twenty years, at six per cent., simple interest, would purchase all the lands, houses and slaves in the U. States. The Massachusetts society persevered to invite the public attention to the subject of intemperance in reports, and, with one or two exceptions, in addresses from distinguished individuals of its number at the annual meeting, continuing, till the year 1826, the most conspicuous agent in the enterprise of reformation, while, a year after its formation, a similar state institution, with numerous branches, was organized in Connecticut, measures of like character were set on foot in Vermont, and an indirect influence from itself was also exerted within its own proposed limits by auxiliary societies, which, according to the report of 1818, had multiplied at that time to the number of more than forty. At the same time, as was to be expected, individuals, by writing and by personal influence, were doing an important part in the same work. Early in the year 1826, a new impulse was given to the movement by the formation, in Boston, on a more extensive plan, of the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance. The Massachusetts society had now accomplished, perhaps, the most useful part of all to which it was competent. It had succeeded in fixing attention to its object in a part of the country where effective combination for further operations might be the most easily organized. By the facts which, with much labor, it had collected and promulgated, both in its own documents and in publications of the most material importance, which it had called out from private hands, it had both furnished guidance to further efforts of the same kind, and demonstrated their necessity; and, by the controlling influence of the names* which stood for vouchers of the wisdom of its design, it had abashed the derision, and shaken the incredulity with which its first annunciation had been met. The Massachusetts society had been in great part conducted by individuals belonging to a class of religionists, the Unitarians, whose influence, as such, was not great beyond a limited circle in New England, and who did not sufficiently command the sympathy of other denominations to be able to produce a combination of Christian

* Its presidents, during this period, were Samuel Dexter, formerly secretary of the treasury of the U. States; Nathan Dane, author of the ordinance of 1787, which saved the territory northwest of the Ohio from the curse of slavery; and Isaac Parker, chief-justice of the commonwealth.

action. At the time above mentioned,the enterprise was energetically taken up by other hands, in all respects highly competent to advance it, and, in that to which allusion has just been made, possessing altogether superior advantages. Perceiving the power which, in the use of means within their control, might be brought, under existing circumstances, to act upon the public mind, some judicious and philanthropic individuals, of the different denominations accustomed to exert a joint influence for general objects, held a meeting, at which they passed resolutions expressing their sense of the expediency of making, on the part of the Christian public, more systematic and vigorous efforts to suppress intemperance, and appointed a committee to devise means to that end. At an adjourned meeting, the constitution of a new society was adopted, and fifteen individuals elected to compose it, with such associates as might be thenceforward chosen by themselves. The first annual report announced the formation of 30, and the second of 220, auxiliary associations, five of which latter were state institutions. The number of auxiliary associations was increased, in 1829, to more than 1000, no state in the Union now being without one, and 11 of them bearing the names of their states respectively. The report of this year also announces it to have come to the knowledge of the society, that more than 700 habitual drunkards had been reformed by its influence, and that 50 distilleries had been closed. A decline in the sales of distilled spirits is represented to have generally taken place, varying, in different parts reported, from one quarter to nine tenths of the whole amount; and 400 dealers in them were known to have renounced the traffic for reasons of conscience. The time for the annual meeting having been altered, the next report was presented in the month of May, 1831. More than 2200 societies, embracing 170,000 members, were now in correspondence with the parent society, and, from less certain data, it was inferred that the whole number of societies existing was not less than 3000, and that of their members 300,000. More than 1000 distilleries had been stopped-a tenth part, as was believed, of all which had been in operation. Since the last meeting, 150 vessels had sailed from one port, that of Boston, without any provision of spirits. The number of members of the parent society now amounted to 200, dispersed through thirteen states. The report presented in May, 1832, has not been made

