October 8, 1891] 



NATURE 



559 



G. J. Symons, been reproduced in facsimile by pho- 

 tography, translated from the monkish Latin of the 

 original text by Miss Parker, and published in a hand- 

 some small folio volume, of which one hundred copies 

 have been printed. It is probably, as stated on the 

 title-page, the earliest known weather journal in the 

 world. 



The manuscript consists of nine and a half pages of 

 abbreviated Latin, written on vellum in a distinct and 

 easily decipherable text, and is apparently in excellent 

 preservation. It is bound up with a number of other 

 manuscript treatises (one of which is also by Merle) 

 dealing with weather prognostication, astrological lore, 

 and other subjects which, according to the scientific 

 views of the day, were nearly related branches of know- 

 ledge. Some of these treatises were collected, and some 

 written by, William Reed, who was Bishop of Chichester 

 from 1369 to 1386, and who bequeathed them to scholars 

 of Merton, " being of his kin." Subsequently, the volume 

 passed into the possession of Sir Kenelm Digby, who, 

 in 1634, presented it, together with other manuscripts, to 

 the Bodleian Library. It is interesting and not un- 

 instructive to note how modest a figure is cut, in this 

 scientific record of the fourteenth century, by the few 

 pages of original observation amid the mass of specu- 

 lative writings in which they are buried ; and how in the 

 nineteenth century they alone retain all their pristine 

 value, and are resuscitated with all the honours oi fac- 

 simile reproduction, while the learned treatises on the 

 conjunctions of the planets, the lunar mansions, and 

 Tules for prognosticating the weather, are left undisturbed 

 in the musty dignity in which they have reposed for more 

 than five centuries. 



As already remarked. Merle's entries are at first very 

 brief, the notice of each month's weather seldom exceed- 

 ing two lines of the manuscript. Thus for January 1337 

 we find : — 



" In January there was warmth with moderate dryness, 

 and in the previous winter [or the previous part of the 

 same winter .?] there had not been any considerable cold 

 or humidity, but more dryness and warmth." 



Gradually, however, the notes expand, and it is not a 

 little interesting to trace how by degrees the journalist's 

 growing interest in his probably novel undertaking leads 

 him to record more and more in detail the facts that pre- 

 sent themselves to his daily observation. Thus from a 

 brief general summary of the characteristic weather of 

 the month, as illustrated in the above quotation, at the 

 end of the year he proceeds to record the character of 

 each week, and towards theendof the third year (1339) he 

 begins to notice the weather of a few special days. From 

 the beginning of 1340 greater amplification is indulged 

 in : the monthly notes often expand to six or eight lines, 

 and in the final year of the record (1343) sometimes to 

 from ten to fourteen lines. In illustration of these more 

 detailed entries, the notice for July 1343 may be 

 quoted : — 



"July.— Considerable heat on the first five days, and it 

 was great on the 3rd and 4th. On the 4th, two or three hours 

 before sunset, heavy thunder began with more vivid light- 

 ning than I think I had ever seen, which lasted until mid- 

 night, with heavy rain. 5th, light thunder about sunset. 

 On the 6th day and throughout the second week it was 

 NO. I 145, VOL. 44] 



gloomy, and there was a slight fog occasionally. 12th, 

 light rain ; 14th, gloomy ; 15th, and three following days, 

 considerable heat ; 19th, rain which penetrated a good 

 deal; 2otb, light rain ; 22nd, rain ; 25th, heavy rain, with 

 heavy thunder in the night, and also in the morning of 

 the following day. All the remainder was rainy, with 

 fog, and rain in small drop:, and it was gloomy the whole 

 time. 28th in the night, and 29th in the morning, thunder, 

 with heavy rain. There was lightning with the last two 

 thunderstorms." 



For the last four years, indeed. Merle's notes are suffi- 

 ciently ample to allow of a fair estimate of the weather 

 of those years in comparison with that of the present day, 

 and perhaps some such comparison miy be instituted by 

 those who have at command the ample registers of our 

 own time for the same part of Lincolnshire. Seeing how 

 great have been the changes wrought in the character of 

 the surface of the country, by the clearing of forests, 

 drainage, and the extension of agriculture, such a com- 

 parison may possibly furnish matter of great interest. 



The fourteenth century is sadly memorable for the 

 disastrous famines and pestilences that then desolated 

 England, and above all for the " Black Death," which 

 half depopulated the realm, and was nowhere more fatal 

 than in East Anglia. But this last did not make its first 

 appearance until the end of 1348, about a year after 

 Merle's death, and nearly five years after the conclusion 

 of his journal, which ends abruptly with January 1344 ; 

 and although a severe famine is recorded in 1335, and 

 another in 1353, it does not appear that any of the years 

 included in his register was especially disastrous. The 

 famine of 1335 is said to have been due to excessive rain, 

 and we may perhaps hazard the surmise that the recent 

 memory of this visitation was the stimulus that induced 

 Merle to record these interesting notes, which good 

 fortune has preserved for us through five and a half 

 centuries. H. F. B. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



The South Italian Volcanoes. Being the Account of an 

 Excursion to them made by English and other Geologists 

 in 1 889, under the auspices of the Geologists' Association 

 of London, with Papers on the Different Localities by 

 Messrs. Johnston-Lavis, Platania, Sambon, Zezi, and 

 Madame Antonia Lavis ; including the Bibliography of 

 the Volcanic Districts, and Sixteen Plates. Edited 

 by H. J. Johnston-Lavis, M.D., F.G S., &c. Pp. 342. 

 (Naples: F. Furchheim, 1891.) 



In this useful volume. Dr. Johnston-Lavis has issued 

 reprints of his report on the Italian excursion made by 

 the members of the Geologists' Association under his 

 direction, and of his abridged sketch of the geology of 

 Vesuvius and Monte Somma, already noticed in this 

 journal. These reprints are accompanied by several 

 interesting original papers— namely, one on the thermo- 

 mineral and gas springs of Sujo, near Roccamonfina, by 

 Dr. Johnston-Lavis himself; oneonthegeology of Acireale, 

 by Signor G. Platania ; another entitled " Notes on the 

 Eolian Islands and on Pumice-stone," by Dr. L. Sambon ; 

 and lastly a chapter on "The Travertine and Acque 

 Albule in the neighbourhood of Tivoli, " by Signor Pietro 

 Zezi. These various memoirs occupy 88 pages of the 

 volume, the remainder being devoted to a very useful 

 bibliography of Italian vulcanology, compiled by Dr. 

 Johnston-Lavis and Madame Antonia F. Lavis. 



Not the least valuable portion of the work is the series 

 of beautiful photographs taken by Dr. Johnston-Lavis from 



