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progress Meteorology had made of late years, and of the very 
superior instruments constructed at the present day compared 
with those used formerly. I was further impressed with the 
belief that observations of this kind could seldom be conducted 
with that regularity and precision which is indispensable for 
arriving at results of any value in a scientific point of view, or 
continued for a sufficiently long term of years in order to get 
exact averages, except at a public Institution. Accordingly I was 
induced to bring the subject under the notice of the Committee of 
the Bath Literary Institution in November, 1854, in the hope 
that they would take it up at my suggestion ; and the proposition 
after full consideration being approved of, it was determined by 
that Committee that meteorological observations should be made 
thenceforth by the Librarian of the Institution, and a daily 
Register commenced so soon as the necessary arrangements 
should be completed. These arrangements consisted in the 
construction of a small observatory to be erected in the Institution 
Gardens after choosing a situation as far removed from adjacent 
buildings as circumstances allowed, and in the purchase of the 
best instruments that could be procured. 
Before explaining the nature of this construction, and describing 
the position and fixing of the instruments, I will briefly state so 
much as I have been able to find in books on the subject of the 
Bath climate, written previous to the commencement of the 
observations at the Literary Institution. 
This does not amount to very much. Several of the older 
writers on the Bath waters describe the situation of the city, and 
the general features of the country immediately about Bath, but 
scarce at all touch upon its climate. The only books known to 
me in which the climate of Bath is treated of in any detail, and 
with strict reference to its meteorology, are those of Dr. Granville* 
* Hand-book to the Hot Springs of Bath, 1841. Spas of England, 
2 vols, 1841. 
