MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, &C. 
xlt 
(11) Has Dr. Little never heard of a hot current of air, 
and if he has, would it, does he think, have the effect of re¬ 
ducing the temperature ? 
(12) Why not a deep well, for truth lies at the bottom of 
one; but what analogy is there between a deep dell sur¬ 
rounded hy high hills and my observatory ? In the former 
case there is no circulation of air and great reflection from 
the sun’s rays during the heat of the day. In my observa¬ 
tory a gentle current of air was always passing through the 
building, aod the verandah protected the building from di¬ 
rect rays and reflection from the sandy soil. 
(13) This is perfectly unintelligible to me. If the brick 
walls absorbed the heat by day and radiated the same by 
night, the thermometer would rise during the day and fall 
at night, the very reverse of what the Doctor states. If my 
observatory had been tiled, then, in consequence of the great¬ 
er absorption of heat during the day, the thermometer would 
have risen, and by radiation at night it would have fallen. 
The whole sentence is inexplicable, and if the Editor had 
taken exception to this passage—it might have been as well.* 
I have always considered myself that a brick wall heated 
would have the effect of raising the temperature. 
(14) Most undoubtedly. If observers consider that 95® 
is any thing like the maximum temperature at Singa* 
pore and publish such observations as matter of factrf", when 
* We are so obtuse as to consider our correspondent’s criticism some¬ 
what inexplicable, unless we view it as a play at cross purposes. Dr, Little's 
sentence, on the other hand, though not expressed with mathematical rigour, 
is sufficiently clear, and moreover appears to us to be founded on fact. Tha 
walls and ceiling (and we may add the floor in a still greater degree) during 
the day presented a cool surface to the air entering the room,—that is 
a surface cooler than the air itself,—and consequently reduced its tempera¬ 
ture, or partially absorbed its heat. At night, instead of being internally at a 
lower temperature than the air entering the room, they retained a higher, 
owing to the quantity of heat which they had absorbed during tha day. The 
external air on entering the room was therefore raised in temperature by the 
heat communicated by the wall Now whatever our correspondent's object 
m^y have been, that of Dr Little was to ascertain the temperature of the 
external air , and in availing of the observations made at the Observatory it 
was necessary to shew how the air in it differed from the open air. — Ed. 
f We suppose this is to be taken as a small instalment of what is awaiting 
us, for Dr Lillie has not published such observations. We did, but not as 
matter of fact, if by that our coirespondent means, as expressing the true 
lemueratu e of the District What we published as matter of fact was that 
4< Day and night self registering horizontal thermometers (Troughton and 
Simms) placed in the shade in an open verandah” (ante vol. II p. xii) 
registered the maxima and minima which we gave. We never maintained 
that the position of these thermometers was free from objections, as our 
