Queries and Answers. 191 
perature at Wycombe should be about 51°, which comes very near with the annual mean at 
Chiswick by Mr. Booth. Mr. Tatem’s mode of taking his observations accounts for the difference. 
He informs us (p. 96.) that ** the thermometer is examined every day at 8 a.m, 3 p.m. (esteemed 
the hottest period of the day), and 10 p.m.; and the extreme of cold is ascertained by a self-regis- 
tering thermometer ; thus giving four observations of that instrument, all of which are daily 
registered ; and the monthly mean is found by dividing the sum of ald these by the number of 
observations, which, of course, varies with the number of days in each month. From this state- 
ment, Mr. Gorrie will see that I refer to the daily extremes.” Now, what I understand by the 
daily extremes are the maximum and minimum only ; but it is easy to see that Mr. Tatem cools 
his maximum considerably by adding his observations of 8 and 10, hours the temperature of 
which approximates nearly to the minimum in winter: but these two cold periods bear their full 
share in estimating the mean ; which will easily account for annual’ results being so much below 
what, according to meteorologists, they should indicate. I hope Mr. Tatem will excuse the free- 
dom of these remarks. 1 have, agreeably to his request, briefly stated the method by which I 
Keep my register, and given my authority, and I have endeavoured to account for the difference 
between the results of our observations. I must beg to assure Mr. Tatem that it was the high 
opinion J entertained of his accuracy that induced me first to notice that difference, and of which, 
through his kindness, I have been able to trace the cause. Iam, &c.— Archibald Gerrie. Annat 
Gardens, Feb. 1, 1830. : E 
Art. VII. Queries and Answers. 
Berwick’s Relics. (p.92.) — Sir, Though I deem the chief part of his polite 
enquiry answered in a previous page, it would be uncourteous not to make 
some reply to your learned, elaborate, and really useful correspondent, the 
Rev. W. T. Bree. Yes; it was an old horse that my friend Bewick last 
engraved; and he has cut black profiles of very many of his friends, and 
other specimens of his art, wherewith to illustrate his autobiographic me- 
moir. And I quite concur with the above reverend and ingenious gentle- 
man, that not only the relics, but a COMPLETE COLLECTION, of all the works 
of this “ painter” (as he is most properly called) should be published by and 
for the advantage of his family; whom | have warned into whose hands they 
commit any of his papers, as lives (like sign-post Shakspeares) of eminent 
men are often, immediately after their decease, got up to catch a penny, 
with puff and parade, by heavy book-makers, without gawmption enough to 
compose the life and character of a cabbage grub. Could a fit editor be 
found, who, without departing from his province, and “ speaking more than 
is set down for him, which (says honest Hamlet) shows a pitiful ambition 
in the fool that uses it,’ my beloved friends, the Bewicks, would have 
reason to rejoice, and would liberally come forward, with their friends, in 
concurrence. Such a work might be considered of national interest, if 
produced in a superior manner, with its numberless embellishments and 
illustrations, and the honourable task may well become a Briton.— John F. 
M, Dovaston. Westfelton, near Shrewsbury, Jan, 30. 1830. 
The Cause of Goitre.— Sir, Your correspondent Obscurus (Vol. IT. 
p- 403.) wishes to be informed what is the most generally received opinion 
as to the cause of goitre, and I should have much pleasure in satisfying him 
on that point if I were able; but I am sorry to say that no opinion has 
hitherto been advanced which is at all satisfactory; and as so many emi- 
nent individuals have failed in the attempt, I shall not presume to hazard 
a conjecture on the subject. That it is not produced by drinking dissolved 
ice or snow, as some have imagined, is evident from the fact that the disease 
is not uncommon at Sumatra, where neither ice nor snow is ever seen, while 
in Greenland, where snow-water is commonly used, it is unknown. That 
it does not depend eaclusively on a residence in mountainous distritts is 
equally certain, since it is found among all classes of society, in almost all 
countries, and most frequently among females. Humboldt saw it in South 
America, in high districts and low ones, in those which were dry as well as 
in those saturated with damp, in a high temperature as well as in a low one, 
and worst where the water was chemically the purest. Obscurus is wrong in 
supposing that the muscles of the neck have any thing to do with true goi- 
