temperature was also low, the highest being 66° the lowest 13°, making the greatest difference this year, viz. 53°; the average 39°.5. There was also considerable foggy weather, and a slight flurry of snow; 3.18 inches of rain fell; there were many South and East winds.

March. The change in barometrical pressure was 0.9 inches, the highest being 30.4 inches, the lowest 29.5; the average 29.95; the difference in the temperature this month. was 61°, the thermometer rising from 19°, at the beginning to 80°, towards the last, the average being 49°.5; 5.04 inches of rain fell during the month. The most prevalent winds were from the S. or E.

April. The changes of the barometer was but 0.7 inches; viz. from 30.2 inches to 29.5; average 29.85. The temperature, which was between 76° and 30°, varied 46°, and the average was 53°; the winds mostly from the East; 4.42 inches of rain fell.

These observations were usually made three times a day, and the object was, with regard to the thermometer, to obtain the highest and lowest range in twenty-four hours. The time of day which is the hottest, varies according to the season; in summer, especially in the greatest heat of summer, the thermometer does not begin to decline until after 3 o'clock; in winter it will frequently decline after 12, almost always by 1, certainly by 2 o'clock. The lowest range occurs between 12 at night, and 5 in the morning, usually about 4. For obtaining these points the self-regulating thermometer is the most useful, and altogether the best kind of instrument, were it not for its great liability to get out of order, which, however, a little experience may teach how to remedy with some trouble; for instance, it having got out of order, I put it into my pocket and took it to.the instrument maker's, when on looking at it to point out the difficulty I found it right, I put it into my pocket again and returned home, on my arrival I found it again deranged, when with some difficulty I repaired it myself.

The times for making the other observations have been as early as possible in the morning, at noon, and the last thing

at night. I have not noticed in this report the variations of the hygrometer, because with the imperfect instrument which came into my hands, and which I retained till very lately, I soon perceived that the observations could be but little depended upon; in fact it is an instrument of very little use for ascertaining the moisture, as the number of circumvolutions of the hand could not be marked; but by an additional wheel given to it by Mr. Pike, this defect is in a great measure now removed, and more accuracy produced.

Upon reviewing the Journal for the past year, it will be seen that the quantity of rain which fell for the past ten months, ending the 1st of May, was uncommonly large; the whole quantity for the year being 53.94 inches, which exceeds the yearly mean for many years of any of the places given by Mr. Dalton, except Kendal, England, which is exactly the same. That of London for twenty years, is stated to be 20.68 inches, and Liverpool 34.11 inches, and Manchester 2 inches more; thus for this year at least our climate is not exceeded by that of England in the quantity of rain. The months in which the most have fallen were. August, November, and October, in proportion of 7.74 7.12 and 6.30. And although the temperature has been no ways less than usual by the thermometer, no epidemic of any kind prevailed.

The reason of this greater moisture and rain having prevailed this past year, is not exactly apparent or accounted for. That constitution of the atmosphere which prevails in relation to heat, moisture, and winds in any region, and which is called climate, is dependent on the latitude, the situation of the place more or less elevated above the level of the sea, and Much has been its position as interior or nearer the sea.

said with respect to a change which our climate has been supposed to have undergone for a number of years past, especially in point of temperature, and perhaps with considerable truth. That we are subject to great extremes, as well as a variable climate, cannot be denied, and it has justly been remarked, that New-York had the summer of Rome, and the winter of Copenhagen.

We, however, know ourselves, as well as from what our fathers have told us, that our winters have mitigated very much, and the last winter was especially marked by the entire deficiency of snow, none having fallen to lie five hours, from November to April.

In accounting for the fall of rain, Dr. Hutton, of Edinburgh, maintained that "the quantity of vapour capable of entering into the air, increases in a greater ratio than the temperature;" from whence it is inferred, that whenever two volumes of air of different temperatures are mixed together, each being previously fully saturated with vapour, a precipitation of a portion of vapour must ensue, in consequence of the mean temperature not being able to support the mean quantity of vapour; and, as according to Dr. Ure, "in a free atmosphere, the upper regions are colder in consequence of the increased capacity for heat of the air, by the diminution of the density," we may easily account for the fall of rain; but the increased quantity of vapour that must rise to cause the greater fall of rain, must be ascribed to some other cause, and this can be no other than the mitigation or more equal temperature of our winters, and this change has been very satisfactorily accounted for by the increase of our populato the North and West, the removal of wood, and the cultivation of lands, by which less water is locked up and for a shorter time by the frosts of winter, and thus a greater quantity of vapour is free to fall in rain. If this chain of causation be correct, there is a greater probability of the effect increasing instead of diminishing, even to the establishment of rainy seasons to endure for some time.

