Read Ebook: The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal Vol. XLIX April-October 1850 by Various Jameson Robert Editor

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do not exceed 1500, or in places 1800 feet in elevation.

Footnote 14: Travels in Arabia, vol. ii., p. 97.

And Dr Lepsius remarks on this mountain, that--

The ascent of this majestic mountain, from its steepness and numerous ravines, is found to be fatiguing. Mr J. Wilkinson describes it as follows:--

Footnote 18: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. ii. p. 39.

Footnote 21: Ibid., p. 51.

Footnote 22: The readings of the barometer hitherto used required an additive correction of about 0?08 inch. All past results will be reduced to the standard instrument.

Footnote 23: Uncorrected Maximum, 30?820 inches.

Footnote 24: Uncorrected Maximum, 30?752 inches.

HYGROMETER.

Footnote 25: From Mr Glaisher's Hygrometrical Tables, the accuracy of which my own series of observations made in the years 1847 and 1848, for the purpose of testing their correctness, shew in a very striking manner; and I think every meteorologist must feel himself greatly indebted to Mr Glaisher for this valuable compilation, which is also based on observations made under his own superintendence at the National Observatory.

In eight months of the year 1847, the difference between the observed and the deduced Dew-point at Whitehaven, is 0??10; and in 1848, it is only 0??07, the mean of the two periods comprising 1220 observations, amounting to the comparatively evanescent fraction of 8/100ths of a degree. Such satisfactory proofs of the perfection of Mr G.'s tables have induced me to abandon Daniell's Dew-point Apparatus, for that more simple, less costly, and equally correct form of Hygrometer, the combination of the dry and wet bulb thermometers.

SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL RADIATION.

Footnote 26: In 1847, the Thermometer was on Cork throughout the year. It is here reduced to the Standard of Raw Wool.

Footnote 28: Difference between the mean maximum in the Sun's rays, and the mean maximum in the shade.

The Barometer is a standard made by Barrow, under the direction of James Glaisher, Esq., of the Greenwich Observatory.

The adjustment for the difference of capacity of tube and cistern is effected previous to every observation, and the correction for capillarity and reduction to the temperature of 32? is made at the close of each month.

The difference between its readings and those of the Greenwich standard is scarcely appreciable, being only 0?002 inch.

The Dry and Wet Bulb Thermometers, also made by Barrow, are considered to have identical readings under similar circumstances, and both, too, agree with the Greenwich standard thermometer. The Dew-point apparatus, now discontinued, approximates very closely in its readings to the dry and wet bulb thermometers.

The Self-registering Thermometer is a large Six made by Dollond in 1840, and its average difference from the standard is within 2/10ths of a degree. A duplicate and precisely similar thermometer is fixed by its side, so that in case of No. 1 getting out of order, No. 2 can be resorted to without detriment to the results.

These instruments all have a northern aspect, and are placed about 4 feet above the ground. The naked thermometers employed for indicating the relative amount of solar and terrestrial radiation, are precisely similar to those in use at the Government Observatories.

The direction of the wind is taken twice daily, and its force is registered on an arbitrary scale from 0 to 6; the highest number is reserved for storms approaching the hurricane in violence, and is very rarely recorded.

On the 18th, primroses were in flower on the cliffs between Panton and Harrington.

The deaths exceed the births by 25 in number.

The thermometer on the grass, on raw wool, was below the freezing point on eight nights; on the nights of the 8th and 10th it fell to 27??5, and on that of the 19th and 20th, to 25?. On several mornings ice was seen in the immediate vicinity of the town, and on the 3d of the month there was a somewhat heavy fall of snow amongst the mountains. Highbell, Kentmere, High Street, and the mountains around Mardale, were covered with the mantle of winter to the depth of 6 inches. Such an incident has not occurred, it is said, since 1827, when several sheep were lost and smothered in snow-drifts on Mosedale and Helvellyn; and Skiddaw was covered with snow. Both snow and hail are recorded on the 10th in the register kept for me at Bassenthwaite Halls, at the foot of Skiddaw.

The extraordinary depression in the temperature has therefore been unparticipated in, by places situated south of the parallel of 53?.

The average fall of rain is 8?15 inches; in the second quarter of 1849, the fall is 5?74 inches, or 2?40 inches under the normal quantity.

