ABSTRACT
On the construction and uses of this instrument much has been written which need not be here repeated. In applying it to the purpose of the Meteorologist, it is the due attention of the observer to the changes it undergoes, rather than the perfection of the instrument itself, that serves to promote science. Yet as the mean of a given number of observations at any place is applicable to other not unimportant ends; and as these means must for the most part differ by but small quantities, it is desirable that every Barometer, from which we are about to take the pains to register a series of changes, should have the previous labour bestowed upon it of adjustment to a fixed standard: which is probably done in but few instances at present. As to corrections for the slight variations of Temperature which take place in an inhabited apartment, I have not thought it needful to enter upon them. These niceties appear to belong to a more advanced state of the science; and there are other sources of discordance, at present more obvious, in the generally varying and imperfect construction of the instrument.
