396 Si it'll ti/ic Intelligence, — Meteorology. 



than .0118 grs. The apparatus employed, and the care takerr, 

 were the same throughout ; and there can be no doubt, that the 

 difference, whatever it depended on, really existed, and did not 

 arise from error of experiment. How the circumstance is to be 

 explained, it is difficult to form a conjecture ; but perhaps it 

 might be worth while to observe, that almost precisely at the 

 period above mentioned, the zviiid veered round to the north and 

 east, where it continued Jhr a consider able time, and that under 

 these circumstances the epidemic cholera first made its appearance 

 in London. It zoould seem, therefore, as if some heavy foreign 

 body had been diffused through the lower regions of the atmo- 

 sphere about this period, and which was, somehoia or other, con- 

 nected with the disease in question.' The action of this body is 

 quite unknown ; but it could have scarcely possessed acid or al- 

 kaline properties, as, in the former instance, it would have been 

 separated by lime-water, and in the latter by sulphuric acid. 

 We may probably consider it as a variety of malaria ; and, 

 what renders the conjecture more likely are its effects upon the 

 animal economy, which are somewhat analogous to those known 

 to be produced by certain varieties of this poison. Thus, du- 

 ring the present spring and summer, the saliva and the exhala- 

 tions from the skin, in almost every individual on whom the ex- 

 periment was made, have been found to be unusually acid ; the 

 state of the urine also, and other secretions, has been most re- 

 markable, and that in so great a number of individuals as to 

 prove the existence of some widely acting cause, such as has not 

 occurred in our time, or at least since the author of the present 

 communication has turned his attention to the subject. Should 

 the above conjectures prove to be well fouiided, they lead us to 

 hope that the cause of the present formidable epidemic will not 

 be permanent, but will pass gradually away ; though, from the 

 deep-seated and malignant influence which it has exerted in or- 

 ganic action, it is probable that several years will elapse before 

 its effects will be entirely obliterated. 



2. Weight of the ^Atmosphere at New and Full Moon* — The 

 weight of the air, says Dr Prout, is observed to be very un- 

 steady, and usually heavier about the new and full moon. 

 Whether this arises from aerial tides has not been satisfactorily 

 determined. It may, however, be proper to observe, that many 

 of the minute differences in the weights of the air at different 



