ABSTRACT
The dry and formal treatment of meteorology is exemplified in an elementary treatise by Christian Wolff, the philosopher. Before meteorology was recognized as an independent branch of science whose laws must be ascertained by systematic observation of atmospheric phenomena, it passed through the stage of being treated in a jejune and formal manner as a part of elementary pneumatics. In one of the few sections dealing with purely meteorological topics, Wolff regards winds as caused almost exclusively by sudden local expansions or contractions of the atmospheric air, the heat of the Sun being the principal factor in causing displacements of equilibrium. The Traite de Meteorologie of Pere Louis Cotte, cure of Montmorency, near Paris, and friend of Rousseau, was published at Paris in 1774; under the auspices of the Academie des Sciences. Cotte found it necessary to supplement his massive Treatise with two large volumes of Memoires sur la Meteorologie, published at Paris in 1788.
