and the distribution of Heat over the Globe. 
These results are deduced from 127,000 observations, made 
with sixteen thermometers, of, no doubt, unequal accuracy. In 
supposing, on the theory of probabilities, that in such a number 
of observations, the errors, in the construction and exposure of 
the instruments, and in the hours of observation, will, in a great 
measure, destroy one another, we may determine, by interpola- 
tion, either under the same parallel, or upon the same isother- 
mal line, the niean winters and summers of the interior and of 
the coast of France. This comparison gives, — 
Mean 
Mean 
Winter. 
Summer. 
r 52°. 7 Coast, 
40°.6 
65°. 1 
I. Isothermal 
J Interior, 
38.5 
68.0 
Lines of 
1 54,°.7 C6ast, 
41.4 
67.3 
Interior, 
39.2 
68.4 
Annual 
Temp. 
r 47° to 49° Coast, 
41°.0 
66°. 7 
53°.0 
I. Parallels of ■ 
1 Interior^ 
37.8 
66.6 
51.6 
j 45° to 46° Coast, 
42.3 
67.8 
55.8 
t. Interior, 
39.2 
69.3 
54.7 
As the isothermal lines rise again towards the western coasts 
of France; that is to say, as the mean temperature of the year be- 
comes there greater than under the same latitude in the interior of 
the country, we ought to expect, that in advancing from east to 
west under the same parallel, the heat of the summers would not 
diminish. But the rising, again, of the isothermal lines, and the 
proximity of the sea, tend equally to increase the mildness of the 
winters ; and each of these two causes acts in an opposite manner 
upon the summers. If the division of the heat between these sea- 
sons was equal in Brittany and in Orleannois, in the climate of the 
coast, and the continental climates, we ought to find the winters 
and summers warmer in the same latitude along the coast. In 
following the same isothermal lines, we readily observe, in the 
preceding table, that the winters are colder in the interior of the 
country, and the summers more temperate upon the coasts. These 
observations .confirm in general the popular opinion respecting 
the climate of coasts ; but in recollecting the cultivation and the 
developement of vegetation on the coasts and in the interior of 
France, we should expect differences of temperature still more 
considerable. It is surprising that these differences between the 
