CORRESPONDENCE. 



To the Editors op "The Analyst." 

 Gentlemen, 



A few observations on a science, too little understood and too 

 much neglected, may not be unacceptable to you, as the Editors of a 

 Journal devoted to science and literature — I allude to the study of 

 Meteorology, which has strong claims to the favourable consider- 

 ation of the public, although it does not afford many opportunities 

 to the student to display his knowledge, or to make discoveries. As 

 the observations are made in private, and much time is occupied in 

 establishing any theory that may be formed from given data, it 

 is not surprising so few devote themselves to the science ; yet all 

 the phenomena which form the studies of the Meteorologist, are 

 intimately connected with the health, happiness, and welfare of 

 man. The changes in the state of the atmosphere, the humidity of 

 one place, and the dryness of another — the genial warmth of the 

 south, and the bracing air of the north — are of the utmost conse- 

 quence to the invalid, and many of the ills which " flesh is heir to," 

 may be alleviated by attention to the place in which the patient 

 may reside, a knowledge of the fitness or impropriety of which 

 Meteorology can alone supply. The clearing of woods, and the 

 planting of trees, alter the temperature of a country, and cause dis- 

 ease or impart health, almost at the will of man : these, though the 

 work of other hands, produce effects which would have remained 

 unknown but for the labours of the Meteorologist. The range of 

 the thermometer prescribes the productions to be obtained from the 

 earth, in this or that locality ; even in England, the months in 

 which the greatest or least quantity of rain falls, vary in different 

 places, and those not far distant from each other : thus, at Wy- 

 combe and Epping, for instance, the excess of rain falls in Septem- 

 ber, at Edmonton in October, and at Cheltenham in July, while 

 November produces the greatest quantity at Carlisle. From an ac- 

 quaintance with facts of this description, the husbandman would be 

 enabled to arrange his plans, and to the Meteorologist he would be 

 indebted for this knowledge. The current and sound of winds, and 

 the aspect of the clouds, afford to the student of Meteorology the 

 means of fortelling changes in the weather, whose effect might in- 

 volve the safety and comfort of many : and it is from an attention 

 vol. v. — no. xviii. 2o 



