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. festeemed 

 the hottest period of the day), and 10 p.m. ; and the extreme of cold is ascertained by a self-regis- 

 tering thermometer ; ihus giving four observations of that instrument, ail of which are daily 

 registered ; and the monthly mean is found by dividing the sum of all 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 cxiremes." Now, what I understand by the 

 daily extremes are the maximiim 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 I entertained of his accuracy that induced me first to notice that difference, and of which, 

 through his kindness, I liave been able to trace the cause. I am, &c. — Archibald Gorrie. Annat 

 Gardens, Feb. 1. 1830. 



Art. VII. Queries and Answers, 



Bewick'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 j 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,hxxt 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 I 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 gumption 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, 

 AT. Dovaston. Westfclton^ near Shrewsbury, Jan. 30. 1830. 



The Cause of Goitre. — Sir, Your correspondent Obscurus (Vol. II. 

 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 exclusively on a residence in mountainous districts 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 tnie goi- 



