472 Mr. S. E. Hoskins on a Tabular Foi^m of Analysis. [May 9, 



These contrasts, quite unlooked for by me, were all the more surprising, 

 as the data employed had been taken as they came, and not selected for 

 the purpose of supporting any preconceived notion. It seemed to me, 

 therefore, that this kind of diagram, besides serving as a convenient table 

 of reference, was a collection of materials prepared and classified for further 

 analysis. Under this impression I proceeded to decompose it, and to re- 

 arrange the products in a tabular form* — converting into letters of the 

 alphabet the combined signs in the squares, so as to designate the four 

 states of weather, before mentioned, as follows; — A= warm + dry; B = 

 warm + wet ; C = cold + dry, and D = cold + wet . 



These letters were then placed in columns under the heads of months 

 and years ; the number of times in which each letter recurred was noted, 

 and these numerals, which may be termed coefficients of the sums of the 

 letters, were collected in lines and columns, those of the months at the 

 foot, and those of the years at the sides of a table of analysis. See Table IV. 



When the coefficients of the whole series v/ere thus placed in juxtapo- 

 sition, it was satisfactory to find that the general contrasts, noticed in the 

 diagram, were borne out numerically ; and still more satisfactory to ascer- 

 tain that there was a close agreement between the ratio of the months and 

 that of the degrees of temperature, plus and minus. 



Months. Degrees. 



First decade. 78 warm to 42 cold. 

 Second decade. 78 cold to 42 warm. 



153-5 plus to 55-2 minus. | 

 153°*0 mmus to 60°-0 plus, j 



The columns at the sides of the Tables of analysis, that of Greenwich as 

 well as Guernsey, indicate that there was the intrusion of one cold year 

 (1845) in the warm period, and of two warm years (1857 and 1859) in 

 the cold period. A similar kind of intercalation was pointed out by Mr. 

 Howard, in his 'Cycle of the Seasons,' from 1824 to 1841, namely, the 

 intrusion of one cold year in the warm, and one warm year in the cold 

 cycle. 



On examining the coefficients more in detail, in the hope of being able 

 to detect some group of months which seemed to bear a peculiar relation 

 to the rest, I met with a frequent recurrence of an exact inverse order 

 between the warm months of the two decades ; and often a direct ratio 

 between the wet and dry. 



During the first decade, the ratio between warm and cold, in the groups 

 of Januar}^, February, March, April, August, September, October, and 

 December, is invariably 6 to 4. It is one of greater inequahty in the Junes 

 and Novembers, being 8 to 2 in both cases ; warm Mays are equal to the 

 cold, but warm Julys preponderate in the proportion of 9 to I. 



In the second decade, the warm Novembers are to the cold the exact 

 reverse of what they were in the first, being 2 to 8 ; and the ratios of Ja- 



* I am indebted to Dr. Guy's Croonian Lectures for an insight into this method. 



