152 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



melancholy list of incidents. Surely, it is high time, that the 

 causes which produce such dreadful events were taken into se- 

 rious consideration, and that an inquiry into them should re- 

 ceive the attention and interest to which it is entitled. 

 Paris, Feb. 25, 1807. Lamarck. 



The following letter from M. de Lalande to the editor of 

 the Moniteur has been inserted in that paper of the 1st March 

 1807: 

 Remarks on the It does not appear in any wise probable to me, that the pass- 

 LaLand in & °^ tne Inoon through its nodes produces any sensible change 



in the atmosphere, as M. De Lamarck thinks : but its passing 

 over the equator is more observable ; I have noticed it many 

 times ; and even this year, in the months of January and Fe- 

 bruary, there have been alternations of cold and heat, which 

 appeared to follow the passings of the moon over the equator. 

 For that reason, I have marked them in the annuary of the 

 Board of Longitude, from the beginning. 



But the dreadful hurricane of the 18th February can have 

 no relation to the moon. These phenomena proceed from the 

 winds, from thunder, and from volcanoes, orswellingsof the sea. 

 We may hereafter learn, perhaps, that on the 18th February, 

 there have been violent thunder storms in some of the southern 

 p.ovinces, and I should wish to be informed of it through the 

 Moniteur, a paper in which scientific men like to deposit their 

 observations and remarks. 



(Signed) DE LALANDE. 



