Elements of Meteorology, with Questions for Examination, Designed for the use of Schools and Academies. Illustrated with Engravings

Pratt, Woodford & Co., 1848. Hard cover, 240 pp. First Edition. In acceptable condition/ no dust jacket. Brown cloth covered boards with blind-stamped borders on front and back covers and gold lettering on spine. Cloth chipped and frayed along edges, corners and top and bottom of spine. Moderate to heavy scuffing and soiling to covers as well. Spine is cocked but binding is still tight. Pages are moderately to heavily foxed. Mercantile Library Association label on front paste down. Previous owner's name in pencil on front free end paper. "Property of the Mercantile Library Association" stamped on title page. Otherwise pages unmarked. Black and white illustrations. Overall a solid first edition of this early treatise on Meteorology, which the author has defined as: that branch of natural science which treats of the atmosphere and its phenomena. The book is divided into six parts: 1: The Atmosphere; II: Aerial Phenomena: comprehending Winds in general, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Water-spouts; III: Aqueous Phenomena: including rain, fogs, clouds, dew, hoar-frost and snow, and hail; IV: Electrical Phenomena: comprising atmospheric electricity and thunderstorms; V: Optical Phenomena: including the color of the atmosphere and clouds, rainbow, mirage, coronae and halos; VI: Luminous Phenomena: embracing meteorites, meteoric showers and the Aurora Borealis. [From Preface]Meteorology is a subject of peculiar interest to all. We live in the very midst of its phenomena, and are constantly subjected to their influence?The subject being one of universal interest, we might naturally suppose it to be universally understood; but such is not the case. Meteorology, as a science, is of recent origin; for it is only within the space of a very few years that it has risen, through the efforts of many gifted minds, to the rank it deserves to hold amid the various departments of knowledge.The present little work has therefore been prepared, not with the view of adding one more to the long list of studies now pursued in our academical institutions; but for the purpose of bringing into general notice, a rich but hitherto comparatively unknown field within the domains of natural science.…