34$ Dr. Ure’s new experimental researches 
The height of the column in some of my experiments being 
nearly 12 feet, it became necessary to employ a ladder to 
reach its top. I found it to be convenient in this case, after 
observing that the column of vapour had attained its primitive 
magnitude, to note down the temperature with the altitude of 
the column ; then immediately to pour in a measured quantity 
of mercury nearly equal to three vertical inches, and to wait 
till the slow progress of the heating again brought the vapour 
in equilibrio with this new pressure, which at first had pushed 
the mercury within the platina ring at l' 1 . When the lower 
surface of the mercury was again a tangent to this ring, the 
temperature and altitude were both instantly observed. 
This mode of conducting the process will account for the 
experimental temperatures being very often odd and fractional 
numbers. I present them to the public as they were recorded 
on the instant in that particular repetition of the experiment 
which I consider most entitled to confidence. To trim and 
fashion the results into an orderly looking series, would have 
been an easy task ; but in my opinion this is a species of de- 
ception very injurious to the cause of science, and a deviation 
from the rigid truth of observation, which ought never to be 
made for any hypothesis. We shall afterwards have ample 
opportunities of exposing the fallacy of such premature geo- 
metrical refinements. 
The thermometers were constructed by Creighton, with his 
well known nicety, and the divisions were read off with a 
lens, so that ~~ of a degree could be distinguished. After 
bestowing the utmost pains in repeating the periments 
during a period of nearly two months, I found that the only 
way of removing the little discrepancies, which crept in 