The deaths in the town and suburb are 139, being 21 above the corrected average number, which is 117. In the June quarters of 1847 and 1848 the deaths were 177 and 147 respectively. The births exceed the deaths by 59.

Between the 1st and 20th of October the deaths were 32, and during that period there were frequently none for three or four consecutive days. There was only one death after the 20th October. It occurred on the 6th of November, when the pestilence ceased. I am informed by a resident medical gentleman, that at the commencement of the disease the cases were rapidly fatal, many of them after eight or ten hours' illness, and it was then almost entirely confined to the lower classes.

The proximate cause of the exceedingly fatal character of the disease at this seaport is probably to be found in the effluvia engendered by the extensive tract of marshy land, called the "Cloffocks," adjoining the river Derwent, and in the immediate vicinity of the town. What is most remarkable, the first case of cholera at Workington occurred on the same day of the same month, in the same house, and even in the same room in the said house, where the epidemic first broke out in the summer of 1832. There is no peculiarity in the situation of the house, nor can any reason be assigned for this most singular coincidence. I am informed that very few insects were seen about the river, and, during the height of the disease, the rooks entirely forsook their old-established quarters in the grounds adjoining the Hall.

Footnote 29: The cause of this fearful epidemic is still a mystery. The meteorological conditions of the atmosphere, although slightly abnormal, are wholly inadequate to account for its induction. It is most probably induced by some gaseous poison diffused through the atmosphere, but of a nature so subtle that the most delicate analysis fails to detect its presence. According to the experiments of Dr Dundas Thompson of Glasgow, no solid matter existed in the air, but ammonia was obtained from it in the proportion of 0?319 grain of caustic ammonia, or 0?731 grain of carbonate of ammonia, to 1000 pounds of air.

Early on the morning of the 2d, a swallow was seen on the wing in the immediate vicinity of this town. The maximum temperature of the day was 55?. Between the 9th and 12th inclusive, the extremes of day and night temperature only varied 2 degrees.

The remarkable meteor observed at Edinburgh on the evening of the 19th, and minutely described by Professor Forbes who witnessed it, was also seen at Whitehaven under the same circumstances and at the same time.

It is pleasant to have to announce a favourable change in the sanitary condition of this town, and to record the termination of an excessive mortality, which uninterruptedly prevailed for a period of two years and a half; for this is the only quarterly period wherein the deaths have not exceeded the average since March 1846.

In the corresponding quarters of 1846, 1847, and 1848, the deaths were 215, 161, and 176 respectively. The births exceed the deaths by 34.

THE AURORA BOREALIS.--There have been seven exhibitions of the aurora borealis during the year 1849, two of which were sufficiently remarkable to merit something more than a passing notice.

The first occurred on the evening of January 14th. At 10 P.M., a well-defined auroral arch, about 5? in width, extended from NNE. to W., its highest part reaching nearly to Arided in Cygnus. At 11h there was one complete arch, and segments of two other arches, all brilliant, crossing each other in the NW., and throwing off intensely bright streamers, some of which reached the altitude of the Pointers. The aurora was now exceedingly beautiful, and emitted considerable light. The streamers appeared to have a duplex lateral motion, running along the upper edge of the arch from west to north, and then backwards from north to west. The clear sky beneath the arches was almost black, from contrast. At 11h 30m the arches had broken up, and the streamers appeared to emanate from the horizon.

GENERAL REMARKS.--The year 1849 is the driest we have had since 1844; the fall of rain is 7?9 inches under the average annual depth, which is 47 inches nearly. From some cause, the annual quantity of rain at this place is evidently on the decrease, and the diminution is, I believe, general all over the north of England. Probably the large amount of moor and waste marshy land brought into cultivation of late years, and the more efficient drainage of the country generally, by diminishing the evaporating surface, and so interfering with that invisible process of nature which is the source of every kind of atmospheric deposition, may have led to this and other changes which appear to have occurred in the climate of England within the last half century. In the first seven years after I began to keep a meteorological record, the average annual depth of rain was 49?93 inches, or 50 inches nearly; in the last seven years, ending with 1848, the average is reduced to 43?74 inches. The greatest quantity in the last 17 years is 59 inches, in 1836; the least, 34?69 inches in 1842. The three driest years in the period are 1842, 1844, and 1849, which yielded 34?69 inches, 36?72 inches, and 39 inches.

