


Vol. IV, No. 9.] Standard Temperature for Tropical Countries. 495 
[N.S.] 
is the order in which they appear, if we compare the va ne ite 
ranges in June, July, August, and September. If 
count of the data for the whole year, the order is different, Seinely, 
Bombay, Madras, fia hak alcutta, Bangalore, Poona, Allaha- 
bad. T ran of variation is most uniform for Ma ras ; 
8 other fotalitie do not differ much from each other in this 
espect, 
As most of the scientific work in colleges and laboratories is 
carried out saeing the hotter part of the day of 24 hours, the 
mean maxima given in Table I are of special interest. If we 
further eee that a standard temperature is more spre 
fixed above the mean Sia abated of the day than below it, it 
appears that 30° C. is by no means too high a standard ran era- 
ture for India. On the other hand it’ would har dly serve a useful 
purpose to fix the standard temperature at a much higher level ; 
32° C. would probably be the highest temperature which it might 
be reasonable to choose, and 35° C. is certainly too high But just 
as Mr. Meares and myself object to 85° F. as a standard, because 
its equivalent on the centigrade scale is not a whole number, so 
32° C. would be objectionable, because it is equal to 892° F. On 
the other hand 25° C.=77° F, is distinctly too low. That seems to 
me clearly proved by the data contained in the foregoing tables. 
Every argument appears, therefore, to be in favour of 30°C. as a 
standard temperature for India, and probably for tropical and 
eh in countries in general. 
choice of a standard temperature is, however, the least 
part of the business. The main part of the work will consist in 
working out — tables and collect data for that tempera- 
ture. And that is not the work of a single man. JI shall shortly 
publish tables ava the percentage composition of sulphuric 
acid of different specific gravities, for various temperatures, from 
20°C. upwards, but specially worked out for 30°C. Generally, we 
want tables constructed for 30°C. giving the percentage compo- 
sition corresponding to different specific gravities of hydrochloric, 
nitric, oxalic, and acetic acids, of methylic and ethylic alcohol, 
of solutions of caustic potash, caustic soda, and ammonia; farther 
tables for polarimetric work, tables of specific gravities of various 
solids and of organic liquids, tables ole electric conductivities, and 
others. 
r. 
nised that 15°C.is too lowa standard temperature even for 
Europe, and a number of data are now available for 20°C. Some- 
times a tendency is discernible towards going even beyond 20°C., 
say to22°C. There are of course objections to 22° C. which we need 
not point out here. But 22°C. would really bea good tempera 
ture of reference for our cold weather, Iam far from adviéatine 
the fixing of two standard temperatures. Bat it is sometimes 
easy to determine constants for more than one temperature, if 
one once is engaged in work of that nature; and it might be 
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