112 Progress of Science respecting Igneous Meteors in 1823. 



this kind, I conceive, would be useful in various ways : the 

 historical part would refer those who might be examining or 

 making new researches upon particular subjects of meteoro- 

 logy, to the sources of the latest information respecting them ; 

 and would point out, to a considerable extent, those divisions 

 of the science which stand most in need of further investiga- 

 tion : whilst the comprehensive detail and comparison of the 

 atmospheric changes and phenomena observed during the 

 past year, would indicate those subjects of observation, which, 

 from time to time, might appear more particularly to require 

 the attention of those who register the changes of the weather. 



Various meteorological observers, both in this country and 

 on the continent, are in the habit of drawing up and publish- 

 ing annual statements of this nature, as far as their own ob- 

 servations ai'e concerned : but the only review of meteorologi- 

 cal observations which is in any degree of a general kind, and 

 the only one also, I believe, that emanates from any scientific 

 institution, is the Resume des Observations meteorotogiques 

 faites a V Observatoire Royal de Paris, arranged by M. Arago, 

 and published, from year to year, in the Annates de Chimie. 

 This summary, besides the observations forming its basis, the 

 excellence of which is well known to those who have had oc- 

 casion to examine them, usually contains a selection of the 

 more remarkable phenomena which have taken place during 

 the year ; as well as a calendar of earthquakes and of volcanic 

 eruptions ; and a catalogue of the spots on the sun observed 

 during that period, in order to furnish the means for a rigorous 

 examination of the opinion that they have a sensible influence 

 upon the temperature of the earth. The propriety of including 

 the phsenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes in such a review 

 cannot be too strongly recommended ; not so much, in the pre- 

 sent case, with a view to the discovery of their causes, as to the 

 investigation of their influence upon and connexion with various 

 phaenomena strictly within the province of the meteorologist ; 

 and which, there seems reason to believe, takes place to a 

 greater extent than is usually imagined. There are subjects, 

 likewise, of a different kind, to which it would be desirable to 

 attend, in the arrangement of this work ; such as the times of 

 the migration and return of certain birds, and in the higher 

 latitudes of those of some other animals : the investigation of 

 these subjects, in conjunction with observations on the weather, 

 and with attention, in the case of birds, to the true cause of 

 migration, as developed by the late Dr. Jenner in his admi- 

 rable paper on the subject sometime since read before the Royal 

 Society, would perhaps enable us, in process of time, to draw 

 some just conclusions respecting the advance of the seasons, 



&c. 



