WEATHER ALMANACS. 



165 



8 Frost. 

 48 



Frost. 



Changeable. 



Rain. 



Frost. 



Changeable. 



Rain. 



2 Changeable. 



1 

 1 



2 

 1 



1 

 1 

 1 

 1 

 1 

 1 

 1 



48 



Fair. 



Changeable. 



Rain. 



Fair. 



Changeable. 



Rain and wind. 



Fair. 



Rain and wind. 



Changeable. 



Rain. 



Fair and frost. 



We shall leave it to the skill of our readers to discover where the correspond- 

 ence lies between " the sinuosities of the weather," and the sinuosities of Mr. 

 Murphy's predictions. Dismissing this very absurd publication, to which we 

 have given more space than it deserves, we shall merely add, that it is not the 

 only production of the kind which public credulity fostered into life. Be- 

 sides the eternal Francis Moore, physician, we had also the Meteorological 

 Almanac, and Farmers' and Shipmasters' Guide, containing the general charac- 

 ter of the weather all through the year 1838, by Lieutenant Morrison, R.N., 

 Member of the London Meteorological Society, and numerous others. 



Without further discussing the prognostications of such persons, or compar- 

 ing them with facts, we shall merely ask those who appear to afford them so 

 i easy faith, to consider the nature of the physical questions pretended to be 

 [ solved, and the qualifications of those who profess to have solved them. The 

 investigation of the causes which affect the atmosphere and produce the vicis- 

 situdes of temperature and of drought, is a problem of transcendent difficulty, 

 to the solution of which even the most extensive powers of modern science are 

 inadequate. It is a problem to which, hitherto, scarcely an approximation has 

 been made, even by the most eminent natural philosophers ; and, as it is one of 

 the details of which the public in general cannot be expected to understand, 

 they can only regulate the confidence which they will place in its pretended 

 solutions by the reputation and authority of those who propound them. 



Who, then, it may be asked, are the persons that put forth those predictions ; 

 and on what grounds do they ask the faith of the public ? Among these prog- 

 nosticators, is any name found holding a respectable rank in the community of 

 science ? What have the labors and researches of these persons contributed 

 to the actual advancement of our knowledge of nature ? What are the works 

 on which their reputations are founded ? Do these weather-prophets possess 

 any of the recognised qualifications, founded on education and previous attain- 

 ments' which would fit them for encountering such a problem ? What learned 

 societies in Europe have these pretenders enriched by their labors ? Where 

 are the transactions in which their investigations and discoveries have appeared I 

 These questions would be answered by a mere enumeration of their names 

 names utterly unknown in philosophy or letters. It would be answered that among 

 them there is found not one individual whose presence would be tolerated in 



