390 Miscellanies. 



merit of this volume for the past year is occupied with the reports of 

 the various colleges of the State, and also of the several public 

 academies, giving an account of the number of students, subjects of 

 study pursued, class or text books used, peculiarities in the instruc- 

 tion at particular academies, &c. he. The academies thus derive 

 mutual benefit from each other's experience* 



We next open to the meteorological reports from these acade- 

 mies, which it will be observed are under the direction of the State, 

 and as yet form the only instance in our country in which the ad- 

 vancement of meteorological science has been taken under the su- 

 perintendence of government. These reports occupy sixty pages and 

 contain accounts of the mean temperature for each month, highest 

 and lowest degree of the thermometer, winds, weather, and obser- 

 vations with the rain gage at the several places where the academies 

 are located. Recapitulatory tables follow, containing the general 

 results deduced from the observations of this year and the preceding. 

 Occurrences of any remarkable atmospheric phenomena, as auroras, 

 halos, parhelia, meteors, he. are next noticed. 



The remaining part of the volume is occupied with an article of 

 sixty pages, on auroras, halos and other atmospheric phenomena, by 

 Benjamin F. Joslin, M. D., Prof. Nat. Phil, in Union College, 

 Schenectady, in which the. author proposes a theory to account for 

 these unsatisfactorily explained occurrences. This article is valua- 

 ble because of the facts it contains, and is of some considerable in- 

 terest from the novelty of the theory it presents. After an enu- 

 meration of the results of his observations, Prof. Joslin draws the 

 following general conclusions : 



That the temperature of the air is falling, and the atmospheric 

 pressure increasing, on the day in which an aurora appears : 



That generally after an aurora, the atmospheric pressure falls, the 

 temperature rises, and water either in the form of snow or rain, falls 

 within two days : 



That the air at the earth's surface, if not saturated with moisture 

 at the time of an aurora, is much nearer than usual the point of sat- 

 uration. 



He next proceeds to show the connection between the Aurora 

 Borealis and the crystallizations of the vapors of the atmosphere. 

 The following are the principal steps in the argument. 



The production of light by crystallization is a common occurrence 



and has been observed even during the congelation of water. If 



