of the British Association to the meeting at Glasgow, 1840. 485 



have had a powerful influence on the progress of scientific 

 meteorology. How gratifying to receive, through the same 

 hands, after the lapse of nearly 15 years, an additional con- 

 tribution of the same kind, and from the same country ; but 

 embracing new conditions, on a new line of operations, in or- 

 der to obtain new results ! By the observations now in pro- 

 gress at Inverness, and at Kingussie, the influence of elevation 

 in modifying the laws which have been found to govern the 

 hourly distribution of heat near the level of the sea, may be 

 discovered, and thus a great addition be made to the experi- 

 mental results, for which science has long been grateful to the 

 distinguished philosopher we have named, and which have 

 been described as "of the highest value to meteorology, and 

 as the only channel through which any specific practical in- 

 formation can be obtained in this most interesting department 

 of physics." 



This is no ordinary praise. It is the just tribute of one who 

 is worthy to offer it ; one, who at the call of the British As- 

 sociation, has conducted at Plymouth a still more extensive 

 series of similar observations, and has added to them hourly 

 comparisons of the temperature and moisture of the air, and 

 an hourly record of barometric oscillations. Mr. Snow Har- 

 ris has presented in a few pages of our last report, the precious 

 results of (70,000) observations, and thus rendered them im- 

 mediately available in the foundations of accurate meteorology. 

 The documents thus patiently collected, are, however, not yet 

 exhausted in value ; they may be again and again called into 

 the court of science, and made to yield testimony to other, and 

 as yet, unsuspected truths. They must not be lost. Shall we 

 lay them by in manuscript among other unconsulted records of 

 the past labours of men, or by undertaking their publication, 

 do justice to ourworkmen, and establish a new claim on the imi- 

 tation of the present, and the gratitude of future days ? This 

 question is of serious import. Already, stimulated by success in 

 thermometric registration, we have set to work on a more per- 

 plexing problem ; we have resolved to bind even the wandering 

 winds in the magic of numbers. While we speak, the beautiful 

 engines of our Whewells and Osiers are tracing at every instant 

 of time, the displacements of the atmosphere at Cambridge, at 

 Plymouth, at Birmingham, in Edinburgh, in Canada, in 

 St. Helena, and at the Cape of Good Hope; and ere long we 

 may hope to view associated in one diagram, the simultaneous 

 movements of the air over Europe, America, Africa, India, 

 and Australia, recorded with instruments which we have 

 chosen, by men whom we have set to work. 



Among the causes which tend to retard the progress of 



