254 REPORT—1857. 
8. Before concluding, it will be necessary to explain the mode in which 
my results were obtained. 
The average length of a lunation being a little more than 293 days, and 
the difference between the quarters varying from three or four hours to two 
days and even more, with a view to secure as much uniformity as the circum- 
stances of the case, in the absence of a sufficient number of hourly obser- 
vations, would admit, the mean temperatures of the days on which the moon 
entered on her four principal phases were first set down as centres, and then 
the mean temperatures of the days immediately before and after them, each 
in its proper order; and so with the maxima and minima of the month. 
By this method it will be seen that the numerically imperfect observations 
in each quarter fell upon the intermediate or octant days; and my results, I 
think, show that this was a proper method to adopt. Otherwise, and if there 
had been any indications of a regular progression of effects from @ to O, it 
would have been better to take the latter as a centre, and to have arranged 
the observations accordingly. 
The investigation is now being carried out further by means of the 
highest and lowest readings of the self-registering maximum and minimum 
thermometer. 
Garlands, Ewhurst, Surrey. 
P.S. Dr. Buys Ballot, Director of the Royal Meteorological Institute of 
the Netherlands, informs me that he has found the highest temperature to 
follow on O, which he attributes to the greater amount of heat reflected 
from the moon’s surface at that period. M. Ballot’s results are formed 
from observations made at Haarlem, extending over 120 years. ‘The effects 
were there too most conspicuous in the winter months. 
Report on the Animal and Vegetable Products imported into Liverpool 
Srom the year 1851 to 1855 (inclusive). 
In consequence of a suggestion from Professor Balfour at the Glasgow 
Meeting 1855, it was considered a very desirable object to obtain some 
information relative to the species of animals and vegetables which furnish 
the articles of commerce, and the extent to which the demand on each is 
carried. The General Committee therefore recommended as an experiment, 
that Committees should be appointed for this purpose in Liverpool and 
Glasgow to collect the necessary particulars and report thereon. The gen- 
tlemen chosen for Liverpool were Professor T. C. Archer, Queen’s College, 
Liverpool, and Joseph Dickenson, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &e. 
Unfortunately the serious indisposition of Dr. Dickenson obliging him to 
travel, he was unable to take any active part in preparing the following 
Report, to which his great experience would have been so valuable; but as 
it was seen that the sum voted by the General Committee would be insuffi- 
cient to meet the expenses of clerical assistance, Dr. Dickenson liberally 
undertook to pay any excess of expenditure, thus giving valuable aid to its 
completion. 
The plan pursued in obtaining the results was as follows :— 
In each large port there is published daily, a paper called “ The Bill of 
Entry,” which gives, besides a variety of other particulars, the arrival of 
