JVo. I. 



A DISSERTATION 



On the supposed Change in the Temperature of Winter ,* 



READ BEFORE THE CONNECTICUT ACADEMY OF ARTS; 

 AND SCIENCES. ...1799. 



BY N. WEBSTER, JUN. ESQ. 



IT is a popular opinion that the temperature of the 

 winter season, in northern latitudes, has suffered a 

 material change, and become warmer in modern, than it 

 was in ancient times. This opinion has been adopted 

 and maintained by many writers of reputation ; as the 

 Abbe du Bos, Buffon, Hume, Gibbon, Jefferson, Hoi- 

 yoke, Williams ; indeed I know not whether any per-^ 

 son, in this age, has ever questioned the fact.* 



The arguments to prove that the winters, in ancient 

 times, were far colder than at present, are the follow- 

 ing. First, in regard to Palestine or Judea. 



It is said that several passages in the scriptures, writ- 

 ten as early as the days of Moses and David, speak of 

 snow, hail, ice, and hoar frost, as common in those ages, 

 where no such thing is now known. " He giveth snow 



* Hume's Essays, vol. i. 457. Ess. xi. — Gibbon's Hist. vol. i. ch. 

 ix. — Williams's Hist, of Vermont, p. 63. first ed. and appendix, No. 

 2. — Jefferson's Notes, query 7. — Memoirs of Amer. Acad. vol. ii. 

 part 1.70. — Pelloutier's Hist, des Celtes, liv. xii. — Cyclopedia hj 

 Rees : Art. Climate. 



B 



