MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, &C. 
XXXIX 
one, requiring no very recondite knowledge to understand it, 
and winch it is most desirable should be fully and candidly 
discussed. We therefore hope that if either Ur Little or our 
correspondent desire to continue the discussion, they will stick 
to facts and inferences, and not tilt at each other. We allow 
full freedom of debate, but we cannot overlook the risk of 
personalities, however g od humoured, sometimes verging on 
asperity We need hardly inform our local readers that our 
correspondent, although he chooses to be nameless here, is not 
a mere Umbra, but one of the best as well as cleverest men in 
India.— Ed ] 
I should not have made any remarks on Dr. Little’s 
paper did 1 not know that you forwarded your journal to 
several scientitic Societies, and some of the members mav 
imbibe totally erroneous opinions regarding my observatory 
anti the trustworthiness of the observations. 
What the writer says on the subject of my observatory 
I will here quote, and subjoin any remarks I may have to 
make on the subject. Dr. Little writes “ The observations 
taken at the Singapore Observatory during the years 
1811, 42, 43, 44 and 45, were conducted in a building 
situated at the distance of a mile from the centre of the 
town, having no house contiguous (1) and built on the bank 
of a river subject to tidal influence. It was half a mile 
from the sea, from which it was separated by a mangrove 
swamp, houses and cocoauut trees. Towards the land (2) 
it was clear of jungle and cultivation, the alluvial soil being 
sand with a clay bottom, The Thermometer was placed 
in a circular box in a centre (3) room well ventilated, but 
not exposed to air cu rents (4) or the sun’s radiation (5j. 
This building was of br<ek 18 inches thick, and surrounded 
by a wood verandah (6) the roof being composed of attap 
and a ceiling of planks. In estimating the correctness of 
the following observations the reader inu«i bear in mind 
the condi.ions in which the thermometer was placed (/). 
It indeed most accurately showed the atmosphere of a room 
in that building (8) but not the atmosphere of that loca¬ 
lity (9), for, in the first place, the building prevented all 
currents of air from affecting the temperature (IU) which 
in this country are the means of reducing the tempera¬ 
ture (11). as well might we judge the temperature of a 
country by observations taken in a deep dell (.12) surrounded 
by hills. In the second place the brick walls while they 
absorbed the heat by day radiated the same by night. 
