244 
Confining ourselves then to this last column, November and 
December are seen to be the most humid months in Bath, then 
January and February, comprising together the latter part of 
autumn and the whole season of winter. In spring the humidity 
lessens considerably, falling in March much below the humidity 
of February, falling still more in April, and yet lower in May, 
when it reaches its minimum.* In summer it again increases, in 
autumn still more so, till it returns to its maximum in the two 
last months of the year as already stated. 
But, as in the case of temperature, it is in reference to other 
towns compared with Bath that the subject of the humidity of 
the Bath climate acquires its chief interest. Without knowing 
what it is in other places we can come to no conclusion as to 
whether Dr. Tunstall is right or otherwise in considering Bath 
“not to deserve the character for humidity” it has generally 
received. JI have been at some pains therefore to try and 
ascertain this point. I could only, however, make a comparison of 
Bath with those towns and places from which I could get the 
necessary returns, as published in Glaisher’s Tables in the 
Quarterly Returns of the Registrar-General. It was desirable also 
to get the results of observations for exactly the same years in all 
cases. Subject to these conditions I selected the following five 
places, all lying more or less eastward of Bath and reaching to 
the east coast, and mostly not, or not very much, north of Bath ; 
viz., Oxford, Greenwich, Camden Town, Royston and Norwich. 
The following Table accordingly shows the mean depression of 
the dew-point, and the mean relative humidity, in each of the 
above places, along with the same at Bath, in each of the four 
seasons, derived from the observations of five years, 1866—1870. 
* May is on an average probably the dryest month in the year, as regards 
the humidity of the atmosphere, in most parts of the southern half of England. 
On the 19th of May, 1868, the degree of humidity, at the hottest part of the 
day, is recorded by Nash to have fallen at Greenwich as low as 29.—Proceed. 
Brit, Met. Soc. vol. iv. p. 196. 
