366 SIR, Meteorological Obfervations at Chichester. original contriver, and his admiring co- [June fently explain. The ftate of the wind is In keeping my regifter, I have availed myfelf of a ufeful publication, entitled, "The Meteorologift's Affiftant, in keeping a Diary of the Weather." An obfervation is taken three times a day, viz. at 8, A.M. at 2, P. M. and at 8, P.M. The mean of the barometer and hygrometer is the mean of all thefe obfervations; that of the thermometer is only the mean of the two firft, viz. thofe at 8 A. M. and f 2, P. M. the reafon of which I fhall pre *See Warburton on Grace, chap 1796.1 Meteorological Obfervations at Chichefter. of the fubject, I am led to think that the thermometer invented by the late ingenious Mr. Six, and adapted to fhow the greatest and leaft degrees of heat in the obferver's abfence, is an inftrument of lefs confequence to the meteorologift than may have been imagined. The mean between the higheft and loweft degree of heat, obferved in any one day, may be very diftant from the true mean of the temperature of the whole of that day: to this true mean we can only mäke an approximation, near, indeed, in proportion to the number of observations taken; but ftill it is only an approximation. Philofophers. I apprehend, have not yet afcertained at what hour of the day, or at what diftance from fun-rifing, the heat is nearest the mean heat of the whole day. M. DE LUC (Sur les Modifications de l'Atmosphere, No. 595) infers, from obfervations taken every fifteen minutes, that the heat is neareft the mean heat of the whole day, when the fun has paffed through about one fifth part of his diurnal arch in the heavens. I apprehend, the refult of all obfervations of this nature muft vary much, according to different fituations and expofures, to the prevalence of different winds in different climates, feafons, &c. &c. From fome obfervations made every hour, from fun-rifing to fun-fet, on the varying temperature of the day, near the equinox juft now paffed, I find that the mean of the two obfervations at 8, A.M. and 2, P.M. approaches extremely near to the mean of all the hourly obfervations, from 6, A.M. to 6, P.M. which, on the other hand, was found to be very diftant from the degree obferved at 8 h. 24 min. A.M. the time of the true mean, according to M. DE Luc's obfervations; but I am fenfible that obfervations very often repeated, at different feafons, and in very different circumftances of weather, &c. are requifite to afcertain this matter. I ufe two thermometers, both made by eminent artists, and very exactly correfponding with each other: one, which I diftinguith by calling it A, is placed in *Perhaps the best method of afcertaining the true diurnal mean of heat is that recommended by Mr. Six, of finking a thermometer a few feet beneath the furface of the ground, in a fhady fituation; as the true annual mean has been thought to be most accurately indicated by the conftant temperature of deep wells and fprings. In this place, the fprings lie too near the furface for this purpose. 367 a box open at bottom, at the distance of about an inch and a half from the wall, on the outfide of a window, about fixteen feet and a half from the ground: it has a north-weft expofure, and is completely in the shade till long after 2, P.M. but though not at all affected by the direct rays of the fun, I have certain reason to believe that this instrument is influenced by its reflected light and heat from fome buildings extending at the distance of thirty or forty feet to the north and north-east. The other thermometer, which I call B, is placed about four feet and a halt from the ground, at the northern entrance of a low arched way in the garden. It is perfectly skreened from the influence either of direct or reflected light, yet the air has free access to it. The difference of the temperature denoted by thefe thermometers is fometimes very confiderable. In a warm and clear fummer day, with an eafterly wind, A fhall be fometimes five, fix, or even feven degrees above B at 2, P.M. On the contrary, a cloudy sky and a wefterly wind will bring them much nearer to each other at that hour. In the fummer and autumn, at 8, A.M. ¡A is usually half a degree, or one degree, higher than B, and at 2, P.M. it is from two to fix degrees higher than B. In winter and ipring, at 8, A.M. B is ufually from half a degree to a degree and half higher than A; and at 2, P.M. from half a degree to two degrees lower than A. Very rarely, within these two years, has B been higher than A, at 2, P. M. though feveral times it has pointed at exactly the fame degree at that hour. Any very confiderable deviation from thefe relative heights of A and B, at the hours mentioned, has been ufually followed by a proportional change in the temperature of the air, and very frequently by change of weather. The difference of the monthly mean of the two thermometers, when greatest (which is always in the hotteft months) has been 20.05; when leaft, it has been 0.27. In the tables, the mean is that of B; the extremes thofe of A. It is proper to remark, that the confiderable difference obfervable in the state of the hygrometer for the two laft years, muft, in part, be attributed to this circumftance; that till the beginning of March 1795, this inftrument was kept within doors, in a paffage, at a great diftance from any fire-place, and near a window which was frequently open : in this fituation, however, it did not truly indicate the degree of moisture of the I external Barometer. Thermometer. Hygrometer. Wind. 368 Meteorological Obfervations at Chichester. external air, as fully appeared from the range of the inftrument being encreafed al noft twelve degrees, on its being afterwards kept without doors, in a box contrived fo as to give free accefs to the air, but to exclude rain and wind, and the rays of the fun. TABLE I. TABLE II. Thermometer. 