Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 2 (1841).djvu/76

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64
GAUSS AND WEBER ON TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.

blished, although, in the mean numbers for the single months, in the fourth and eighth columns, ten months give a difference in the same direction.

By combining the forenoon and afternoon fluctuations we obtain the following means:

First Year. Second Year. Third Year. Mean.
April 108 114 237 164
May 176 156 245 196
June 139 161 208 172
July 173 215 270 223
August 224 214 289 244
September 167 251 185 204
October 152 254 229 216
November 133 190 235 191
December 160 271 120 195
January 160 245 146 189
February 150 166 148 155
March 114 133 312 206

Mean Values.

First Year, Second Year, Third Year. Mean.
July to December 170 234 228 213
The remaining months 143 167 223 181
Entire year 158 204 226 198

According to the numbers of the fourth column somewhat greater fluctuations occur in the months from July to December than in the other six; but the mean values 3′ 33″ and 3′ 1″ have too small a difference to justify a conclusion that greater fluctuations commonly prevail in that period of the year, especially as the difference has been principally occasioned by an excess in the single year 1835–1836.

On the other hand, the inequality of the fluctuations in each of the three years, in relation to one another, is very perceptible; the mean value for the third year being about half as large again as that of the first year. The general mean, from all observations hitherto made, 3′ 18″, might therefore be considerably changed by a longer continuance of the observations.

These are the results which may be drawn from the daily register kept hitherto. It is highly desirable that similar observations should be made at several stations, and at some they have recently commenced. If, as is done at Milan, the observations