But another circumstance must not be overlooked as having considerable influence on this subject, viz. electricity.Mr. Luke Howard, a scientific meteorologist of Great Britain, and who was eminent for his classification of clouds, has considered this as one of the acting causes explanatory of the fall of rain, from the opposite states of electricity possessed by clouds formed in different points of the heavens, and brought into contact with each other, when by restoring an equilibri um, a consequent precipitation follows.

That this is, however, but a secondary agent, is confirmed by a comparison made between the present season, so far as it has passed, and the former. The summer of the last year, (1827), notwithstanding the great fall of rain, was remarkable for the few manifestations of electricity by thunder and lightning, and this season, with also a large quantity of rain, we have already had powerful discharges of the electric fluid, with much thunder and vivid lightning, and Mr. Howard considers the electric effect as applicable to continued rain as to occasional showers, from the supply being continued to the clouds in proportion to the consumption, by means of evaporation which returns it during rain. Thus, then, the supply of vapour, and the establishment of a mean temperature, may be considered as necessary to produce rain, modified occasionally by discharges of electric fluid, either silently or with noise.

But whether electricity may be considered as a necessary link in the production of rain, either attended with thunder and lightning or silently, may become another question in meteorological science. A satisfactory explanation of thunder never yet has been offered to the world. The facts are every day presented to our view, but whether to ascribe them simply to the condensation of vapour, or to the combustion by means of the electric fluid of inflammable gases collected in the higher regions of the atmosphere, may admit of a doubt.

We have rain in winter without thunder, except in mild seasons, and in summer, when those phenomena most usually occur, those operations are going on which supply most abundantly the inflammable gases, and which are stopped in severe winters. In summer we frequently have rain without thunder, sometimes lightning unattended with thunder, but never thunder unaccompanied by lightning. All of which phenomena are better explained by the combustion of gases than otherwise, although the occurrence of one does not render the other altogether improbable.

Note. Since writing the above I have seen, though how authentic I cannot pretend to say, published accounts, by

which it appears that there has been an increase of moisture in Europe also, as well as in America, as the rain which fell in Great Britain in December, was unusually great. At Wigton it amounted to 4 inches; at Edinburgh 2; at Gosport 5; and at Kendal, which, according to Mr. Dalton, averaged for twenty-five years 6.084 inches, it was 10.395. In Paris, which in 1819-20 had 131 rainy days, had last year 167 days of rain and snow.

ART. VI. An Essay on Milk-sickness.* By LUNSFORD PITTS YANDELL, M.D. of Murfreesborough, Tennessee.

It has long been a favourite belief among medical philosophers that the pestiferous epidemics which, from time to time, have visited the earth, have afflicted the inferior order of animals as well as man; and that they have been preceded, accompanied, or succeeded, by extraordinary commotions in the planetary system. The atmosphere has been supposed to be loaded with the seeds of disease, which fixing themselves in domestic animals, in birds and in fishes, spread desolation and death over the whole face of animated nature. Credulity and superstition have doubtless had their share in creating this belief, and the influence has perhaps been exaggerated; but it is a fact that of the distempers mentioned by Homer, Thucydides, Lucretius, and Dr. Pym, a characteristic feature was, that "mules first and dogs they struck," and afterwards man himself. It is no objection to this opinion that while some species of animals languish and die, others appear to prosper and multiply as in an element peculiarly congenial. Rotation is known to be the order of nature. One race of animals perishes and vanishes away to furnish subsistence to a succeeding and different species.

* In the first volume of this Journal, we published some notices by Drs. L. C. Beck, A. Coleman, &c. of this singular disease, which prevails in some of our western states. The paper which we now present to our readers, furnishes additional details in relation to it, of a very interesting character. It is taken from the third number of the "Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the associate sciences," an able periodical, recently started at Lexington, Kentucky.—(Ed.)