METEOROLOGICAL, RESULTS AT TORONTO. 171 



On the other hand, the soft and dark wires fuse much less readily, 

 and do not occasion the slightest coloration of the flame. 



On investigating the subject more fully, I have discovered that 

 the green coloration, produced by the hard and light-coloured wires, 

 is due to the presence of a minute amount of phosphorus — this 

 being converted into phosphoric acid during the combustion or oxida- 

 tion of the wire. After the solution of a sufilcient quantity of wire 

 in nitro-hydrochloric acid, and the precipitation of the iron by 

 ammonia and sulphide of ammonium, the phosphoric acid may be 

 thrown down, by a magnesian salt, as phosphate of ammonia 

 and magnesia. This latter compound can then be tested farther by 

 nitrate of silver, molybdate of ammonia, &c. 



As iron wire is often employed in blowpipe experiments as a re- 

 agent for phosphoric acid, and as it is also occasionally used in the 

 estimation of phosphorus in cast iron (Eegnault : Chimie iii. 127), 

 the publication of this note may not be without its use. 



MEAN METEOROLOGICAL RESULTS AT TORONTO, 

 FOR THE YEAR 1863. 



BY G. T. KINSTON, M.A., 



DIEECTOK O? THE MAGNETICAL OBSEEVATOET. 



The mean temperature of the year 1863 was 0°.45 in excess of 

 the average annual temperature of twenty-two years. The oscilla- 

 tions of the monthly means, above or below their respective average 

 monthly means, had an average amplitude of 1^.81, which, though 

 slightly greater than the corresponding number (l.°42) for the year 

 1862, was considerably less than the average amplitude of the monthly 

 oscillations (2^.44) in twenty-two years. 



The mean deviations of temperature in the four seasons, with their 

 proper signs, and regarding the winter as including December, 1862, 

 were 4- 2°. 22 in winter, — 0^11 in spring, -{-{)° .^2 in summer, and 

 -j-0''.28 in autumn. Hence as regards its temperature, the year, 

 though beginning with a mild winter, was regular in the other seasons. 



