86 Proceedings of the Boyal Society 
Pinetum Britannicum, a Descriptive Account of all Hardy Trees 
of the Pine Tribe cultivated in Great Britain, with Fac- 
similes of the original Drawings made for the work. Part I. 
Picea nohilis. By Messrs Lawsons and Son. — Presented hy the 
Eight Hon. Charles Lawson^ Lord Provost of Edinburgh. 
Monday, 2d February 1863. 
The Hon. LOKD NEAVES, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. On the Influence of Weather upon Disease and Mortality. 
By E. E. Scoreshy- Jackson, M.D., F.E.S.E., F.E.C.P., 
Lecturer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics at Surgeons' 
Hall, Edinburgh. 
In the early part of this paper the author adverts to the an- 
tiquity of researches into the causal relations of health and mor- 
tality. Nevertheless, long as these have been the subject of 
inquiry, the literature of medical meteorology is meagre in the 
extreme; and in proportion to the time and labour bestowed upon 
the many other branches of medical science, this department may 
justly be regarded as having met with unmerited neglect. Be- 
ference is made, however, to the names of many eminent phy- 
sicians, whose researches into the influence of weather upon the 
human constitution have contributed not a little to adorn the 
medical literature of the present century. 
It is well known that the influence of external agencies upon 
health differs materially with locality, so that the author feels him - 
self at liberty to make such investigations into the subject of his 
paper as he may think sufficient to ascertain approximately the 
relationship subsisting between the weather and mortality in Scot- 
land, without particular reference to the works of authors on 
kindred subjects in other countries. It is quite possible that the 
results evoked by Casper in Berlin, Quetelet in Brussels, Boudin in 
Paris, Emerson in Philadelphia, Farr or Guy in London, and by 
Stark in Edinburgh, may differ widely in many of the leading 
features of the inquiry, and yet the inferences of each be correct in 
