322 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1778. 



large colony, and planted them with clove and nutmeg-trees, as they have like- 

 wis-e the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius. 



Jill. A Meteorological Diary, &c. kept at Fort St. George in the East Indies. 

 By Mr. jrHliam Roxburgh* Assistant Surgeon to the Hospital at the said 

 Fort. p. 180. 



The manner in which Mr. R. kept his meteorological observations was as 

 follows: A thermometer without doors; a barometer and thermometer within 

 doors: these were observed 3 times a day. Also the direction and strength of 

 the wind, and the state of the weather. He distinguished 4 degrees of strength 

 of the wind; namely, gentle, brisk, stormy, and what they call a tufoon in 

 India, which are marked with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, besides no sensible 

 wind, which is marked with a cypher. The state of the barometer is very 

 uniform, varying only between 29.13 and 30.04 inches. And the thermometer 

 without between 66, the lowest, and 9I, the highest. 



XIII. Experiments on Air, and the Effects of Different Kinds of Effluvia on 

 it, made at York. By W. White, M. D., F. S. A. p. 194. 



Dr. W. describes the situation of York, and the soil about it, as very marshy 

 and unhealthy. Then observes that the highest state of the barometer in the 3 

 last years was 30.58 ; the lowest, 28.20. Thermometer in the shade, highest, 

 81; lowest, 8. Having no ombrometer. Dr. W. only observes, in regard to 

 rain, that in 1774 they had 193 days in which more or less rain fell ; in 1775, 

 232 days; and in the last year, 240. The apparatus used in making the expe- 

 riments was very simple: 1st, a vessel full of water, of a proper size and figure. 

 2dly, A common barometer tube of a large bore, so that an ounce phial full of 

 air, being introduced into it, occupied at a medium 134 decimal parts of an 

 inch; and on a further addition of a half ounce phial of nitrous air, 205: this 

 tube is graduated by inches and decimals. 3dly, Glass funnels, with necks of 

 such a size as to enter the tube. 



The air, the subject of the experiment, was conveyed into the tube, by means 

 of the glass funnel, under water; the nitrous air is then added to it by the same 

 method. The space occupied by them both, immediately on mixture, is noted 

 down, as also the time by a watch; after standing the appointed time (half an 

 hour, except where it is mentioned otherwise) the space then occupied is marked 

 down, which being deducted from the first, gives the result of diminution sought: 

 for example, an ounce phial of air from a putrid plum, with the addition of 

 half of nitrous air, took up the space of 1 95 (part of tiie first being absorbed 



* Now Dr. Roxburgh, author of a splendid botanical work, entitled Plants of the Coast of Co- 

 romandel. 



