174 Mk. J. Betce oh the Recent Progress 0/ the 



paratively mild and equable climate. The high minima on Scafell and 

 the other mountains is, however, in great part due to the thermometers 

 being covered with snow in the coldest months. They show a mini- 

 mum of only 8° to 10° F. ; while, there can be no doubt, that in the 

 air, a temperature considerably below zero would have been indicated. 



(15.) The temperatures of a great many stations in India, are given 

 iu a long and elaborate paper by Col. Sykes, in the Philosophical 

 Traasactioiis for 1850, to which we can only now allude. Reference 

 will again be made to it under the head of " Atmospheric Pressure." 



(16.) From a comparison of registers, kept for more than thirty 

 years at Berlin, with others in various places, Maedler concluded that 

 a general depression of temperature took place over the whole globe, on 

 the 11th, 12th, and 13th of May. To this view a discussion of the 

 Toronto observations lends no countenance ; and Major-General Sabine 

 considers that, as a general law, the theory is by no means established, 

 though true as regards Berlin. From the same discussion, it appears that 

 the summers in N. America have not a greater degree of warmth than 

 is due to the latitude ; but that the winters are much below the mean 

 temperature due to it. The mean is, in fact, for this season, about 

 7° F. below the normal temperatm'e of the latitude. At Toronto, it is 

 even more than this ; the thermic anomaly, — that is, the difference 

 between the temperature actually experienced and that due to the lati- 

 tude being there 11° F. The mean annual range, or the difference 

 between the hottest and the coldest months (July and February), is 

 42°-7. The hottest day is the 28th July; the coldest the 14th of 

 February; and the mean temperature, 44°'23, is passed through on the 

 19th of April and 15th of October. A paper on the cHmate of North 

 America, containing some new and very remarkable views, will be found 

 in the Report of the Glasgow meeting of the British Association. The 

 discussion of the Toronto temperature observations is given at length 

 in the Philosophical Traiisactioiis for 1853, Part I. 



(17.) Much attention has been given of late to the important subject 

 of a change in the zero point of thermometers. Such a change has an 

 obvious connection with the trustworthy character of instruments long 

 in use, or exposed to new conditions, and is thus worthy of the closest 

 attention. It is suspected that such a change may have taken place in 

 the eai'th thermometers at the Edinburgh Observatory ; and the sub- 

 ject is now engaging the earnest attention of Prof. C. Piazzi Smjrth. 

 Mr. Welsh of the Kew Observatory has also investigated the subject, 

 and has recently put forth some important views in a paper, of which 

 an abstract is contained in the Report of the HuU meeting of the 

 British Association, 1853. An important mathematical paper, by Mr. 



