PART I. 



OF THE PHENOMENA OF DEW. 



SECTION I. 



Of Circumstances which influence the Production of Dew. 



ARISTOTLE* and many other writers have 

 remarked, that dew appears only on calm and 

 serene nights. The justness of this observa- 

 tion, however, has not been universally ad^ 

 mitted. For M usschenbroek f says, that dew 

 forms in Holland, while the surface of the 

 country is covered with a low mist ; but, asf 

 he mentions at the same time, that it is de- 

 posited upon all bodies indiscriminately, the 

 moisture, of which he speaks, cannot properly 

 be called dew, as will be more distinctly seen 

 hereafter. Other writers of considerable reputa- 

 tion have also regarded clearness of the atmo- 

 sphere, as not being requisite for the production 

 of dew, misled, I believe, partly by theory, and 



* Meteor. Lib. I. c. x. et De Mundo. c. iii. 

 t Nat. Phil. T. ii. De Rore. 



