REMARKS ON METEOROLOGY. 



197 



trary we know, that there are many persons who are igno- 

 rant of all the principles of science, and have never syste- 

 matically studied the subject, who have nolwithstandinfr ^°''^'^:'^^*'^" 

 11 • I 1 t 1 1 • 1 • 1 , '^""s without 



arrived at that practical knowledge, which gives the study the advantage 

 its principal value. I now refer to farmers, sailors, and t)f science. 

 such other persons as are led by their occupations to spend 

 much of their time in the open air; and to whom a know- 

 ledge of the changes of the weather is of immediate impor- 

 tance. Every one who has conversed ranch with these per- 

 sons must know, that they have acquired great sagacity in 

 predicting these changes ; and yet it unfortunately happens, 



that their knowledge is of little use to any one but them- r, ,., • , 



o ^ ./ iSut tnisknuw- 



selves, not being in the habit of conversing upon the sub- led^e is con. 

 ject, and having acquired their ideas solely by the exercise np^^totheiu- 

 of their own faculties, they are often absolutely unable to 

 convey to any one else the reasons by which their own judg- 

 ment has been determined. It is now some years since I 

 became impressed with this view of the- subject, and since 

 I resolved to endeavour to imitate the method by which These two 

 this practical knowledge appears to be obtained, and at the "^"<'<^s of at- 



• n 1 11-1T-. taiiiingknow 



same time to frame a nomenclature, by which I might be kdge might 

 able to convey my ideas to others. Although my mode of ^'^ '^'^°^^'"^'^' 

 life, as a resident in the middle of a large town, has been 

 unfavourable to such pursuits, yet I think that I have been 

 not altogether unsuccessful in my attempt ; some points of 

 importance I consider myself as having ascertained, and 

 many more have suggested themselves, which a longer series 

 of observations must confirm or refute. 



My plan of observation, as it appears, essentially consists, Attempt to ef- 

 first, in paying a constant attention to atmospherical phe- ^^ct this. 

 nomena of all kinds; and secondly, in adopting a nomen- 

 clature, by which these phenomena may be accurately re- 

 corded, and by which the observations made at different 

 times, and in ditferent places, may be compared together. 

 In the meteorological journals which have been hitherto 

 published, either by learned societies, or by individuals, we u^^^j ^^^g,^, 

 have had the height of the barometer and thermometer taken rological la- 

 at two or three stated periods in the course of the day, the ^*' 

 degree of the hygrometer is frequently added, the quantity 

 of rain that has fallen, th« force and direction of the wind, 



»nd 



