182 
ments was made, intended to throw light 
upon this question, and while the apparatus 
used was improvised, and hence necessarily 
more or less imperfect, the indications are 
decidedly in the affirmative. 
In these experiments the apparatus used is 
illustrated in Fig. 2 and may be described as 
follows : | 
Into the short arm of a tube resembling 
the one used to contain the water in the wet 
bulb hygrometer, a cylindrical piece of terra 
cotta, a, was loosely fitted, to act as a substi- 
tute for the wick. Its lower end reached into 
the bend of the tube, and its top projected 
slightly above the end of the short arm. The 
long arm of the tube, 0, ‘instead of being 
closed at the top, as in the wet bulb hygro- @z 
meter, was provided with two stopcocks, d,d, 
placed one above the other, and the part of : 
the tube between the cocks, c, was graduated 
to cubic centimetres. The object of the 
cocks is to permit the filling of the tube with ; 
water, without removing it from the earth. Fig. 2. 
Such an apparatus was placed in the soil of a bare spot 
in the garden early in September, the lower end being set 
about six inches below the surface, while the long arm ex- 
tended upright into the air. The piece of terra cotta, being 
in contact with the soil at its upper and with the water of 
the tube at its lower end, transmitted the water as fast as 
the soil absorbed it, and as the short arm of the tube became 
empty, a bubble of air would rise in the long arm, and thus 
admit more water. By means of the graduated section at 
the top of the tube, the absorption could be measured. 
A careful record of the absorption was kept from Septem- 
ber 5 to October 16. In the following table, is shown a 
comparison between the record of the wet bulb hygrometer, 
the absorption from the apparatus just described, and the 
rain fall, for six consecutive weeks. The wet bulb hygro- 
meter was read three times each day, at 7 a. m., 12 m., and 
6. p.m. The differences between the readings of the wet and 
dry bulb are all added together to furnish the figures of the 
first column ; the second column shows the total absorption 
by cae soil during the same period, and the third the total 
rainfall. 

7 a Tae = 
