Ohservaiiofis in differcni Places and Climates. 83 



Six's thermometer, which is commonly graduated by Fahren- 

 heit's method, he must have new modelled the scale to his piir>> 

 pose. On the whole, I must refer tliis gentleman, and the readers 

 of the Philosophical Magazine in general, to the work I have 

 already mentioned, for much that might be here said in re- 

 ference to the contents of tliis letter, the most material part of 

 which I have extracted. It may be ol)served, as a general pro- 

 position, that nothing is likely to be gained by departing from 

 the ordinary mode of publishing Meteorological Tables every 

 month. The European calendar is equally applicable in all 

 parts of the globe ; but seasons differ, and are even reversed by 

 the position of the place of observation in another hemisphere. 

 About the polar circle, again, they have a long severe nintcr and 

 a short warm summer, without spring or autumn : within the 

 tropics, two seasons which approach more nearly in their cha- 

 racter to a wet spring and a dry autumn, both indeed at a 

 temperature much higher than we experience in tiicse middle 

 latitudes. As the Jonr seasons exist only in these, it is here 

 alone that they can be compared in the method proposed: other 

 modes must be adopted for the hot and cold climates, and it 

 is nearly itidifferent in what portions the observations are pi'O- 

 duced, provided the method of summing up the results be pro- 

 perly adapted to the climate, the natural divisions of which 

 should in every case be studied and adhered to. There is, I 

 think, much merit in the specimen given bv M. Castellani, of 

 his method, in the Blbl'iolheque Universelle'^ : but to me, who 

 have seen it for the first time only within these few days, the 

 same difficnlty presents itself in attempting to compare it with 

 my own, of which he complains — a new method and new mea- 

 sures to be studied and comprehended, before the matter can be 

 come at for the intended use. The use of curves (I repeat it as 

 being the most essential part of my letter) for the purpose of ex- 

 pressing every thing in meteorology that is subject to measures; 

 would do away at once so nuich of this dilficnlty, as to render it 

 easy to proceed in common with our respective observations, and 

 compare tiiem in detail, as well as in result, at a glance; at least 

 until tlie great ol)ject of a uniform measure for all civilized na- 

 tions be satisfactorily accomplished. The data in figures should 

 however in this case be required along with the graphical repre- 

 sentations, or should at least be kejit in readiness to be produced 

 as vouchers of their accuracy. 



I am respectfully thy friend, 

 Tottenham, 23(1 of first month, 1821. LlJKK IIoWARD. 



• Vol. H. p. 232, 181.'). 



L 2 xin. //</- 



