VOL. I.J PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 57 



The folhming by the same, from other Numbers of the Transactions, viz. 



N*" 10 and 55. 



18. If the mercury rises a good height after the fall of rain, as sometimes 

 it does, he then looks for a settled serenity ; but if it falls, then he expects a 

 series of broken and showery weather. 



1 9. The weather and our bodies are more chill, cold, and drooping, when 

 the mercury is lowest and the air lightest. Air being to us,' what water is to 

 fishes. 



20. The lowest descent of the mercury, in all his observations, was October 

 26, 1665, in the evening; when it was very near at 27-i- inches, as he found 

 by his following notes: October 25, morning, mercury at 28-i- inches, great 

 storms and much rain. October 26, morning, mercury at 28, winds quiet, 

 thick dark clouds. October 26, evening, mercury at 274- ; that day and the 

 following days the weather was variable, and there were frequent rains. 



21. He set a wind- vane of a large brass streamer over the place where the 

 mercurial tube stood, pointing to a board indented in the margin, that he could 

 take at a good distance the 32 points of the wind, with the half and quarter 

 points. It would be proper to have an index of wind*. 



22. By change of w^eather and wind, the mercury sunk, since March 12th, 

 above an inch ; and March 18 th at night, by rain and south wind, half an 

 inch. 



23. He found the quicksilver, December 13, 1669, higher than ever he 

 observed it, it being half an inch above 30. It continued the 14th, and a part 

 of the 15th at about that height, and sometimes higher by an eighth or tenth 

 part of an inch. For this barometer he had two glass tubes in one vessel of 

 stagnant mercury ; and both of them agreed in this indication. The weather 

 was at first very bright and clear, and there w^as a mild frost : The air was very 

 still, and no wind stirring, and by the wind- vane, the wind stood east, all the 

 first day, viz. December 13th ; on the 14th it blew a little from north-west, 

 and returned again to the east or north-east. During this shifting of the 

 winds the mercury descended a little ; and again after the settling of the 

 wind, the mercury ascended a little higher than it had done the preceding 

 day. 



The house and study where the barometer was kept stood on the side of a 

 hill, on the higher side of the country, and nearly on a level with the head of 

 a river that falls into the Severn sea, about 20 or 30 miles westward of Bristol, 

 so that they cannot be much above the level of the sea. 



VOL. I. H 



