JtSS M. Arago on the Thermometrkal State 



regions of France, the summers are noiv become less hot than 

 ihey Jhrmerly were. 



Many ancient families of the Vivarais have preserved, in the 

 titles of their property, deeds which go as far back as the year 

 1561. These deeds indicate the existence of productive vines in 

 grounds elevated more than 1800 feet above the level of the sea, 

 and where now, not a single grape ripens, even in the most fa- 

 vourable exposures. To explain this fact, we must admit that 

 in Vivarais the summers formerly were hotter than they now 

 are. 



This result is confirmed, so far as regards that part of the 

 same country in which the vine is still cultivated, by a document 

 equally demonstrative, but of a different nature. 

 . Previous to the Revolution, there were in the Vivarais very 

 many rents dependent upon the wine, and so settled in the six- 

 teenth century. The great number of these rents were to be paid 

 for, by the wine that was first drawn from the vat. For others 

 again it was stipulated, that they might be taken from the casks, 

 at the choice of the landlord. The time of this payment was 

 fixed, making allowance for the corrected style, at about the 8th 

 of October. The documents in question, prove that, on the 8th 

 of October, the wine was in the casks, or at least in the vat, and 

 at the point of being drawn off. Now ihe minimum of time that 

 ivine is left in the vat ere it is drawn off, is eight days. In the 

 sixteenth century, then, the vintage must have been finished in 

 the Vivarais in the latter days of September. Now, it is not 

 finished till between the 8th and 20th of October. An inhabi- 

 tant of the country has affirmed that he never saw it commence 

 before the 4th of October. 



These documents are silent as to the duration and the severi- 

 ty of the winters ; but they appear to establish that, in the six- 

 teenth century, at the 45° of latitude, and on the banks of the 

 Rhone, the summers must have been hotter than they now are. 



We read in the history of Macon, that, in 1552 or 1553, the 

 Hugonots retired to Lancie, a village situated close to this 

 town, and that there they drank the muscat wine of the country. 

 But the muscat-grape will not now ripen in this district, in such 

 a way that wine may be made from it. 



The Emperor Julian had vin de Surene at his table. The 

 reputation of this wine is now proverbial ; why, we need not 



