[ 277 ] 



and the emulation, thus excited, would neceffarily diffufe a confider- 

 able mafs of knowledge throughout the community. 



Theodore, the late Eledlor Palatine of the Rhine, realized 

 this projed in his dominions ; and that incomparable fovereign, 

 Catharine the Great^ entertained the fame defign fhortly before her 

 deceafe. 



Some other petty impediments ftill remain, which unqueftion- 

 ably occafion a great lofs of time, but which meteorologifts them- 

 felves may eafily remove, namely, the difcordant notation of 

 their inftruments, and the ufe of duodecimal, nay even in fome cafes, 

 of fexagefimal divifions, inftead of the decimal, which is fo much 

 more commodious, and the application of the vague terms, hot, 

 cold, wet, dry, to certain periods, without any defignation of their 

 precife meaning. 



Among the moft zealous promoters of meteorology' in the lafl 

 century we find fome of the moft eminent philofophers it produced, 

 Derham, Halley, De la Hire, Mairan, Reaumur, Wargentin, 

 Leche, Kraft, Braun, Richman, Sauffure, Beguelin, &c. and 

 among thofe now living, De Luc, Dodor Horfeley, Van Swinden, 

 Cotte, Monge, &c. 



The late great navigator Captain Cooke, and the ever to be la- 

 mented La Peyroufe, Mr. Dalrymple, and Captain Phipps, have 

 Vol. VIII. M m materially 



