340 REPORT—1846. 
be in antagonism with the general polarizing force, and to subdue and mould 
it in subserviency to the exigences of the resulting specific form. 
The extent to which the operation of the polarizing or vegetative-repeti- 
tion-force is so subdued in the organization of aspecific animal form becomes 
the index of the grade of such species, and is directly as its ascent in the scale 
of being. The lineaments of the common archetype are obscured in the same 
degree: but even in man, where the specific organizing force has exerted its 
highest power in controlling the tendency to type and in modifying each 
part in adaptive subserviency to, or combination of power with, another part, 
the extent to which the vegetative repetition of segments and the archetypal 
features are traceable indicates the degree in which the general polarizing 
force may have operated in the arrangement of the parts of the developing 
frame: and it is not without interest or devoid of significance that such 
evidence should be mainly manifested in the system of organs in whose tissue 
the inorganic earthy salts most predominate. 
On Anemometry. By Joun Putuuirs, F.R.S., F.G.S. 
ANEMOMETRY, or the registration of wind, is a process of recording certain 
effects of the (horizontal) pressure or movement of the atmosphere. Ac- 
cording to the kind of effect which is subjected to observation, and to the 
process of measuring, weighing or counting which is adopted, the anemo- 
metrical instruments vary, and it is required to determine the forms of these 
instruments which are best adapted for accurate meteorological inquiries. 
Correct anemometers may be applied with advantage as auxiliaries in a variety 
of important problems not meteorological, but they are of primary import- 
ance in meteorology, and derive their value in other branches of knowledge 
from their proved adaptation to this. 
A complete anemometrical register should give on a scale of time the 
direction of the wind, and its pressure or velocity in a continuous series, or 
at very frequent intervals, for days, weeks, months or years. We may for 
particular inquiries be desirous of learning the total space traversed by the 
aérial movement, or be satisfied with knowing the maxima and minima of 
pressure, in a given period of time, or in other ways simplify the problem, 
which in its general form cannot be solved without adding a clock or other 
register of time to the apparatus for measuring wind. 
Mechanical Effects of the Movement of the Atmosphere. 
The (horizontal) movement of the air over any given point on the earth’s 
surface, one of the most important desiderata in meteorology, can only be 
observed directly in the phenomena of the clouds. The velocity of these 
light bodies may be measured trigonometrically, by their change of position, 
or when the sun shines, by observing the progress of their shadows on the 
ground. But these are rather experiments than observations, and when we 
attempt by instrumental means to register the velocity of the wind, some 
considerable difficulties at once appear. The air moves because it is pressed : 
machines to be influenced by wind must be made to receive and yield to its 
pressure. If this pressure be received on a machine so contrived that it has 
a resisting power, which rises with the increase of pressure till equilibrium 
is gained, the displacement of the spring, the elongation of the lever, the 
augmentation of the weight, &c. may be taken as proportioned to the 
