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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 8, Issue 586, 18 March 1865, Page 2

i Natubal Bahometers.-~AII things, animate and inanimate, are more or less manifestly affected by the weather ; and the recognition of the degree and mode in which they are affeoted constitutes the collateral field for systematic research to which we have referred, A host of facts indicative of the influence of the weather i upon different objects, and, foreshadowing changes in its character, are familiar to popular observation, and their systemization would alone constitute a work of no mean, and not a little curious, interest. An old soar, a rheumatio joint, or corns, are oft as sensitive to approaching changes of weather as a barometer. " Aohes and corns," says Lord Bacon, "do engrieve (afflict) either towards rain or frost ; the one makes the humours to abound more, and the other makes them sharper." Hitherto corns have commonly been looked upon as ills to be ashamed of rather than otherwise. But are they not as susceptible of a certain degree of dignity ? We should commend to the afflicted the consideration whether a serious study of the varying sensitiveness of their evil in connection with the barometer and thermometer would not be as promising a question in physiology as many be seemingly of a more recondite character. When the husbandman pees the down of the colt's foot, dandelion, or thistles floating away in the absence of wind, he looks for rain ; and the denizen of coasts knows that wet and broken weather is not far off however promising the sky may be, when the long strips of seaweed, lying high and dry on the beach, or hung behind the door, lengthen and become flexible as wet leather. The landsman anxiously scans the sky and seeks shelter when he sees the heifers prick their tails, or his cattle leave their feeding, and back against the hedge. When ducks and drakes shake and flutter their wings as they rise, when young horses rub their necks against the ground, when sheep bleat and play or skip wantonly, when swine carry bottles or hay and straw to any place and hide them, when oxen lick themselves against the air, when the lamp or candle sparkles, when soot falls down the chimney more than common, and when frogs croak, the prudent farmer expects rain ; and the squire dons his overcoat and tucks his umbrella under his arm, when he hears the crows unusually obstreperous, or feels the marble statue in his hall damp, or sees his family monument in the ohuroh covered with a olatnmy dew. The innkeeper shakes his head and predicts a change when his sign creaks louder than ordinary ; and the stableman and kitchenmaid know that wet is at hand when the odour of the common sewer strikes disagreeably to their nostrils. The tourist on the Welsh coast will be rejoicing in the glories of a cloudless day and the wondrous beauty of the ocean, as it stretches away to the horizon, or breaks into surf upon the neighbouring cliffs, while the beaohman who is listening to the ceaseless roar of the rushing water will hear in it the first warning of a coming storm, and prey for the ship at sea.-- Social Soienoe Beview.