Book contents
- Frontmatter
- NOTICE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- BOOK I TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
- CHAP. I The Length of the Year
- CHAP. II The Length of the Day
- CHAP. III The Mass of the Earth
- CHAP. IV The Magnitude of the Ocean
- CHAP. V The Magnitude of the Atmosphere
- CHAP. VI The Constancy and Variety of Climates
- CHAP. VII The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Variety of climate
- CHAP. VIII The Constituents of Climate
- CHAP. IX The Laws of Heat with respect to Water
- CHAP. X The Laws of Heat with respect to Air
- CHAP. XI The Laws of Electricity
- CHAP. XII The Laws of Magnetism
- CHAP. XIII The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation
- CHAP. XIV Sound
- CHAP. XV The Atmosphere
- CHAP. XVI Light
- CHAP. XVII The Ether
- CHAP. XVIII Recapitulation
- BOOK II COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS
- BOOK III RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHAP. VIII - The Constituents of Climate
from BOOK I - TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- NOTICE
- Contents
- INTRODUCTION
- BOOK I TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS
- CHAP. I The Length of the Year
- CHAP. II The Length of the Day
- CHAP. III The Mass of the Earth
- CHAP. IV The Magnitude of the Ocean
- CHAP. V The Magnitude of the Atmosphere
- CHAP. VI The Constancy and Variety of Climates
- CHAP. VII The Variety of Organization corresponding to the Variety of climate
- CHAP. VIII The Constituents of Climate
- CHAP. IX The Laws of Heat with respect to Water
- CHAP. X The Laws of Heat with respect to Air
- CHAP. XI The Laws of Electricity
- CHAP. XII The Laws of Magnetism
- CHAP. XIII The Properties of Light with regard to Vegetation
- CHAP. XIV Sound
- CHAP. XV The Atmosphere
- CHAP. XVI Light
- CHAP. XVII The Ether
- CHAP. XVIII Recapitulation
- BOOK II COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS
- BOOK III RELIGIOUS VIEWS
Summary
We have spoken of the steady average of the climate at each place, of the difference of this average at different places, and of the adaptation of organized beings to this character in the laws of the elements by which they are affected. But this steadiness in the general effect of the elements, is the result of an extremely complex and extensive machinery. Climate, in its wider sense, is not one single agent, but is the aggregate result of a great number of different agents, governed by different laws, producing effects of various kinds. The steadiness of this compound agency is not the steadiness of a permanent condition, like that of a body at rest; but it is the steadiness of a state of constant change and movement, succession and alternation, seeming accident and irregularity. It is a perpetual repose, combined with a perpetual motion; an invariable average of most variable quantities. Now, the manner in which such a state of things is produced, deserves, we conceive, a closer consideration. It may be useful to shew how the particular laws of the action of each of the elements of climate are so adjusted that they do not disturb this general constancy.
The principal constituents of climate are the following:—the temperature of the earth, of the water, of the air:—the distribution of the aqueous vapour contained in the atmosphere:—the winds and rains by which the equilibrium of the atmosphere is restored when it is in any degree disturbed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1833