68 Improvements in Physical Science (Jan. 
in any-other part of Great Britain. If it be true, as I have been 
told, that the nightingale is never seen in Devonshire, there can 
be no doubt that the London summers are warmer than those in 
Devonshire. One year is not sufficient to form any criterion. That 
the mean temperature of all the three places is lower than that of 
London, has been reckoned from the heat of springs. The tempe- 
rature of London in the fourth column is from the register kept at 
the apartments of the Royal Society; but as in that register the 
lowest point to which the thermometer falls during the night is not 
» marked, there can be no doubt that the numbers given as the mean 
in their tables are too high, 
The quantity of rain that fell in 1814 at Plymouth, Sidmouth, 
London, and Tottenham, according to the tables already alluded to, 
was as follows :— 
Plymouth........ 42°7 inches | London ...... 20°723 inches 
Sidmouth... wakes ose o Tottenham .... 24°44 
The great quantity of rain which falls annually at Plymouth, 
compared with those parts of the island which lie further east, has 
been long known. The difference between the quantity of rain as 
estimated at Tottenham by Mr. Luke Howard, and at Somerset 
House by Mr. Lee, is owing to the different position of the two 
rain-gauges. Mr, Howard’s is not far from the surface of the earth, 
while that at Somerset House is elevated 64 feet above the sur- 
rounding ground. Another rain-gauge at Somerset House, placed 
75 feet six inches above the ground, gave only 16°367 inches of 
rain, 
At Kinfaun’s Castle, 129 feet above the level of the sea, the 
quantity of rain that fell in 1814 is estimated at only 15°59 inches. 
In the centre of the garden, 20 feet above the level of the sea, the 
rain was 20°05 inches, Ona conical detached hill, elevated 600 
feet, the quantity was 33°84 inches. 
The mean temperature of the year was only 43°394. Kinfaun’s 
Castle lies on the river Tay to the east of Perth, in north latitude 
56° 231’. 1 have added the mean monthly temperatures at this 
place to the preceding table, that they may be compared with the 
temperature in the south of England. 
4, It is remarkable that during each of the years 1813, 1814, 
1815, there has been a severe frost in London towards the end of 
November. In 1813 the thermometer sunk down to 20° in the 
night; but it was above the freezing point during the day; so that 
the frost was not so much attended to, and it will not be observed in 
the register published by the Royal Society. The same observation 
applies to the frost of 1814; but in 1815, on the 17th, 18th, and 
19th, of November, the frost was intense during both day and 
night, and the thermometer stood as low as 18°. 
X. PHYSIOLOGY. 
Five papers on this obscure and difficult science have appeared 
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, 
