220 M‘Sweeny, on the Climate of Ireland. 
Let us hear a prediction from him—* The year 1816 which was the coldest of a 
cycle, appears to have had its parallels in 1799 and 1782, and there is every reason 
to conclude from present appearances, that the warm temperature of 1806 will re- 
appear in 1823.”—Howard on the Climate of London, Vol. II. p. 289. 
Let us now see the character of the year 1828 in the Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 
LXIU, p. 77—‘* The mean annual temperature fully confirms what has been before 
advanced, that wet summers are generally cold. The whole of the monthly means, 
with the exception of May and December, are unusually low, indeed the actual de- 
ficiency as to the annual amount exceeds 25 degrees.” Howard predicted also that 
the year 1821 would prove an extremely dry one.— Climate of London, Vol. I. p. 
294. 
Dr. Burney describes the ground in 1821 to be in a very moist state.-—Phil. Mag. 
Vol. LIX. p. 278. 
The failure of such a man as Howard in predicting a year, is the best possible proof 
of the variableness of the climate of the British isles. 
Kirwan endeavoured to form rules of prognostication from the observations of 
Rutty. In describing the year 1792, in the 5th Vol. of the Transactions of the Royal 
Irish Academy, he admits that the autumn turned out wet, the least probable event. 
The autumn of 1794 turning out wet, he admits to be contrary to the rules of prog- 
nostication.— Trans. Roy. Irish Acad. Vol. VI. p. 171. 
It would not be an easy matter to draw up rules, or to talk dogmatically on the mi- 
nute details of the weather from the scanty materials we have in Ireland. In the 
diary of the weather for the year 1802 in the Transactions of the Dublin Society for 
1803, we are informed that ‘the thermometer is noted at 8 morning, 12 noon, still 
the month of May. ‘Then it is noted at 8 morning, 12 noon, and 4 afternoon, the 
remainder of the year. In some instances it is noted at 8 morning, 12 noon, 4 after- 
noon, 8 at night, and at other hours.” In the diary of the weather for the year 1806, 
we are informed in the same work that ‘‘ the thermometer is noted at noon, and four 
o’clock, and occasionally at other times.” Can any thing be more vague than this ? 
In noticing some difference in the mean temperature of some years in Dublin, or in 
other parts of Ireland, we are not to conclude that a change of climate has taken 
place ; the mean temperature of London, according to Howard, varies to the extent 
of four and a half degrees, therefore the mean temperature in Ireland ought to vary 
also. The same reasoning will hold good with regard to the quantity of rain in dif- 
ferent years. 
Doctor Patterson’s work on the climate of Ireland,* is evidently for the purpose ot 
combating the opinion of Hamilton in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 
that trees fail now in situations where they once flourished, owing to a change of 
* Observations on the Climate of Ireland, by William Patterson, M.D. Dublin, 1804. 