The naked thermometer on the grass, placed on raw wool, has been at or below the freezing point in every month of 1849; viz., in January, on 19 nights; in February, on 14; in March, on 13; in April, on 18; in May, on 11; in June, on 8; in July, on 1; in August, on 2; in September, on 5; in October, on 16; in November, on 13; and in December, on 24 nights. The amount of radiant heat thrown off from the earth's crust at night, in the year 1849, as indicated by naked thermometers placed on raw wool and on grass, is much greater than usual. The evaporation exceeds the fall of rain in five months of 1849; viz., in March, April, May, June, and September. In 1849, we have had 12 perfectly clear days; 163 days more or less cloudy but without rain; 190 wet days; 261 days on which the sun shone out; 33 days of frost; 13 of hail; 7 of snow; 10 of thunder and lightning; and 7 days in which lightning occurred without thunder. There have also been three lunar halos, one lunar rainbow, a double parhelion, and seven appearances of the aurora borealis.

The quantity of electricity in the air was extremely small down to the end of July, after which it was restored to its average amount.

This fact is strikingly exhibited by the following table of continuous observations taken by M. Quetelet with Peltier's electrometer:--

Average Mean 1844-1848. 1849. ? ? January, 53 39 February, 47 36 March, 38 27 April, 27 20 May, 21 16 June, 18 13 July, 19 14 August, 21 21 September, 24 24

In 1849, the deaths exceed the calculated average number by 79, and the births exceed the deaths by 74.

In the seven years ending with 1845, the mean annual number of deaths in the town and suburb, with an assumed population of 17,867, is 410, being 22?9 per thousand, or one death in every 43?5 persons. In 1846, 1847, and 1848 , the mean annual number is 694, being 37?8 deaths per thousand, or 1 in every 26?4 persons in those three most unhealthy years. In 1849 the deaths are 606, which, assuming the population to be the same as in 1848, give 32?2 deaths per 1000, or 1 death in every 31 persons. The average annual number of deaths in the ten years 1839-48 is 495, which, with an assumed population of 17,713, gives 27?9 per 1000, or 1 death in every 35?7 inhabitants.

So that the mortality in 1849, although still above the average, shews a marked improvement in the health of the town as compared with any of the three preceding years; and, in the last quarter, the deaths are below the average for the period.

The Coral Island, in its best condition, is but a miserable residence for man. There is poetry in every feature; but the natives find this a poor substitute for the bread-fruit and yams of more favoured lands. The cocoa-nut and pandanus are, in general, the only products of the vegetable kingdom afforded for their sustenance, and fish and crabs from the reef their only animal food. Scanty, too, is the supply; and infanticide is resorted to in self-defence, where but a few years would otherwise overstock the half-dozen square miles of which their little world consists.

Footnote 30: There are a few islands better supplied with vegetable food, though the above statements are literally true of a large majority.

Water is usually to be found in sufficient quantities for the use of the natives, although the land is so low and flat. They dig wells five to ten feet deep in any part of the dry islets, and generally obtain a constant supply. These wells are sometimes fenced around with special care; and the houses of the villages, as at Fakaafo, are often clustered about them. On Aratica there is a watering-place 50 feet in diameter, from which our vessels in a few hours obtained 390 gallons. The Tarawan Islands are generally provided with a supply sufficient for bathing, and each native takes his morning bath in fresh water, esteemed by them a great luxury.

The only source of this water is the rains, which, percolating through the loose surface, settle upon the hardened coral rock that forms the basis of the island. As the soil is white, or nearly so, it receives heat but slowly, and there is consequently but little evaporation of the water that is once absorbed.

These islands, moreover, enclose ports of great extent, many admitting even the largest class of vessels; and the same lagoons are the pearl fisheries of the Pacific.

An occasional log drifts to their shores; and at some of the more isolated atolls, where the natives are ignorant of any land but the spot they inhabit; they are deemed direct gifts from a propitiated deity. These drift-logs were noticed by Kotzebue, at the Marshall Islands, and he remarked also that they often brought stones in their roots. Similar facts were observed by us at the Tarawan group, and also at Enderby's Island, and elsewhere.

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