118 Dr. Hale on the Meteorological Journal of Dr. Holyoke. 
different places. But when this thermometer was adopted by 
the Royal Society of London, a standard thermometer was kept 
at the Society’s house, by which all others, that were intended 
to be accurate, were graduated. A great number of instruments 
thus made and graduated were sent out by the Royal Society 
for the purpose of ascertaining the temperature of different parts 
of the world; and it is not improbable that President Holyoke’s 
thermometer was obtained in this manner. 
According to Martine, the zero of the standard thermometer 
of the Royal Society answered to 89° of Fahrenheit, and the 
freezing point of water was 79°. It thus appears that the heat 
observed in President Holyoke’s house in 1749 was 98° of our 
present scale. This is not so high as has often been observed 
since. But it should be remembered, that the observation was 
made in the house, and at a late hour in the afternoon. In 
another memorandum, which I have seen, Dr. Holyoke supposes 
that 10 degrees at least should be added for these reasons, 
making the real heat of the day as high as 108° of Fahrenheit. 
This however, is, so much above any other heat ever known in 
this climate, that it must require more direct evidence of its 
existence, and perhaps a thermometer in which more confidence 
can be placed, to induce us to give entire credit to it. 
