VOL IV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 415 



Observations concerning the Baroscope and Thcrmoscope, By Dr. 

 I, Beal* at Yeovil in Somerset. iV° 55, p. 1113. 



During the latf er part of the month of December, 1 669, the barometer 

 stood very high, being about 304- inches all that time. 



December 26, 1669, in the morning, the weather was colder than ever I 

 found it, since I could take it by the measure of a thermometer, that is, since 

 these five or six years. 



To note this degree of cold more particularly, I must acquaint you, that in 

 my staunch thermometer on that day the liquor was at 34 inches. This morn- 

 ing, December 29, and one or two other mornings, it was at 3^ inches. 

 Most other times of these cold days, morning and evening, it was at the 

 height of 4 inches ; in ordinary brisk frosts it is at 7 inches. Yet here I must 

 observe, that sometimes the frost dissolves, when it is at the 7 th figure, and 

 sometimes I find it at the 8th figure in a smart frost. It is warm May weather, 

 when at the 10th figure, and not much above the 12th figure in the hottest 

 weather of June, July and August. It is remarkable, that at the 7 th inch, 

 and sometimes the 8th in my thermometer, it should abide freezing, and the 

 frost increase, till the liquor descended 44- inches ; and yet, that it should not 

 ascend from the 8th inch more than 44- inches in our hottest summer, being 

 hung in the same place within 1 8 inches of the glass-window, facing the north- 

 west, and in a little writing-room, in the second row of buildings. But now 

 I am strongly persuaded, that the degrees of heat and cold are not exactly in- 

 dicated by the inclosed spirit of wine : for, when the snow melted, and the 

 frost was first dissolved without sun-shine, the liquor was not above the height of 

 64- inches. Possibly it retains some part of the cold a while after the ambient 

 air becomes more tepid. 



• Doctor John Beal, an English divine, was a very early and useful member of the Royal Society, 

 having been elected a fellow in January l663. Dr. Beal was born of a good family in Hereford- 

 shire, in 1603, and was educated successively at Worcester school, Eton college, and King's col- 

 lege, Cambridge j after which he spent some time on his travels abroad, about l636. He was very 

 usefiil in promoting the apple orchards in his native country, and was author of a small tract on that 

 subject, entitled, " Herefordshire Orchards a Pattern for England." He resided chiefly at Here- 

 ford till 1660, when he became rector of Yeovil in Somersetshire, where he resided till his death, 

 which happened in l683;''at 80 years of age. Dr. Beal was made D. D. and King's chaplain in 

 1665. Several of his papers were printed in tlie Phil. Trans, and elsewhere. He was a man of ex- 

 cellent parts, extensive learning, and great public spirit. 



