244 Professor Kaemtz on the more imporiaiit 



the most memorable epoch of our history. Fortunately the 

 scientific discoveries of the illustrious Secretary had nothing to 

 dread from the incapacity of his panegyrist. My end shall 

 have been completely attained, if, notwithstanding the imper- 

 fection of my sketch, I have proved to each of you, that the 

 progress of general physics, of terrestrial physics, and of geo- 

 logy, will daily exhibit more and more the numerous applica- 

 tions of the Analytical Theory of Heat, and that this work will 

 hand down the name of Fourier to the latest posterity. 



Remarks on the more important Atmospherical Phoenomena. By 

 Professor Ludwig Friedrich Kaemtz of Halle. 



Importance of Meteorology. — It is impossible for organic be- 

 ings to exist unless they are surrounded by the atmosphere. As 

 an animal, under the receiver of an air-pump, dies when the air is 

 sufficiently exhausted, so a plant, placed in similar circumstances, 

 cannot thrive. It is not merely the presence of the constituent 

 parts of the atmosphere which is requisite for these beings, for 

 there are other relations which possess great influence in this re- 

 spect, and of these! would adduce more especially the temperature 

 and motion of the aerial ocean. Just as each plant is in a flour- 

 ishing condition only when it inhabits a certain region, and be- 

 comes more or less diseased when exposed to the influence of 

 too high or too low a temperature, so we find, that every ani- 

 mal inhabits certain regions of the earth. Although man, 

 owing to the pliability of his nature, possesses to a greater 

 degree than any plant the power of accommodating himself to 

 all climates, although he can endure the burning heats of the 

 deserts of Africa and Asia, and the piercing cold of high nor- 

 thern latitudes ; yet minute investigations show differences, not 

 merely in the corporeal condition (especially when we keep in 

 view the prevailing diseases as the groundwork of the examina- 

 tion), but also in the occupations and the mental powers ; diffe- 

 rences which we must explain chiefly by the position of the dis- 

 tricts inhabited by him, by their peculiar climate, and also the 

 tone of intellect thus produced. 



It is not merely these inequalities of climate in different dis- 

 tricts, which, since the beginning of history, have attracted the 



