236 A nalyses of Booh. [April, 
of a conductor as a subject of investigation is entirely due to 
Cavendish. 
It cannot be doubted that had Cavendish been less reticent, 
and had he submitted his results to the world, electrical science 
would have made greater advances than it has at present. 
The Weather of 1882 as observed in the Neighbourhood of London, 
and Compared in all Respects with that of an Average Year. 
By Edward Mawley, F.M.S., F.R.H.S., Hon. Sec. National 
Rose Society. London : Edward Stanford, and Williams 
and Strahan. 
A careful examination of this little summary will convince the 
reader what careful and prolonged observation is required in 
order to give a correct notion of the climate of any country. The 
total yearly rainfall, the mean annual temperature, throw practi- 
cally no light upon the influence of a climate on human health, 
and, what is perhaps even more important, on the growth of the 
plants necessary for our sustenance. We want to know whether 
the yearly rainfall is due to a few violent showers, or to sempi- 
ternal drizzle ; whether the bulk of the downfall is in summer or 
in winter, in the night or in the day. As to the temperature we 
have, in like manner, to enquire whether the heat comes when 
it is wanted to mature the crops, or at some time when it can be 
of no service. 
When we turn over Mr. Mawley’s work, all wonder as to the 
frequency of bad seasons in England disappears, and we are 
almost led to marvel, on the contrary, how we ever come to have 
a good harvest at all. Of the three evil factors, — cold, wet, and 
wind, — it is seldom that all are simultaneously absent for an 
entire season. Our yearly mean temperature, 49i°, is not only 
very low, but it is too often made up not so much by good growing 
heat in summer as by the absence of frosts in winter. Our rain- 
fall, though not large per se, is very high as compared with the 
insignificant evaporation under a cloudy sky, and it is administered 
in small but continuous doses, good, perhaps, for grass, but bad 
for almost every other crop. Perhaps the worst of the three 
faCfors is wind, which we have always in excess, though not 
always to such an extent as in the year 1882. The injurious 
effects of wind upon vegetation, though well known to gardeners, 
are quite overlooked by the general public. One main part of 
the advantages of cultivation under glass is that the crops are 
maintained in a calm atmosphere. It is certain that the extent 
to which the country has been denuded of trees has been in this 
