M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 181 
s 
gagiig the attention of the first philosophers of the day. According to Baumgart- 
ner of Vienna, Ann. de Chimie, 1826, the direct white light of the sun, may be 
made to produce magnetism more rapidly, than the process of Morichini, or wf Mrs. 
Somerville. The researches of De La Rive, of Cirsted, and of Ampere, the creator 
of the branch of physics, called electro dynamics, and of Faraday, on the movements 
of continued rotation discovered by him; and of Becquerel, and of other eminent 
philesophers, may help, when compared with the meteorological observations of such 
men as Humboldt, Daniel, Howard, and Flaugergues, to give insight into intricate 
points of meteorology. Much yet is to be done in the way of simultaneous obser- 
vation, in different parts of the world, by philosophers capable of undertaking the 
task, and aided by the most improved instruments, before we will be warranted to 
speak dogmatically on several points. 
A more intimate knowledge than we at present possess of the laws that govern 
light, heat, electricity, and magnetism, may be absolutely necessary for the explana- 
tion of several meteorological phenomena. It has been said that a second Newton is 
yet to come, whose comprehensive mind will be capable of arranging the multitude of 
facts and observations, and of deducing the general laws that govern climate. It is 
only necessary to study attentively, the most approved of works on meteorology, to 
know what little at present is understood, of the causes that make the winds to de- 
viate at different times, and that influence temperature in different countries, and in 
different years. 
The doctrine of central heat in our earth, has latterly been brought forward on 
the continent, to explain the difference of temperature in countries, where a similarity 
of temperature might be expected. The Neptunian theory of Werner, which had 
obtained ascendency in public opinion, cannot be well reconciled with the mass of 
evidence now before the scientific world, with regard to the increase of temperature, 
as we descend from the surface of the earth into mines. In the Mssai sur la tem- 
_ perature de Vinteriéur de la Terre, par M. Cordier, will be found a deal of 
information on this curious subject. 
If the opinion were admitted of our earth being a planet partially cooled, as Des 
Cartes, and Leibnitz supposed, and having its centre in a state of fluidity, there would 
still be a difficulty in reconciling the accounts of the very severe cold of Europe in 
former days, with its climate at present, and a cooling process constantly going on, by 
_ means of the conducting power of the crust of the earth. ; 
Humboldt, perhaps the first opinion in the world on the subject of temperature, 
inclines to the belief of a central heat. After alluding to the observations of Arago 
on the temperature of water brought up from deep borings, he remarks, that these 
important observations show, that in the earliest state of our planet, tropical tempe- 
rature, and tropical vegetation, could arise under every zone, and continue until the 
radiation of heat from the hardened surface of the earth, could cause it to cool. If 