public at the time of printing this notice. From extracts contained in the Journal of Humanity, a newspaper published under the society's direction since 1829, it appears that, from the sources of information accessible to its government, they gather that there are now 4000 auxiliary associations in the U. States, numbering 600,000 members; "that more than 4000 merchants have ceased to traffic in ardent spirits; and that more than 4000 drunkards have ceased to use intoxicating drinks. There is also reason to believe," the report proceeds, "that more than 20,000 persons are now sober, who, had it not been for the temperance reformation, would, before now, have been sots; and that 20,000 families are now in ease and comfort, without a drunkard in them, or one who is becoming a drunkard, who would otherwise have been in poverty, or cursed with a drunken inmate; and that 50,000 children are released from the blasting influence of drunken parents; and 100,000 more from that parental influence which tended to make them drunkards." "More than 1,000,000 of persons in the U. States," says another publication of the society of this year, "now abstain from the use of ardent spirits." The means by which the society has produced these results, apart from the contemporaneous labors, in writing, and by more personal endeavors, of a great number of individuals, connected and not connected with it, have been the calling of attention to the subject, and the diffusing of information upon it, by the circulation of tracts and the addresses of travelling agents, and then collecting such as have been influenced by the representations made, into auxiliary associations, embracing a larger or more limited neighborhood, thus making such individuals distinctly responsible for personal, and, as opportunity should permit, more public cooperation with its objects. Such associations have included females and children, it being thought of the highest importance thus to secure the influence of the former class, and the forming habits of the latter. The basis on which these associations have been formed, at least from an early period, has been that of an engagement, on the part of each member, to abstain from the use of distilled spirits, except for medicinal purposes, and to forbear to provide them for the entertainment of friends or the supply of dependants. The principle of the necessity of abstinence from the use of distilled spirits, in order to the prevention extensively of their fatal abuse

-a principle to which the researches on the subject from the first had more and more directly tended, and which had, for instance, been distinctly argued in the address before the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, at their meeting in the spring of 1826-was first, as far as appears, made the matter of an article of mutual agreement by an association formed at Andover in September of that year. At the second annual meeting of the American temperance society in 1829, a resolution was adopted, declaring it to be the duty of every professor of religion to exert his influence towards abolishing the use of ardent spirits; and the form of a constitution for auxiliary societies, appended to the report of that year, includes provision for a mutual pledge similar to that of the Andover association. The efforts of the society have of late been strenuously directed towards a change in the current opinions respecting the moral lawfulness of trafficking in them as an article of luxury or diet. At the annual meeting, in New York, in 1829, and again at Boston, in 1831, resolutions were passed, condemning the trade as inconsistent with the character of a Christian; and this argument is understood to be largely maintained in the last report, hitherto unpublished. In different places churches have also assumed this ground, and accordingly refuse to admit persons engaged in the trade to a participation in the ordinances of religion. The reformation, of which the example was thus set, found its way, in good time, to Europe. In the latter part of 1829 or 1830, the first temperance society in the old world was formed at New Ross, in Ireland, and, before the close of this latter year, there were societies in Ireland and Scotland, numbering more than 14,000 members. Applications were also made from Switzerland and Sweden for the society's publications, with a view to make them the basis of similar movements in those countries. In June, 1831, a general society was formed in London under the name of the British and Foreign Temperance Society. Details of the success of these undertakings have not yet been furnished. The following is a statement from the custom-house returns of the amount of ardent spirits imported into the U. States in the respective years named. There are now no returns to government of the amount manufactured.

TEMPERATURE; a definite degree of sensible heat, as measured by the thermometer. Thus we say a high temperature, and a low temperature, to denote a manifest intensity of heat or cold. According to Biot, temperatures are the different energies of caloric in different circumstances. Different parts of the earth's surface are exposed, as is well known, to different degrees of heat, depending upon the latitude and local circumstances. In Egypt it never freezes, and in some parts of Siberia it never thaws. In the former country, the average state of the thermometer is about 72°. The following table exhibits a general view of the variation of heat resulting from difference of latitude :

The annual variation of heat is inconsiderable between the tropics, and becomes greater and greater as we approach the poles. This arises from the combination of two causes, namely, the greater or less directness of the sun's rays, and the duration of their action, or the length of time from sunrise to sunset. These two causes act together in the same place; that is, the rays of the sun are most direct always when the days are longest, or at the solstice. But while (the season being the same) the rays become more and more oblique, and consequently more feeble as we increase our latitude, the days become longer, and the latter very nearly makes up for the deficiency of the former, so that the greatest heat in all latitudes is nearly the same. On the other hand, the two causes of cold conspire. At the same time that the rays of the sun fall more obliquely, as we increase our latitude, the days become shorter and shorter at the cold season; and accordingly the different parallels are exposed to very unequal degrees of cold: while tropical regions exhibit a variation of only a few degrees, the highest habitable latitudes undergo a change amounting to

