422 Observations respecting a New Scale 



each other, t^at any idea of ^xing the there, I should 

 think, must be entirely relinquished. 



With respest lo the freezing point of mercury being, as 

 has been suggested by several philosophical persons, a fit 

 place for the zero, it perhaps may be sufficient to observe, 

 that this would be adapting a scale of heat to a particular 

 thermometer, instead of applying a thermometer to a scale 

 of temperature. 



The table of temperatures applies more particularly to 

 the different degrees of latitude specified, from the equator 

 to the north pole in the eastern hemisphere, where the gra- 

 dations or diminutions of heat are tolerably uniform. In 

 the western hemisphere, the diminutions of heat from the 

 equator to the north pole are found, from causes well 

 known, to be very irregular or anomalous; and in general 

 the cold is considerably greater on the same parallels of 

 latitude in this, than in the eastern hemisphere. 



From the equator proceeding towards the south pole, the 

 diminutions of heat are found to be tolerably uniform ; the 

 chief difference consisting in the cold being somewhat 

 greater in the higher latitudes, on the same parallel, than 

 on the north side of the equator. 



Notwithstanding the irregularity as to diminution of 

 temperature which is observed in the latitudes betweeu 

 the equator and the polar regions in the western hemi- 

 sphere, and the difference before mentioned on the south of 

 the equator ; there is good reason to suppose that, at thet 

 poles, as at the equator, the variation of temperature is not 

 considerable, because the maximum of cold (or minimum 

 of heat) is at the poles, as the maximum of heat is at the 

 equator *. 



Hence, although every latitude between the equator and 

 the poles yiay be liable to considerable anomalies or irre- 

 gularities, with respect to heat and cold, according as they 

 are more or less exposed, so as to receive the currents of 

 air from higher or lower latitudes ; yet at those two points 

 where there is only one of these causes operating upon each, 

 the variations in the temperature, at the same seasons, in 

 different years, may be but small, comparatively with the 

 others, particularly the middle latitudes. 



In latitudes, therefore, even at some distance from the 



* The maximum of cold at the poles is perhaps; mnrc complete thaji the 

 maximum of heat, from a well-known cause, is at the equator: viz. the 

 sun's annual path, respectively to the earih, being not confined to Ihf line of 

 fhe equator. 



poleS| 



