XIII. Observations on the Mean Temperature of the Globe

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Abstract
If no provision has been made by the Great Author of Nature, for equalising the light and heat projected upon the different bodies of our system, we may consider the earth as receiving, from the direct action of the solar rays, a degree of heat, intermediate between the condensed radiations sustained by Mercury and Venus, and the attenuated warmth which reaches the remoter planets. The heat which our Globe thus acquires from its locality in the system, is again tempered by the obliquity of its axis, and is distributed over the same parallels of latitude by its daily rotation. When the Sun is in the Equator, his rays, beating on the Earth with a vertical influence, impart to it the full measure of their action; and as his meridian altitude decreases, their intensity suffers a corresponding diminution. The burning heat at the Equator becomes moderated in higher latitudes. In passing through the temperate zone, it declines with great rapidity, and between the Arctic Circle and the Pole, the rays of the Sun are unable even to temper the piercing cold which reigns in these inhospitable regions.

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