To bring within the limits of a popular pamphlet a notice of the various phenomena classed under the head of Meteorology, it has been necessary to exercise the utmost brevity. Brief, however, as the treatment has been, reference has been made to the sciences of Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Gravitation, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geography, and Geology, thus corroborating the testimony of Sir John Herschel, who states that “it can hardly be impressed forcibly enough on the attention of the student of nature that there is scarcely any natural phenomenon which can be fully and completely explained in all its circumstances without a union of several—perhaps of all—the sciences; and it cannot be doubted that whatever walk of science he may determine to pursue, impossible as it is for a finite capacity to explore all with any chance of success, he will find it illuminated in proportion to the light which he is enabled to throw upon it from surrounding regions. But, independently of this advantage, the glimpse which may thus be obtained of the harmony of Creation, of the unity of its plan, of the theory of the material universe, is one of the most exalted objects of contemplation which can be presented to the faculties of a rational being. In such a general survey he perceives that science is a whole whose source is lost in infinity, and which nothing but the imperfection of our nature obliges us to divide. He feels his nothingness in his attempts to grasp it, and he bows with humility and adoration before that Supreme Intelligence who alone can comprehend it, and who ‘in the beginning saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good.’”
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All scale values in illustration captions retained. The value may not be visually correct.
All fractions regularised to numerator/denominator.
Page 3, ‘Reaumur’s’ changed to ‘Réaumur’s,’ “Réaumur’s scale”
Page 9, closing single quote changed to double quote.
Page 12, full stop appended to illustration caption, “Scale about 1/20.”
Page 16, full stop appended to illustration caption, “9.”
Page 17, semicolon changed to full stop, “...it has never been frozen.”
Page 23, first footnote changed from “8 R = 18 F.” to “8 R = 50 F.”