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what has been often noted by meteorologists, that there is no 
direct connection between humidity and rain-fall, and that they 
often rise from entirely opposite conditions of the atmosphere. 
The above instances selected from the Registers of the Literary 
Institution, taken in connection with the remarks preceding 
them, clearly show how necessary it is to attend to the several 
agencies by which different states of weather are brought about 
in this changeable climate collectively, if we would thoroughly 
understand weather phenomena, as well as understand the work- 
ing of our instruments by which we seek to explain those 
phenomena. It shows that we must not trust to any one instru- 
ment alone, nor indeed in some cases to all instruments combined, 
without taking into consideration what may be going on higher 
up in the atmosphere beyond the limits of their sensitiveness. 
Other conditions may prevail above than those which prevail 
below, and such as can only be definitely determined by balloon 
observations, of which we hereby see the value, and which have 
already given us much important knowledge respecting the 
distribution of temperature and vapour at different elevations — 
above the earth’s surface. It is manifest, nevertheless, in some 
cases how complicated is the action of these two elements of 
weather—temperature and humidity—even at the level at which 
our instruments are fixed, sometimes one and sometimes the 
other, by excess or defect, entirely altering the condition of the air ; 
sometimes both co-operating, either in opposite or in the same 
directions, to make the weather agreeable to our feelings or the 
reverse, 
And this leads to the question of climate and health, and the 
effect which the ever-varying conditions of the atmosphere have 
upon certain constitutions. Our sensations as affected by weather 
depend perhaps more upon the relative variations of heat and 
moisture than upon any other circumstances ; and these two are 
often quite different at the same place at different times. A 
month or a season may he very hot and very dry, or the humidity 
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