248 
Comparing these results with those obtained at Bath during the 
same years, as seen in the former Table, it is observable that 
whether we look to the mean depression of the dew-point or to the 
relative humidity, Bath is seen to be decidedly less humid in 
spring than either Taunton, Barnstaple or Truro, and as decidedly 
more humid in summer than Taunton or Barnstaple, there being 
no great difference between Bath and Truro at this season. 
In autumn the humidity of Bath is about the same as that of 
Taunton, but in excess of that of Barnstaple and Truro, the 
humidity of these two last towns being the same at this season. 
In winter the humidity of Bath is less than that at Taunton, 
but not very different from that of Barnstaple and Truro, which 
are again about the same in this respect. 
The up-shot of the whole comparison seems to be that Bath, in 
relation to other towns whether eastward or westward, is charac- 
terised by an excess of humidity during summer and autumn, but 
by a deficiency of the same, compared with a few other places, in 
winter and spring. 
Looking to Bath alone, the humidity appears to be considerable 
at all periods of the year ; the amount being nearly the same in 
spring and summer, increasing in autumn, and greatest in winter,— 
though it is in summer, when combined with a high temperature, 
that its effects would be most felt. I cannot therefore consider 
Dr. Tunstall’s opinion before alluded to as correct.* 
It is this humidity, in connection with the configuration of the 
ground, which gives rise to the frequent fogs that hang over the 
* The humidity of the Bath atmosphere is attested by a passage in Dr. 
Tunstall’s own book, in which he quotes a remark made to him by the late Mr. 
Lawson, a well-known astronomer, formerly in Lansdown Crescent, that “the 
atmosphere of Bath was by no means suited to Astronomy.” Mr. Lawson 
added—“ There appears to me to be a cloud, or stratum of cloud of little 
density, always hovering over this locality, which hinders the use of high 
telescopic powers, and therefore forbids the measurement of close binary stars.” 
See Climate of Bath, p.p. 28,29. I think Mr. Lawson once made a similar 
remark to myself. 
