Dr. blagben’s Hi/lory of 
before faw the thermometer fo low as to indicate a conge- 
lation of the mercury. But it was not in Lapland alone 
that the feal'on was uncommonly fevere. At this fame time 
the froft was nearly, if not quite, intend enough at Peterfburg 
to freeze quickfilver, as appears from the remarks of M. braun, 
who was then engaged in his experiments. And it is a curious 
coincidence of events, that on the 'very day when the congela- 
tion of mercury by artificial means was firft clearly eftablifhed 
in Ruflia, nature fhould be performing the fame operation be- 
fore the eyes of an attentive and philofophical obferver in a 
neighbouring kingdom, who yet had not lufficient fagacity to 
divine her fecret. 
Two circumftances, however, ftruck M. hellant, which 
might have led 'him immediately to fufpecl the truth. The 
firft was, that fuch a degree of cold as this prodigious defcent 
of the thermometer feemed to indicate, bore no fort of pro- 
portion to the general ftile of the weather in that country. 
What could be more incredible, than that the cold, which had 
never been known before to fink the thermometer below — 40°, 
fhould on one particular occafion exceed that point by hun- 
dreds of degrees, more than double the whole variation of tem- 
perature between fummer and winter ? Such an event would 
ihew a want of balance in the fyftem of nature, with refpedt 
to heat and cold, fo very different from the apt adjufiment of 
its other parts, as to be inadmifiible but upon the moft decifive 
proofs. Any refle&ing perfon, therefore, would be more in- 
clined to believe, that the inftruments employed had ceafed to 
be meafures of the temperature, from fome caufe or other, than 
that the extremes of cold fhould be fubjeft to fuch anomalous 
exceflfes. 
The 
