NOTE 



THE TEMPERATURE OF CHINA.* 



IT is thought better to join to this publication some remarks upon 

 the temperature of China, to show in what physical condition the 

 Chinese are placed for the cultivation of mulberry trees and the 

 raising of silk worms: such is the object of the following note : 



China extends from the 22d to the 41st degree of north lati- 

 tude ; and, from its near situation to the tropic, the mean tem- 

 perature of this vast country seems to be superior to that of the south 

 of Europe, which ?>ps at the 36th degree of latitude ; but, in the 

 Memoirs upon the isothermes lines, or upon the distribution of heat 

 on the surface of the globe, (Society of Arcueil, torn. III.,) M. de 

 Humbolcft has shown, from a great number of observations, that in 

 the sme latitude the mean temperature was much more elevated, 

 in .Europe and Africa, than in Asia and America. Thus to limit our- 

 selves to China, the observations of missionaries and other travellers 

 have fixed the mean temperature of Peking at 12, 7 centigrades ; 

 that of Nangasaki, Japan at 16 ; that of Macao at 23, 3 ; that 



* I owe the following Note to the kindness of Mr. Edward Biot, whom I have 

 the honor of numbering among my scholars. The Minister of Commerce, having 

 desired that I should unite to my translation some remarks upon the temperature 

 of China, has offered me the results of inquiries he has made on this subject. I 

 have accepted them with eagerness, convinced that his scientific knowledge hn 

 furnished him the means of giving to these determinations all the exactness that 

 observations collected by travellers could have obtained. 



