214 On the use of the Thermometer in Astronomical Observations. [Oct. 1, 
press, or individual, ought to have 
done without authority.”—In an octavo 
edition of our authorized Bible, printed 
at Cambridge, 1793, instead of, ‘They 
brake down the house of Baal and 
made it a draught-house,” the reading 
is, “They brake down the house of 
Baal, and made it a draught-horse.” 
In a folio prayer-book, printed 1792, 
it is said, Ps. ii. 9. ‘¢ Thou shalt 
bruise them with a rod of iron, and 
break them in pieces like a porter’s 
vessel,” instead of a potter’s vessel. 
Now, sir, if sub silentio alterations 
have been thus made by the University 
of Oxford, sub silentio alterations may 
also have been made by that of Cam- 
bridge, and also by the king’s printers ; 
and, if so, here is a fruitful source of 
various readings. The question de- 
serves investigation ; and, if it is al- 
lowed to these bodies to make sub 
silentio alterations, surely common 
prudence dictates, that they should 
confer with each other on these alter- 
ations, that the purchasers of the re- 
spective bibles may not be led to com- 
parisons on their correctness, of which 
many of them are imeapable of 
judging. 
From what I have seen of English 
Bibles, and I have turned over many 
editions, I am certain that the proto- 
type of James’s is no longer the 
standard of either of the three privi- 
leged bodies above mentioned. I 
shrewdly suspect, that neither of them 
., has any fixed standard ; if they have, 
' perhaps some of your correspondents 
will be able to inform me where it is 
to be found; and, by so doing, they 
will confer a favour on, sir, 
Your very obedient, 
PATER-FAMILIAS. 
N.B. The following editions of the 
Bible read our joy in the fourth verse 
ef the first Epistle of John :— 
London, 4to. Z . - 
Oxford, 8vo. ° . . : 
Cambridge, 8ve. . es 
Cambridge small ae . . 1815 
Oxford 8vo. . 1796 
The following Edians of the Bible 
read your joy in this verse :— 
1806 
1803 
1784 
Oxford 4to, e . e 1756 
Oxford 8voe. é . 1679 
Lendon 4to. \ é 1692 
Oxford small 8vo. . ° 1814 
— 
Fo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
sIR, 
T appears by a letter from M. Mon- 
taut, lieutenant in the French ma- 
rine, inserted in the Annales Mari- 
times, that in cloudy tempestuous wea- 
ther, which is frequent on the coast of 
America, the thermometer may be em- 
ployed as a substitute for astronomical 
observations, It is admitted by navi- 
gators, that, in the Gulph of Mexico, 
the waters collected and pressed, in a 
permanent direction, from east to 
west, escape through the channel of 
the Bahamas, then stretch along the 
coasts of America to Newfoundland, 
and make another bend towards the 
Azores, where they spread in different 
directions like an expanded fan. In 
the whole of this movement the mass 
of waters, impelled by some cause 
constantly acting, keeps in a current, 
called by the Americans the Gulph 
Stream, and the waters retain a mea- 
sure of the heat of the climate whence 
they issued, losing it gradually as the 
distance increases and the channel of 
the current widens. It is easy fora 
ship to find itself in this current by 
astronomical observations, &c.; but, in 
bad weather, when recourse cannot be 
lad to these, the thermometer may be 
made very useful. By plunging it in 
the water, it will indicate a tempera- 
ture, by Reaumur, three orfourdegrees 
higher than atmosphere heat, while in 
the main ocean it would remain the 
same. It would not be difficult, by 
experiments brought together and 
compared, to distinguish when a ship 
is entering or quitting this current; on 
clearing the western limit of its chan- 
nel, the land will be forty or fifty 
leagues distant. In a part of that in- 
terval, the water re-assumes the tem- 
perature of the atmosphere, which only 
at about twelve or fifteen leagues from 
the coast falls a little. 
Lieutenant M. having had an order, 
at Martinique, from “Vice Admiral 
Duperré, to ascertain, or otherwise, 
the above data, made observations, and 
the results were conformable. On the 
3d of April, 1821, in 34° 48’ north Iat., 
and 72° 47’ west longitude, be found 
water 3° 3’ hotter than the air. On 
the 7th, at night, in 36° 20’ lat., and 
75° 54’ long. the degrees of heat were 
alike ; but, in the interval that had in- 
tervened, the temperature was in fa- 
vour of the water. At the instant of 
the equality of the temperatures, he 
ran forty-one leagues to the north-west 
by west, depth fifteen fathom; there 
the water was 2° 6' below the at- . 
mosphere. 
On the 9th in a very thick fog, 
making 