140°. Both heat and cold continue to increase long after the causes producing them have passed their maximum state. Thus the greatest cold is ordinarily about the last of January, and the greatest heat about the last of July. The sun is generally considered the only original source of heat. Its rays are sent to the earth just as the rays of a common fire are thrown upon a body placed before it; and, after being heated to a certain point, the quantity lost by radiation equals the quantity received, and the mean temperature remains the same, subject only to certain fluctuations depending upon the season and other temporary and local causes. According to this view of the subject, the heat that belongs to the interior of the earth has found its way there from the surface, and is derived from the same general source, the sun; and in support of this position is urged the wellknown fact, that, below eighty or one hundred feet, the constant temperature, with only a few exceptions, is found to be the mean of that at the surface in all parts of the earth. But how are we to explain the remarkable cases in which the heat has been found to increase, instead of decreasing, as we descend? We are told that in the instance of mines, so often quoted to prove an independent central fire, the extraordinary heat, apparently increasing as we descend, may be satisfactorily accounted for in a simpler way:-1. It may be partly received from the persons employed in working the mines. 2. The lights that are required in these dark regions afford another source of heat. 3. But the chief cause is supposed to be the condensation of the air, which is well known to produce a high degree of heat. The condensation, moreover, becoming greater and greater according to the depth, the heat ought, on this account, to increase as we descend; and as a constant supply of fresh air from above is required to maintain the lights, as well as for the purposes of respiration, at the rate of about a gallon a minute for each common-sized light and for each workman, it is not surprising that the temperature of deep mines should be found to exceed that of the surface in the same latitude. This explanation of the phenomenon seems to derive confirmation from the circumstance that the high temperature observed is said to belong only to those mines that are actually worked, and that it ceases when they are abandoned.* If we except these cases, and * See Edinburgh Review, No. ciii, p. 50, &c.

that of volcanoes and hot springs, the temperature of the interior of the earth seems to be the mean of that at the surface; and hence it is inferred that it is derived from the same source. The diurnal variation of heat, so considerable at the surface, is not to be perceived at the depth of a few feet, although here there is a gradual change that becomes sensible at intervals of a month. At the depth of thirty or forty feet, the fluctuation is still less, and takes place more slowly. Yet at this distance from the surface there is a small annual variation; and the time of midsummer, or greatest heat, is ordinarily about the last of October, and that of midwinter, or greatest cold, is about the last of April. These times, however, are liable to vary a month or more, according as the power of the earth to conduct heat is increased by unusual moisture or diminished by dryness. But at the depth of eighty or a hundred feet, the most sensible thermometer will hardly exhibit any change throughout the year. So, on the other hand, if we ascend above the earth's surface, we approach more and more to a region of uniform temperature, but of a temperature much below the former. The tops of very high mountains are well known to be covered with perpetual snow, even in the tropical climates. The same, or rather a still greater degree of cold, is found to prevail at the same height, when we make the ascent by means of a balloon. The tops of high mountains are cold, therefore, because they are in a cold region, and constantly swept by currents of cold air. But what makes the air cold at this height? It is comparatively cold, partly because it is removed far from the surface of the earth, where the heat is developed, but principally because it is rarefied, and the heat it contains is diffused over a larger space. Take a portion of air near the surface of the earth, and at the temperature of 79° of Fahrenheit, for instance, and remove it to the height of about two and a half miles, and it will expand, on account of the diminished pressure, to double the bulk, and the temperature will be reduced about 50°. It will accordingly be below the freezing point of water. This height varies in different latitudes and at different seasons. It increases as we approach the equator, and diminishes as we go towards the poles. It is higher also, at any given place, in summer than in win

ter.

It is, moreover, higher when the surface of the ground below is elevated like the table land of Mexico. At a mean

the cold increases at the rate of about 1° for every 300 feet of elevation. In addition to the above, it ought to be mentioned that the tops of mountains part with the heat they receive from the sun more readily on account of the radiation taking place more freely in a rarer medium, and where there are few objects to send the rays back again. The question has been much discussed, whether the winters in the temperate latitudes have become milder or not. There is abundant evidence, it seems to us, in favor of the alleged change. Rivers which used to be frozen over so as to support armies, and which were expected to be covered in the winter season with a natural bridge of ice, as a common occurrence, now very rarely afford such facilities to travellers. The directions for making hay and stabling cattle, left us by the Roman writers on husbandry, are of little use in modern Italy, where, for the most part, there is no suspension of vegetation, and where the cattle graze in the fields all winter. The associations with the fireside, annually referred to as familiar to every one, can be little understood now in a country where there is ordinarily no provision for warming the houses, and no occasion for artificial heat as a means of comfort. The ancient custom of suspending warlike operations during the season of winter, even in the more southern parts of Europe, has been little known in campaigns of recent date; not because the soldier of our times is inured to greater hardships, but because there is little or no suffering from this cause. In the northern parts of our own country, also, the lapse of two centuries has produced a sensible melioration. When New England was first settled, the winter set in regularly at a particular time, continued about three months without interruption, and broke up regularly, in the manner it now does in some parts of Canada and Russia. The quantity of snow is evidently diminished, the cold season is more fluctuating, and the transition from autumn to winter, and from winter to spring, less sudden and complete. The period of sleighing is so much reduced and so precarious as to be of little importance compared with what it was. The Hudson is now open about a month later than it used to be. We are not, however, to conclude that so great a melioration has taken place as might at first be inferred from this fact. The change, whatever it be, seems to belong to the autumn and early part of winter. The spring, we are