1795 Higheft Loweft Mean January It is evident, that the inhabitants of this place experienced, during the rigour of the month of January, 1795, a comparatively moderate degree of cold. We had the advantage, in this point, over fome other places in this county, and almost in the neighbourhood, as will appear from the ftate of the thermometer, obferved at the following towns. Lewes is about 38 miles to the east of Chichester; Pulborough 17 miles to the north-east; and Arundel 10 miles only to the east, and at nearly the fame diftance from the fea. At Arundel, January 23, 9, P. M. the thermometer ftood at 14°. At Arundel, January 24, 9, P. M. the thermometer ftood at 11°. At Pulborough, January 20, 8, A. M. the thermometer ftood o°. At Lewes, January 20, at day break, 1o.5. At Lewes, January 22, at day break, 88. 3°. At Lewes, January 25, 2t day break, The loweft ftation of the thermometer that I obferved here (January 23, 11, P.M.) was 150. Indeed we have had abundant proof, from the experience of Ax feveral winters, within the last twenty one [June 1796.] Confumption of Food by Horfes. one years, that the fituation of this city is peculiarly favourable to those who are liable to fuffer from extreme cold: and, with refpect to the beginning of the laft year, many obfervations concur to fhow that the cold of that rigorous feason was much more intense near the eastern coaft of England, than in places farther to the weft. In the month of May, there was a great and fudden tranfition from heat, unusual at that feafon, to cold, not lefs unufual. The thermometer, on the 22d, at 2, P.M. ftood at 75°, and on the 23d, at the fame hour, at 740.5. At midnight, between the 24th and 25th, it ftood at 42°, and the following night, at the fame hour, at 40°. A perfon of credit, who was abroad early in the morning of the 26th, affirmed, that he suffered nearly as much from the cold as he had done any time during the preceding winter. On the morning of the 20th of June (after the night fo fatal to the newly fhorn fheep) fnow was faid to have fallen on fome high and expofed ground to the north-west of this place. The month of September was ftill more remarkable here than in London; its mean heat, (as appears by Table II) exceeding that of Auguft by 0°.04, and that of July by M. 20.81. [The concluding part of this Letter, defcribing a remarkable Lunar Phenomenon, in our next.] CONSUMPTION OF FOOD BY HORSES. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE late fcarcity of food (if it be yet proper to call it late) has not been without its advantages in pointing out fources of economy and fubftitution, little thought of in happier times. It has likewife given ample occafion for the difplay of that charitable temper, which is one of the things that does real honour to our national character; and though the opulent have in general been able to gratify this difpofition with little or no exercife of felf-denial, yet many, even in that rank of life, have shown a very laudable readinefs to facrifice their habitual comforts, for the fake of contributing to the public good. I have known thofe who would no more have indulged in a hot roll at break faft, than have committed one of the feven deadly fins; and those who difcarded all bread from their diet, as rigorously as a Bramin abftains from beef and mutton. I fhall not enquire how far a folicitude for wiping away all MONTHLY MAG. No. V. 369 reproach from the prefent bleffed Church and King crufade has ufurped the place of real regard to the poor, in exciting to these mortifications-let them have full credit for all their apparent humanity: nor fhall I rigorously fcrutinize into the good effects produced by the confumption of the food of the poor by the rich; though it is manifeft, that as all muft fubfift upon fomething or other, the general stock of provifions could not be very effentially aided by a mere interchange of articles. But my purpose, in the prefent letter, is, to fhow to the really patriotic and humane, a mode by which their economical facrifices may be made infinitely more efficacious, than by these trivial and dubious exertions. Nothing can be more demonftrable than the clear lofs of eatable products, incurred by keeping borfes not employed in productive labour; and, perhaps, of all the imputed caufes of that deficiency of fupply from our own fources, which we have of late years experienced, none goes fo far in explaining the fact, as the exceffive increafe of these animals, for the ufes of luxury. I know not what calculation most to rely upon of the proportion of food confumed by a horfe and a human being; but that of one of the former expending, as much as three of the latter, cannot but be very moderate. Let