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diftn£t. And thefe kinds of obfervations, multiplied in different 

 regions, would in procefs of time accumulate fuch a mafs of fads 

 as would furnifh materials for determining a very interefting 

 queflion : Is meteorology applicable to the fcience and art of medicine f 



That the phenomena of the atmofphere, like all the other 

 works of nature, notwithftanding the viciflitudes and apparent ir- 

 regularities of the weather, are governed by certain laws, cannot 

 be for a moment doubted ; and, that they all have their phyfical 

 caufes, we are not authorifed to deny, merely becaufe we cannot 

 difcover them. Thofe phenomena, unqueftionably, arife from 

 fome providential ordinances of which we are at prefent ignorant, 

 and which nature follows as conftantly as fhe does thofe with 

 which we are acquainted. If this was not the cafe, we muft 

 roundly aflert, that there are ai^ions which have no principle, and 

 effeds which have no caufe ; affertions totally repugnant to all 

 philofophy. Why, then, may we not, by patient inveftigation, 

 difcover a clew to deted the meanders of thofe phenomena ? Why 

 may we not be capable of tracing their laws ? Why may we not 

 ultimately be able to form thefe laws into a code, and reduce me- 

 teorology, already putting on an improved afped, into a ftill more 

 fcientific fyftem, applicable, like chemiftry and other fciences, to 

 both the ornamental anu ufeful arts ? 



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