83 MR. J. BAXENDELL I INFLUENCE OF THE SEASONS UPON 



VII. — On the Influence of the Seasons upon the Rate of 

 Decrease of the Temperature of the Atmosphere with 

 Increase of Height, in different Latitudes in Europe and 

 Asia. By Joseph Baxendell, Esq., F.B.A.S. 



Read December 24th, 186 1. 



The determination of the laws of the distribution of heat 

 in the different strata of the atmosphere under various 

 circumstances of season, locality, direction of the wind, 

 barometric pressure, &c., is one of the most interesting, 

 and at the same time one of the most difficult problems 

 which can engage the attention of the meteorologist. Not- 

 withstanding the labours of many able meteorologists and 

 physicists, several points of considerable importance to the 

 future progress of meteorology are still involved in doubt 

 and obscurity, and the necessity for farther inquiries has 

 been so generally acknowledged that, at the late Meeting 

 of the British Association in this city, a grant of £200 

 was renewed to defray the expenses of balloon ascents, to 

 be undertaken for the purpose of obtaining additional data 

 of a reliable character to serve as a basis for future in- 

 vestigations. I have therefore thought that it might be 

 worth while to submit to this Society some results which, 

 although confessedly imperfect, seem to me to indicate very 

 clearly the existence of a law of distribution of temperature 

 in the higher regions of the atmosphere in the different 

 seasons, in different latitudes of Europe and Asia, which 

 appears to have hitherto escaped notice, and which seems 

 likely to have an important bearing upon many interest- 

 ing questions in meteorology. 



From numerous observations made at elevated stations 

 in Europe and in India, it has been concluded, — 1st, that 

 the general rate of decrease of the temperature of the 



