Meteorology: Considered in Its Connexion with Astronomy, Climate, and the Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants, Equally as with the Seasons and Changes of the Weather

Front Cover
J.B. Balliere, 1836 - 277 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 226 - I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea -shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Page 226 - The modesty of Sir Isaac Newton in reference to his great discoveries was not founded on any indifference to the fame which they conferred, or upon any erroneous judgment of their importance to science. The whole of his life proves, that he knew his place as a philosopher, and was determined to assert and vindicate his rights. His modesty arose from the depth and extent of his knowledge, which showed him what a small portion of nature he had been able to examine, and how much remained to be explored...
Page 253 - A serene autumn denotes a windy winter; a windy winter, a rainy spring; a rainy spring, a serene summer; a serene summer, a windy autumn; so that the air, on a balance, is seldom debtor to itself; nor do the seasons succeed each other in the same tenor for two years together.
Page 78 - Si quelqu'un, par exemple, dit-il, entreprenait de prouver par une comparaison bien suivie des phénomènes, que le tonnerre est entre les mains de la nature, ce que l'électricité est entre les nôtres, que ces merveilles dont nous disposons maintenant à notre gré, sont de petites imitations de ces grands effets qui nous...
Page 78 - ... est vis-à-vis d'un objet terrestre ce qu'est le corps électrisé, en présence et à une certaine proximité de celui qui ne l'est pas, j'avoue que cette idée, si elle était bien soutenue, me plairait beaucoup: et pour la soutenir combien de raisons spécieuses ne se présentent pas à un homme qui est au fait de l'électricité...
Page 226 - The whole of his life proves, that he knew his place as a philosopher, and was determined to assert and vindicate his rights. His modesty arose from the depth and extent of his knowledge, which showed him what a small portion of nature he had been able to examine, and how much remained to be explored in the same field in which he had himself laboured. In the magnitude of the comparison...
Page 31 - Lyon, on an expedition for the same purpose, found that the magnetic pole was then situate in 63° 26' 51" north latitude, and in 80° 51' 25" west longitude. It appears, from later researches, that the law of terrestrial magnetism is of considerable complexity and the existence of more than one magnetic pole in either hemisphere has been rendered highly probable ; that there is one in Siberia seems to be decided by the recent observations of M. Hansteen, — it is in longitude 102° east of Greenwich,...
Page 78 - L'universalité de la matière électrique, la promptitude de son action, son inflammabilité et son activité à enflammer d'autres matières , la propriété qu'elle a de frapper les corps extérieurement et intérieurement jusque dans leurs moindres parties, l'exemple singulier que nous avons de cet effet dans l'expérience de Leyde , l'idée qu'on peut légitimement s'en faire en supposant un plus grand degré de vertu...
Page 81 - are produced by aqueous vapour, when it returns to the state of water. This process is condensation, the reverse of evaporation. When vapour exists in the atmosphere, if in any manner the temperature becomes lower than the constituent temperature requisite for the maintenance of the watery state, some of the steam will be condensed and will become water.
Page 45 - D'un autre côté, la force d'attraction ou la pesanteur n'eût pas permis aux montagnes de s'élever, et encore moins aux métaux qui en sont les parties les plus pesantes, d'être placés à leurs sommets, où on les trouve ordinairement. Si on suppose que ces lois soient...

Bibliographic information