REPORT ON METEOROLOGY. 
199 
have no bond of connexion in their diurnal changes, at the 
same hours. 
Great numerical accuracy is always of extremely difficult 
attainment; and it is hoped that the good sense of observers 
will dismiss from Meteorology, as well as from some other 
branches of physical science in which it has prevailed*, that 
superfluity of decimal places, which when they exceed to a 
great extent the compass of the instrument to verify, create 
rather a distrust in the observer than confidence in his obser¬ 
vations. Even within very moderate limits it is clear that, 
where accuracy so entirely depends upon the extreme pre¬ 
cision of instruments and attention to their condition, and upon 
perfect regularity and consistency of observation, there are few 
individuals who can furnish the numerical data now required 
for the advancement of the science. Five or six Registers in 
Great Britain and Ireland, carried on by learned Societies or by 
Government, would afford the great normal quantities required 
for establishing the numerical data of the climate of this kingdom 
with regard to the great elements of temperature, pressure, and 
humidity in relation to that of other parts of the globe. And 
while we would by all means encourage the continuance and the 
extension of local Registers aiming at no very high degree of 
precision, in illustration of the particular climate of different 
parts of the island, these Registers would be of a very simple 
description, and might be confided to the hands of merely 
mechanical observers, under the occasional superintendance of 
persons of greater acquirements. 
Let us conceive for a moment the gain to science, which 
such a saving as would thus be effected in crude andunprofit- 
able Registers would produce. The whole class of those who 
profess to study Meteorology, either as an occasional pursuit or 
as a more constant occupation, would be left almost free to 
pursue individual objects of inquiry which, though not so sim¬ 
ple as the vague mechanical task to which at present they 
generally devote their time, might in many cases be rendered 
nearly as much so, and might add every year a stock of infor¬ 
mation, which, instead of being looked upon with the coolness 
and indifference with which an ordinary Register is generally 
glanced over, might be hailed by fellow-labourers in the same 
field as throwing new light upon their several branches of in¬ 
quiry. 
We have already adverted to some subjects which afford 
ample scope for judicious and well-directed experiment: it would 
be needless formally to enlarge such a list of desiderata ; but in 
the course of this Report we shall have an opportunity of point- 
* For example, in Chemistry. 
