342 GRISCOM ON METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



would furnish results which might serve as a foundation for a theory 

 much more perfect than any which has been proposed. 



Facts of such common occurrence, and so fully within the reach of 

 observation, as are those of wind, rain, storms, changes of temperature, 

 &c. are, doubtless, susceptible of arrangement and classification, as 

 well as those in other departments of natural science. It is well known, 

 that people whose peculiar situations and employments habitually 

 stimulate them to these observations, acquire an unusual degree of skill 

 in the prognosis of weather. 



It is thus that shepherds and sea-faring men become deeply versed in 

 the varying physiognomy of the sky. But the knowledge thus inci- 

 dentally acquired, and insulated from public convenience, were it 

 reduced to something like method and system, might be attained and 

 communicated with the same facility and rapidity as other portions of 

 physical science. 



The invention and use of instruments, especially of the thermometer 

 and barometer, have enabled the moderns to arrive at much greater 

 precision than the ancients in their acquaintance with the nature of the 

 atmosphere, and of its agency in the operations of the globe. But 

 die application of those instruments has hitherto been too much limited 

 to a few whom curiosity has occasionally prompted to employ them, 

 In the operation of causes which are coextensive with whole climates, 

 and wide-spread regions of the earth, it is not to be expected that a few 

 detached observations can be sufficient to establish general laws. 



We live in a" period, however, in which the spirit of philosophy 

 seems more than ever awake to the interests of humanity; and deriv- 

 ing, as we do, so many important advantages from the sagacity and 

 industry of our progenitors, it becomes our reasonable duty to extend 

 the same benefits, as far as we are able, in a progressive ratio to our 

 successors. 