inclined to believe, is even more cold and backward than it used to be. The supposed mitigation of winter has usually been ascribed to the extirpation of forests, and the consequent exposure of the ground to the more direct and full influence of the solar rays; and there can be little doubt that a country does actually become warmer by being cleared and cultivated. The favorable change experienced in the New England and the Middle States may, it is thought, be referred to this circumstance. But the alteration that is observed in the similar latitudes of Europe can hardly be accounted for in this way. It is doubt ful whether Italy is more clear of woods, or better cultivated, now than it was in the Augustan age. No part of the world, it is believed, has been cultivated longer or better than some parts of China; and yet that country is exposed to a degree of cold much greater than is experienced in the corresponding latitudes of Europe. The science of astronomy makes us acquainted with phenomena that have a bearing upon this subject. The figure of the earth's orbit round the sun is such that we are sometimes nearer to this great source of heat by 3,000,000 of miles, or one thirtieth of the whole distance, than at others. Now it so happens that we have been drawing nearer and nearer to the sun, every winter, for several thousand years. We now actually reach the point of nearest approach about the first of January, and depart farthest from the sun about the first of July. Whatever benefit, therefore, is derived from a diminution of the sun's distance, goes to diminish the severity of winter; and this cause has been operating for a long period, and with a power gradually but slowly increasing. It has, at length, arrived at its maximum, and is beginning to decline. In a little more than ten thousand years, this state of things will be reversed, and the earth will be at the greatest distance from the sun in the middle of winter, and at the least distance in the middle of summer. We are speaking, it will be observed, with reference to the northern hemisphere of the earth. The condition alluded to, to take place after the lapse of ten thousand years, is already fulfilled with regard to the southern portions of our globe, since their winter happens at the time of our summer. How far the excessive cold which is known to prevail about cape Horn and other high southern latitudes may be imputed to this, we are not able to say. There is no doubt 16

VOL. XII.

that the ice has accumulated to a much greater degree and extended much farther about the south pole than about the north. Commodore Byron, who was on the coast of Patagonia Dec. 15, answering to the middle of June with us, compares the climate to that of the middle of winter in England. Sir Joseph Banks landed at Terra del Fuego, in lat. 50°, Jan. 17, about the middle of summer in that hemisphere; and he relates that two of his attendants died in one night from the cold, and the whole party was in great danger of perishing. This was in a lower latitude by nearly 20 than that of London. Captain Cook, in his voyage towards the south pole, expressed his surprise that an island of no greater extent than seventy leagues in circumference, between the latitudes of 54° and 55°, and situated like the northern parts of Ireland, should, in the very height of summer, be covered many fathoms deep with frozen snow. The study of the stars has made us acquainted with another fact connected with the variable temperature of winter. The oblique position of the earth's axis with respect to the path round the sun, or what is technically called the obliquity of the ecliptic, is the well known cause of the seasons. Now this very obliquity, which makes the difference as to temperature between summer and winter, has been growing less and less for the last 2000 years, and has actually diminished about one eightieth part, and must have been attended with a corresponding reduction of the extremes of heat and cold. It still remains for us to inquire how it happens that the extremes of heat and cold in the U. States are so much more intense than they are in Europe under the same parallels. The thermometer, in New England, falls to zero about as often as it falls to the freezing point in the same latitude on the other side of the Atlantic. The extreme heat of summer also is greater by 80 or 10°. This remarkable difference in the two countries, as to climate, evidently arises from their being situated on different sides of the ocean, taken in connexion with the prevalence of westerly winds. With us, a west wind is a land wind, and consequently a cold wind in winter and a warm wind in summer. The reverse happens on the opposite shore of the Atlantic. There, the same westerly current of air, coming from the water, is a mild wind in winter, and a cool, refreshing breeze in summer. The ocean is not subject to so great extremes of heat and cold as the same extent of continent. When the