528 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO I789. 



pents to others, is 1 in 10; yet in the Systema Naturae, in which the sum total 

 of species is 131, he has marked 23 as venomous, which is somewhat more than 

 ] in 6. However, the last mentioned proportion seems to be not far from the 

 truth; as out of 154 species of serpents Dr. G. examined, he finds 26 to be ve- 

 nomous. It has already been mentioned, that the coluber stolatus and the myc- 

 terizans, though marked by Linnaeus as venomous serpents, certainly are not so; 

 and Dr. G. suspects the same may be said of the leberis, and dipsas. He has 

 also observed, that the boa contortrix, coluber cerastes, and laticaudatus, none 

 of which are marked in the Systema Naturae, are all of them venomous; to 

 these last may be added the coluber fulvus. 



IF". On the Dryness of the Year 1788. By the Rev. B. Hutchinson, p. 37. 



As the defect of rain has been very considerable in 1788; and in consequence 

 a great want of water on the close of the year universally felt; perhaps the quan- 

 tity fallen here, at Kimbolton, compared with that of the 7 preceding years, 

 may not be unacceptable to the Royal Society. 



By estimation it therefore appears, that the average quan- 

 tity of rain of the 7 preceding years is 25 inches, and the 

 rain which fell last year is only 14.5, that is, not much above 

 half that quantity, if we deduct 1.3 now lying in snow, 

 which fell in December, and not in solution. On the sup- 

 position, which he believes is not far from truth, that the 

 whole island has had the same defect; a greater failure of 

 the produce of the earth might have been expected than what 

 the country has experienced ; for, except in hay, and a little failure in turneps, 

 the crops have in general been as plentiful as in most of the former years, and in 

 fruits of the orchard much more so. It has always been said of England, that 

 drought never occasions want; this year verifies the assertion. 



Having premised that there were no extremes of cold and heat throughout the 

 year; the thermometer in a northern exposure never falling below the freezing 

 point during the day-time, except on the 14th and 15th of January, the 6th, 

 7th, 8th, 10th, nth, 12th, 13th,. and 17th of March, and on none of those 

 days at noon, so that there never were 24 hours together successive frost; there- 

 fore vegetation was never entirely at a stand. In summer it did not rise to 80°, 

 except on some few days. Now, the rain that fell on February was towards the 

 end of the month; which, together with that which fell in March, brought up 

 the spring corn, gave an early first crop of hay to the large towns, and covered 

 the meadows and pastures in the country ; that they were not so entirely dried up 

 through the defect of April, as to prevent the rain, which fell plentifully on the 

 29th of May, succeeded by more in June, giving a 2d crop to the former situa- 



