Meteorological Register for 1822, S^c. 267 



AiiT. XI. — Abstract of the Meteorological Register for 1822, 

 1823, 1824, and 1825, from Observations made by the Svat- 

 geons of the Army at the Military Posts of the United States 

 Army. Prepared under the direction of Joseph Lovell, 

 M. D. Surgeon-General of the United States Army. 



It is with a satisfaction of a very pecuUar kind that we ob- 

 serve the great exertions made in the cause of science, not only 

 by the general government of the United States, but even by 

 the local governments of that extensive and interesting country. 

 We have already seen (see this Journal, vol. viii. No. xvi. 

 p. 303,) that the legislature of the State of New York has en- 

 joined the Regents of the different Universities within their 

 bounds to make annual returns of the state of the thermome- 

 ter, rain-guage, and weather, and that the first report has been 

 given to the public. Long before this, in 1821, Mr Calhoun, 

 Secretary of 3tate for the War Department, had suggested 

 and ordered to be carried into effect a regular series of meteo- 

 rological observations to be made by the surgeons of the 

 United States army. This great work, which will immortalize 

 the name of Mr Calhoun, has been carried into effect for four 

 complete years; and, as no account of the register has been pub- 

 lished in any of our scientific journals, we trust our readers 

 will be gratified with the following abstract of it. We are 

 enabled to do this through the kindness of Captain Basil Hall, 

 who has been so good as to put into our hands a copy of the 

 printed report. 



" On the question whether in a series of years there be any 

 material change in the climate of a given district of country ; 

 and if so, how far it depends upon cultivation of the soil, den- 

 sity of population, &c. the most contradictory opinions have 

 been advanced. While one contends, that, as population in- 

 creases and cultivation extends, the climate becomes warmer, 

 another is equally convinced that it becomes colder, and a 

 third, that there is no change in this respect. These opinions 

 are for the most part founded on a comparison of the climate 

 of Europe at the present day with what it is supposed to have 

 been two thousand years ago ; and their great discrepancy may 



