A Treatise on the Causes and Principles of Meteorological Phenomena: Also Two Essays; the One on Marsh Fevers; the Other on the System of Equality, Proposed by Mr. Owen of New Lanark, for Ameliorating the Condition of Mankind

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Archibald Fullarton & Company, 1843 - 646 pàgines
 

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Pàgina 334 - Eleven of them ranged alongside of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at...
Pàgina 568 - Of the positive checks, those which appear to arise unavoidably from the laws of nature, may be called exclusively misery; and those which we obviously bring upon ourselves, such as wars, excesses, and many others which it would be in our power to avoid, are of a mixed nature. They are brought upon us by vice, and their consequences are misery.
Pàgina 579 - Of the two decisive arguments against such systems, one is, the unsuitableness of a state of equality, both according to experience and theory, to the production of those stimulants to exertion which can alone overcome the natural indolence of man, and prompt him to the proper cultivation of the earth and the fabrication of those conveniences and comforts which are necessary to his happiness.
Pàgina 580 - And the other, the inevitable and necessary poverty and misery in which every system of equality must shortly terminate from the acknowledged tendency of the human race to increase faster than the means of subsistence, unless such increase be prevented...
Pàgina 333 - At one o'clock we alighted among some acacia trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once surprised and terrified by a sight, surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of...
Pàgina 334 - ... with a majestic slowness ; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us ; and small quantities of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat, so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. Then the tops often separated from the bodies ; and these once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken near the middle, as if struck with a large cannon shot.
Pàgina 334 - They retired from us with a wind at south-east, leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying. The swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger, and the full persuasion of this riveted me as if to the spot where I stood...
Pàgina 157 - Clouds consist of small hollow bladders of vapor, charged each with the same kind of electricity. It is this electric charge which prevents the vesicles from uniting together, and falling down in the form of rain. Even the vesicular form which the vapor assumes, is probably owing to the particles being charged with electricity.
Pàgina 260 - At Guiana, in South America, within five degrees of the line, the inhabitants living amid immense forests, a century ago, were obliged to alleviate the severity of the cold, by evening fires. Even the duration of the rainy season 'has been shortened by the clearing of the country, and the warmth is so increased, that a fire now would be deemed an annoyance. It thunders continually in the woods, rarely in the cultivated parts.
Pàgina 478 - The width of this channel is about 6000 feet ; yet, though some of the ships lay much nearer to one shore, than to the other, there was no instance of any of the men or officers being taken ill with the same disorder, as that with which the troops on shore were affected.

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