variations in the atmospheric pressure, provided these va- 

 riations are not too sudden and rapid. Even in those cases in 

 which the change is effected in a very short period, as when the 

 traveller ascends from the bottom to the top of a mountain, the 

 effects are far from being the same in different individuals ; in 

 truth, whilst some experience very annoying and even very 

 painful sensations, others are but slightly affected, and others 

 not at all. This is the general result of a great number of 

 observations which have been collected by the author, and 

 which perfectly harmonize with his own. He likewise thinks 

 that the disagreeable effects which are experienced by some 