us now suppose the common cafe of a married pair retired from business-a widow lady-an old batchelor-or a couple of maiden fiftersin circumstances which authorize them to keep their chariot and pair. They live, perhaps, in a village near town, or in fome provincial capital. The carriage is, undoubtedly, a convenience, as well as a credit: it takes them a morning airing, a dinner or tea vifit, and parades at the church door on Sundays. But what is the public coft at which this elegant luxury is maintained? Reckoning the quadrupeds alone, brought up and trained with great care and expence, and certainly the best fed of their fpecies, it is the standing maintainance of at leaft fix human creatures, and that, upon the fcanty establishment of only the pair of coach horfes,. without the footman's horfe to attend in country excurfions. But the coachman is likewife to be confidered-one of the fatteft and lazieft of bis fpecies too; and, though adding to the number of human beings, yet kept at twice the expence of others, at least as valuable, and probably as happy as he. Let, now, the poffeffors of this fober, and apparently innocent luxury reflect, that they are thereby confuming the entire means of comfortably fubfifting 3 B fever 370 The Enquirer. No. V. feven fellow-creatures; and, after that, let them please themselves with eating potatoe bread and rice pudding! "But what can we do without a carriage they may fay: "we are aged, infirm, fickly, and accuftomed to indulIt is eafy to reply, you may do gence," as well as the clafs a little below you, who keep their health, and enjoy life, with no other conveyance than their legs on common occafions, and a public carriage on particular emergencies. You may at least as ufefully take the air, by walking in your garden or the neighbouring fields, as fhut up in a rolling room; you may vifit, as far as vifiting is good, in the fame manner; and if, on a wet Sunday, you are fometimes obliged to read a fermon, and the leffons of the day, at home, inftead of being acceffory to the colds and coughs of tender horfes and coachmen, probably your duty will be as effectually performed. But why addrefs yourself to us alone? why not expoftulate with the nobility and gentry, who keep their half dozen carriages, and a ftable full of hunters, and their racers at Newmarket befides-or your young bucks that drive four in hand, in phaetons and curricles?" Because I believe you have fome regard to the welfare of your inferiors-they have none. If these good people fhould have any uneafy apprehenfions concerning the falling-off of the revenue, from their ceafing to contribute to the horfe and carriage tax, let them make themselves perfectly tranquil in the affurance that our heaven-born minifter will find out ways and means fufficient of getting at his fhare of their property, and will gain ample retribution for the decrease of an old tax, by the substitution of a new one. It is clear, too, that the faving of 100l. or 150l. per ann. will enable them with eafe to double or triple their quota to the public by patriotic donations, or other fpecies of expenditure. One of the latter, I fhall take the liberty of pointing out. Let them lay in annually an additional pipe of port, to give away as a medicine to their poor neighbours in thofe dreadful fevers which hardship and low diet render fo frequent. Of this excellent cordial, now totally out of the reach of the poor, the additional tax is faid at prefent to amount to as much as the whole coft before Mr. Pitt's admiftration. June 4. Your's, &c. MISIPPUS. [June THE ENQUIRER. No. V. QUESTION 5. What has been the probable Origin of Id latry? Ταῦτα μὲν γὰρ αὐτὰ νοήσαι Θεᾶς ἐκ ἔςιν. IT IS THESE THAT Plut. de Ifid. WHILE curiofity contents herself with gazing in aftonishment at wonderful phænomena in the natural and moral world, philofophy is induftrioufly employed in tracing them to their origin; and is never fatisfied till fhe can affign a probable caufe of their exiftence. Among the appearances which the hiftory of mankind affords to attract admiration, and to excite enquiry, few will be found more furprifing than the practice, which has, at different periods, prevailed in every part of the world, of offering religious worship before certain natural bodies, animal or vegetable, or before images formed of wood, ftone, or metallic fubftances, by human art. It is In former times, while the wife Roman was ridiculing the fuperftitious Egyptian, for worshipping gods produced in his garden, he was himself paying adoration before a piece of inanimate fculpture. In the prefent day, while the African negro is bowing before his fetiche, and the Afiatic Indian before his marble block, or grote fque image, the catholic Chriftian is kneeling at the foot of his faint, or his crucifix. What does this practice import; and whence has it arifen? difficult to believe that the term idolatry † has, in its ftrict fenfe, ever been applicable to any people: it is not conceivable, that men fhould ever have been fo ftupid as to worship a ftatue, and think it a man; or a block of wood or ftone, and think it a god. When the honours of deification were bestowed on Auguftus, the rites of his temple were not performed to the ftatue, but to the manes of the emperor. When worship was performed in the tem |