of Dr. Holyoke. 117 
The following memorandum of a remarkably hot day is con- 
tained in the journal for 1786; but it appears, from the hand- 
writing, to have been written several years later. 
“The greatest heat known in this country (at least for the 
last forty years) happened on Sunday, June 18, 1749. The day 
preceding, namely, the 17th, the spirit in Mr. Hauksbee’s ther- 
mometer (the only thermometer then known in this part of 
America) rose to 6° above zero, which is higher than had ever 
before been observed, but on that day, the 18th, it rose to the 
height of 132 above zero. The thermometer hung in the south- 
west room of the President’s house in Cambridge, near the meet- 
ing-house, and the shutters were closed all the afternoon, till after 
divine service; when they and the windows were thrown open 
for the benefit of the air. But the thermometer rose in an hour 
four or five degrees, and the wind, which was pretty fresh at 
southwest, blew in almost scorching, so that the family found 
themselves obliged to sit, as far as they were able, out of the 
current of air, which was insupportable.” 
Hauksbee’s thermometer has been a long time out of use; 
and little or no mention is made of his scale for the last eighty or 
one hundred years. He took for his zero the temperature of a 
hot day in London. It does not appear by what rule he formed 
the divisions of the scale. Temperate was marked 34°, and the 
freezing point of water was generally 65°. Neither the zero 
nor either of these numbers was uniformly fixed, however, but 
they were varied in different cases to accommodate the instru- 
ment to the climate in which it was to be used. At Naples, for 
example, it was found that water froze at the temperature of 55° 
of a Hauksbee’s thermometer. Itis obvious that such a thermom- 
eter could be of very little use, for comparing the temperature of 
25 
