GERMAN ALMANACS. 203 



After perusing such vagaries, one cannot help wish- 

 ing that there may be truth in Coleridge's assertion, 

 " In the imagination of man exist the seeds of all moral 

 and scientific improvement; chemistry was first alchemy, 

 and out of astrology sprang astronomy." In that case 

 meteorology, having for long been the product of imagi- 

 nation, is destined some day to rank among the exact 

 sciences, and confer upon mankind signal benefits. 



Finding that almanacs, British and foreign, are to 

 a great extend the chosen vehicles through which the 

 weather-wise communicate with the public, we have 

 been induced to extend into Germany our research after 

 prognostics. We have been rewarded by stumbling 

 upon the 'Gottingen Pocket Almanac for 1779/ in which 

 we find a collection of the most authentic observations 

 of recent writers on " the pre-sensations " which animals 

 have of the weather. Being too ignorant and too in- 

 dolent to compete for the Tweeddale prize, we benevo- 

 lently help the essayist by making him acquainted with 

 the observations of Dr F. A. A. Meyer of Gottingen. 



He classifies these pre-sensations under three heads 

 the pre-sensations which animals have (1) of fair or 

 dry weather, (2) of rainy weather, (3) of stormy wea- 

 ther. 



As to the pre-sensations which animals have of fine 

 or dry weather, here is the theory of the Gottingen 

 savant : Clear dry weather generally follows after wet 

 weather, when the atmosphere has been freed from the 

 vapours collected in it by their falling to the earth in 

 rain. Clouds as well as rain are the means by which 

 the air frees itself from the electric vapours that are 

 continually arising ; and if these, again, fall down, it 

 appears very natural that animals which live chiefly in 

 the open air should express, by various movements, the 

 ease with which they breathe and perform all the vital 



read " Kalendars and Old Almanacs," in the 'British Quarterly Ee- 

 view,' October 1858. It is very amusing, and we are indebted to 

 it for several of the statements in this article. 



