894 Questions Jbr Solution relating to Meteorology^ 



of a sudden, or at least without any visible preparation, and 

 give a new aspect to certain departments of science, there exist 

 important and well-defined questions, which may be confidently 

 recommended to the notice of observers. Having been recently 

 called by the Academy, to draw up instructions regarding phy- 

 sical phenomena, with a view of being transmitted to the Com- 

 mander of the Boniie, I soon perceived that the author of a 

 negative Encyclopaedia, even when confining himself to what is 

 distinct and definite, would have to indicate an infinitely greater 

 number of blanks than I was at first inclined to believe. It 

 likewise appeared to me that published notices in relation to 

 these were calculated to be of great utility, and that numerous 

 well-informed persons having their time at their disposal, would 

 receive from them an impulse which would change them from 

 passive contemplators into active partizans of science. The 

 readers of the present work are now therefore acquainted with 

 the reasons which have led me to deviate from the ordinary prac- 

 tice, and substitute in the room of some complete theory in as- 

 tronomy, physics, or mechanics, an article in which almost every 

 thing remains to be solved, since it relates either to what we 

 know imperfectly, or to what we are entirely ignorant of. It will 

 remain for them to decide whether questions so drawn up will lead 

 to the advantages I ascribe to them, or whether the trial should be 

 confined to this first attempt. It is right, however, to inform them 

 that the various questions successively proposed were originally, 

 at least the greater part part of them, designed for the offi- 

 cers of a ship (the Bonite), commissioned to convey consular 

 agents to Chili, Peru, and the Philippines ; I may add, that it 

 was intended that the circumnavigation of this vessel should 

 commence by the way of Cape Horn, and terminate by that of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. 



Meteorological Phenomena. — In meteorology it is requisite to 

 submit to making observations, which, at the time, are attended 

 with no important result. It is necessary to take care o pro- 

 vide for our successors terms of comparison which we ourselves 

 want, and prepare for them the means of resolving a multitude of 

 important questions, on which it is not competent for us to enter, 

 because the ancients possessed neither barometer nor thermome- 

 ter. These considerations will suffice to explain our reason for 



