168 Some Meteorological Observations 
parably connected ; and as the hypothesis stands, one part can- 
not be maintained without contradicting the other. Why, there- 
fore, should so limited a survey of those objections be taken, 
which are all in harmony; and why need one part of the hypo- 
thesis be sustained when it is opposed by the other ? 
In my * Reflections, &c.”’ I gave a caution concerning the 
experiments there detailed. They are of a delicate kind, and 
I stated that they only succeed in certain states of the weather. 
The period w hen I made them was dry sunny weather, and I 
haye never found them to succeed easily but in the middle of 
summer. This is a source of fallacy, which from the season could 
not have been guarded against in the counter-experiments. 
There are various other sources of error. Thus it is very dif- 
ficult to determine what body is positive-or what negative ; for 
positive hodies will, under certain circumstances, attract positive 
bodies ; and negative bodies will attract negative. Of this also 
no notice has been taken. 
The electrometer of Bennet is an instrument not to be de- 
pended on without acquaintance with a principle of electricity 
which I have deyeloped, and which in a work soon to appear 
will be shown to have misled many able investigators Any 
electrometer on the same principle, whether pith-balls or gold- 
leaf, is liable to the same objection. In the counter-experiments 
this error has not been guarded against. 
To the sarcasm and wit affected in the paper alluded to, | an- 
swer but with silence. I conceive them below the dignity of 
philosophy, and have seldom seen them employed but in the ab- 
sence of sounder arguments. The attempt evident throughout 
‘ the whole, of making my humble labours appear nugatory, and 
myself little better than an idiot, produces no other effect than 
to compel me to decline further controversy, and to recommend 
more temperate and cautious investigation’ of the opinions of 
others. 
TI have the honour to be, &c. 
Dublin, Feb. 23, 1816. M. Donoyan, | 
XXXVII. Some Meleorological Observations made in the Ne- 
therlands. By M. Van Mons, of Brussels*, 
W E have this last year remarked a singular opposition be- 
tween the usual meteorological indications and the weather, 
* Communicated by the Author. 
The 
