(184) 
competent number of Correfpondents T do diligently profe- 
cute the Inquiries ( especially with iarofeopes^ accommodated 
with Mr .Hooks ingenious additions) make men fome Luciferem 
difcoveries, that poffibly we do not yet dream off. 
I know not, whether it will be worth while to add, that iince 
I was oblig’d to leave Lmdon^ I have been put upon fo many 
lefTer removes, that I have not been able to make Barofcopical 
Obfervations with fuch a conftancy, as I have wilhed, but, as 
far as I remember, the | \tijc\-filver has been for the moft part, 
fo high, as to invite me to take notice of it 5 and to defire you 
to do me the favour to inquire among your correfpondents 
whether they have obfervM the fame thing. * For, if they have, 
this lafting ( though not uninter* 
rupted ) Altitude of the Quic\-{il 
ver , happening, when theSeafons 
of the year have been extraordina- 
ry dry (fo much as to become a 
grievance, and to dry up, as one of 
the late Gazettes informs us, fome 
fprings near Waymoutb , that ufed to 
run conftantly) it may be worth 
inquiry, whether thefe obftinate Droughts, may not by cleav- 
ing of the ground too deep, and making it alfo in fome places 
more porous and as it were, fpungy, give a more copious Vent, 
than is ufuaf to fubterraneal fteams, which adfcendingintothe 
Air,increafe the gravity of it. The inducements I have to pro- 
pofe this inquiry, I rauft not now ftay to mention. But perhaps, 
it the Obfervation holds, it may prove not ufelefs in reference 
to fome Difeafes. 
Perhaps it will be needlefs to put you in mind of directing 
thofe Firtuofi , that may defire your Inftru&ions about Barof- 
copes) to fet down in their Diarys not only the day of the month, 
and the hour of the day, when the "Mercuries height is taken, 
but ( in a diftincSt Columne') the weather, efpecially the Winds, 
both as to the Quarters, whence they blow ( though that be 
not always fo eafy nor neceflary, ) and as to the Violence or 
liemifnefs, wherewith they blow.For.though it be more difficult, 
than 
* T his hath been inquired into , 
and is found, that fevera l Accu- 
rate and Curious perfons ( as the 
Afoft Noble Prefident of the 
Royal Society,^ Lord Vifcount 
Brounker, Dodfor Beale, Mr. 
Hook ) have obferved the 
fame . 
