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RECORDS OF METEOROLOGY ON THE VARIATIONS 

 OF CLIMATE FOR THIS DISTRICT OF ENGLAND. 



BY MR. HENRY SOUTHALL, F.M.S. 



It is proposed in the present paper to consider what we may be led to 

 expect in the future from the history and analogy of the past, without, however, 

 entering much into details or venturing to predict any exact time for the 

 recurrence of particular or extraordinary events. The science of Meteorology 

 is yet in its infancy, and it is at the present moment in urgent need of accurate 

 observers, for conclusions of value can alone be drawn from the correct and 

 regular readings of good instruments in as many situations as possible. 



The Moon. — From a very early period the moon has been supposed to 

 affect the atmosphere as well as the tides, to a considerable extent, and the 

 notion is probably as prevalent now as it ever was, that with a change of moon 

 we may expect a change of weather. This idea, after very patient investigation, 

 has been entirely given up by meteorologists. The late Luke Howard, for 

 example, author of " The Climate of London," and than whom no one has paid 

 more close attention to this subject, was unable, after years of consecutive 

 observation, to discover any definite connection between the lunar and atmo- 

 spheric changes, and when we consider that over a space of the earth's surface 

 which would be equally influenced by the moon's gravitation, the most diverse 

 effects are being simultaneously produced, it does not seem even theoretically 

 probable that such should be the case. 



There is more ground for believing that the full moon has a slight 

 influence in dispersing clouds, and that the amount of rainfall is somewhat 

 larger under some phases than under others, but even these suppositions, for 

 they are scarcely more, are, to say the least, very problematical. 



A table was published in 1803 by a Mr. Herschel, which purported to 

 predict the weather according to the hour of the moon's changes ; but it was 

 very artfully prepared, since it provided also that the wind should be in a 

 certain direction. Thus, in winter, if the wind was in the S.AV., warm or wet 

 weather might be looked for ; or if, on the contrary, it was in the N.E., snow 

 or frost might be expected, results very likely to follow, quite independently 

 of any lunar influence. 



