242 The Natural History 



This observation might without any impropriety be 

 carried into animal life ; for discerning beemasters now 

 find that their hives should not in the winter be exposed 

 to the hot sun, because such unseasonable warmth 

 awakens the inhabitants too early from their slumbers ; 

 and, by putting their juices into motion too soon, subjects 

 them afterwards to inconveniences when rigorous weather 

 returns. 



The coincidents attending this short but intense frost 

 ■^were, that the horses fell sick with an epidemic distemper, 

 which injured the winds of many, and killed some ; that 

 •colds and coughs were general among the human species ; 

 that it froze under people's beds for several nights ; that 

 meat was so hard frozen that it could not be spitted, and 

 could not be secured but in cellars ; that several redwings 

 and thrushes were killed by the frost ; and that the large 

 titmouse continued to pull straw lengthwise from the 

 eaves of thatched houses and barns in a most adroit 

 manner, for a purpose that has been explained already.^ 



On the 3d of January, Benjamin Martin's thermometer 

 v/itiiin doors, in a close parlour where there was no fire, 

 fell in the night to 20, and on the 4th to 18, and the 7th 

 to 175, a degree of cold which the owner never since saw 

 in the same situation ; and he regrets much that he was 

 not able at that juncture to attend his instrument abroad. 

 All this time the wind continued north and north-east ; 

 and yet on the eighth roost-cocks, which had been silent, 

 began to sound their clarions, and crows to clamour, as 

 prognostic of milder weather ; and, moreover, moles 

 began to heave and work, and a manifest thaw took place. 

 From the latter circumstance we may conclude that thaws 

 often originates under ground from warm vapours which 

 arise ; else how should subterrraneous animals receive 

 such early intimations of their approach ? Moreover, we 

 have often observed that cold seems to descend from 

 above ; for, when a thermometer hangs abroad in a frosty 

 night, the intervention of a cloud shall immediately raise 

 the mercury ten degrees ; and a clear sky shall again 

 compel it to descend to its former gauge. 

 ^ See letter xli. to Mr. Pennant. 



