5,08. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I768. 



VIIl. Observations on the same Subject. By J. Short, F.R.S. p. 55. 



From this account it appears that the cold, at one o'clock in the afternoon on 

 the 29th of December 1739, was so great as to sink the mercury 21 divisions 

 below the freezing point of Fahrenheit's scale, within the room, the windows 

 being shut. 



Dec. 31, 1767, at 8 in the morning, a Fahrenheit's thermometer without 

 the window of the same room, where it had remained all night, stood at 19^ di- 

 visions below the freezing point; but a similar Fahrenheit's thermometer within 

 the room stood at 13^ divisions below the freezing point; therefore the cold, 

 that morning, was greater without the room than within it by 6 divisions of 

 Fahrenheit's scale. 



January 7th, 1768, at 8 in the morning, a Fahrenheit's thermometer with- 

 out the window of the same room, where it remained all night, stood at J 94 

 divisions below the freezing point; but a similar Fahrenheit's thermometer within 

 the room stood at 12 divisions below the freezing point; therefore the cold that 

 morning was greater without the room than within it by 8 divisions of Fahren- 

 heit's scale. 



From what has been said, we may safely conclude, that the cold, December 

 28, 1739, at one o'clock in the afternoon, was so great, without the window of 

 the said room, as to sink the mercury 27 divisions at least below the freezing 

 point of Fahrenheit's thermometer. 



N. B. No fires were made in the said room, or in the 2 contiguous rooms, in 

 the year 1739, or in the years 1767 and 1768. 



IX. An Investigation of the Difference between the Present Temperature of the 



j4ir in Italy and some other Countries, and what it was Seventeen Centuries 



before. By the Hon. Daines Barring ton, F.R.S. p. 58. 



Mr. B. had long entertained a notion that the seasons are become much 



milder in the northern latitudes than they were 16 or 17 centuries past; and 



from this it has happened, that many passages in the classical writers descriptive 



of the severity of the climates, had struck him more perhaps than they would a 



common reader.!iJ'iti'o:) fci-.w .1,' ■ ■ 



If this same question should be agitated 2000 years hence, it might receive an 

 absolute demonstration ; as a journal of the changes in a well-constructed ther- 

 mometer would show the temperature which prevailed in any particular place, 

 during the present century. No such accuracy can be expected from any pas- 

 sages in the classical writers; but in order to state the alteration which may have 

 happened in so long a course of years, the most proper method seems to be to 

 compare their accounts with those of more modern travellers, who have equally 

 wanted the assistance of a thermometer for their observations. 



