( 397) 
XII.—On the Climate of Edinburgh for Fifty-six years, from 1795 to 1850, deduced 
principally from Mr Adie’s Observations ; with an Account of other and Earlier 
Registers. By James D. Forses, D.C.L., F.R.S., Sec. R.S. Ed., Professor of 
Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. (With two Plates, XVIII. 
and XIX, 
(Read 5th March 1860.) 
§ 1, Early Observations. § 5. Succession of Seasons, 1795 to 
§ 2. Mr Adie’s Observations, 1850. 
§ 3. Annual and Monthly Mean Tem- § 6. On the Annual Curve. 
peratures. § 7. Influence of Seasons on the Price 
§ 4. Fall of Rain. of Corn. 
1. The late Mr ALEXANDER ADIE, optician, and Fellow of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh,* was so generally known to be a zealous and careful observer of 
meteorological instruments, that an attempt to combine the results deducible from 
his labours carried on (though with one long break) over more than forty years, 
cannot be otherwise than interesting. 
2. The plan of superintending the careful reduction of the thermometrical part 
of Mr Apir’s registers occurred to me a long time ago, but circumstances prevented 
the execution of it until two or three years since, when, through the kindness of Mr 
Avie and his family, the whole of the manuscript observations, commencing with 
1795, were put into my hands, and the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
provided sufficient funds for the employment of computers for reducing them. 
3. The work has proceeded with frequent interruptions, but is at length com- 
plete. Before I proceed to detail the particulars of the reductions and their 
results, I will give a short account of the earlier observations on the climate of 
Edinburgh which I have been able to trace, some of which. perhaps have hitherto 
escaped notice. 
Sect. 1. On the Earlier Recorded Observations on the Climate of Edinburgh. 
4. [have been fortunate enough to discover an old printed Register of Meteoro- 
logical Observations at Edinburgh, extending from June 1731 to May 1736. It 
is contained in five successive volumes of “Medical Essays and Observations 
published by a Society in Edinburgh,” which reached a third edition in 1748, and 
it is the one from which I quote. 
5. This register appears to have been made with remarkable care, ndd most 
likely by one observer, and in the same locality, for the above-mentioned period, 
and probably longer, as I judge from the mention of it in Martine’s Essays.+ 
* Some account of Mr Aniz’s personal history and labours will be found in the Vice-President’s 
Address for the Session 1859-60 (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. iv. pp. 225-27.) 
¢ Essays and Observations on the Construction and Graduation of Thermometers by GrorcE 
Martine, M.D., 2d edit, 1772, p. 48. 
VOL. XXII. PART II. a3 
