violence. A temperature of 18° accompanying a violent wind may be regarded as unknown in Great Britain.
It is to the cyclone and anticyclone (see Atmosphere) we must look for an explanation of these violent weather changes. Climatically, the significance of the anticyclone or area of high pressure consists in the space covered for the time by it being on account of its dryness and clearness more fully under the influence of solar and terrestrial radiation, and consequently exposed to great cold in winter and great heat in summer; and of the cyclone or area of low pressure, in a moist warm atmosphere occupying its front and southern half, and a cold dry atmosphere its rear and northern half.
The low areas of the American cyclones, as they proceed eastward along the north shores of the Gulf of Mexico, are often immediately followed to west and north-westward by areas of very high pressure, the necessary consequence of which is the setting in of a violent norther over the Southern States. Since similar barometric conditions do not occur in the region of Lower Egypt, its climate is free from these sudden changes which are so injurious to the health even of the robust. Since many of the centres of the cyclones of North America follow the track of the lakes and advance on the Atlantic by the New England States and Newfoundland, these States and a large portion of Canada frequently experience cold raw easterly and northerly winds. The great majority of European storms travel eastward with their centres to northward of Farö, and hence the general mildness of the winter climate of the British Isles. When it happens, however, that cyclonic centres pass eastwards along the English Channel or through Belgium and North Germany, while high pressure prevails in the north, the winter is characterized by frosts and snows. The worst summer weather in Great Britain is when low pressures prevail over the North Sea, and the hottest and most brilliant weather when anticyclones lie over Great Britain and extend away to south and eastward.
Low pressures in the Mediterranean, along with high pressures to northward, are the conditions of the worst winter weather in the south of Europe. A cyclone in the Gulf of Lyons or of Genoa, and an anticyclone over Germany and Russia, have the mistral as their unfailing attendant, blowing with terrible force and dryness on the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France, and North Italy, being alike in its origin and in its climatic qualities the exact counterpart of the norther of the Gulf of Mexico. It follows from the courses taken by the cyclones of the Mediterranean, and the anticyclones which attend on them, that also Algeria, Malta, and Greece are liable to violent alternations of temperature during the cold months.
The investigation of this phase of climate, which can only be carried out by the examination of many thousands of daily weather charts, is as important as it is difficult, since till it be done the advantages and hazards offered by different sanataria cannot be compared and valued. It may in the meantime be enough to say that no place anywhere in Europe or even in Algeria offers an immunity from the risks arising from the occurrence of cold weather in winter at all comparable to that afforded by the climates of Egypt and Madeira. See Atmosphere, Meteorology, and Physical Geography.(a. b.)
CLINTON, a city of the United States, in Clinton County, Iowa, about 42 miles higher up than Davenport, on the Mississippi, which is crossed at this point by an iron drawbridge upwards of 4000 feet long. It is a thriving place, with workshops for the Chicago and North-Western Railway, and an extensive trade in timber. Several newspapers are published weekly. Population in 1870, 6129.
CLINTON, a town of the United States, in Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the Nashua River, about 32 miles west of Boston, at the junction of several railway lines. It is the seat of extensive manufacturing activity, chiefly expended in the production of cotton cloths, woollen carpets, boots and shoes, combs, and machinery. The Lancaster mills rank as perhaps the best in the United States; and the wire cloth company has the credit of being the first to weave wire by the power-loom. Population in 1870, 5429.
CLINTON, De Witt (1769-1828), an American statesman, born at Little Britain, in the State of New York, was the son of a gentleman of English extraction who served as brigadier-general in the war of independence, and of a lady belonging to the famous Dutch family of De Witts. He was educated at Colombia College; and in 1788 he was admitted to the bar. He at once joined the republican party, among the leaders of which was his uncle, George Clinton, governor of New York, whose secretary he became. At the same time he held the office of secretary to the board of regents of the university, and to the commissioners of fortifications. In 1797 he was elected member of the Assembly, in 1798 member of the Senate of the State of New York, and in 1801 member of the Senate of the United States. For twelve years, with two short breaks, which amounted only to three years, he occupied the position of mayor of New York. He was also again member of the Senate of New York from 1803 to 1811, and lieutenant-governor of the State from 1811 to 1813. In 1812 he became a candidate for the presidency; but he was defeated by Madison, and lost even his lieutenant-governorship. Throughout his whole career Clinton had been distinguished by his intelligent support of all schemes of improvement, and he now devoted himself to carrying out the proposal for the construction of canals from Lakes Erie and Champlain to the River Hudson. The Federal Government refused to undertake the work; but some time after, in 1815, the year in which he finally lost the mayoralty, he presented a memorial on the subject to the Legislature of New York, and the Legislature appointed a commission, of which he was made a member, to make surveys and draw up estimates. Having thus recovered his popularity, in 1816 Clinton was once more chosen governor of the State; in 1819 he was re-elected, and again in 1824 and 1826. In 1825 the Erie Canal was completed; and he afterwards saw the work which owed so much to him carried on by the construction of important branch canals.
De Witt Clinton published a Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York (1818), Letters on the Natural History and Internal Resources of New York (1822), and Speeches to the Legislature (1823). His life was written by Kosack (1829) and Renwick (1840); and in 1849 appeared Campbell's Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton.
CLINTON, Henry Fynes (1781-1852), an English classical scholar, was born at Gamston, in Nottinghamshire. He was descended from the second earl of Lincoln; for some generations the name of his family was Fynes, but his father resumed the older family name of Clinton. Educated at Southwell school in his native county, at Westminster school, and at Christ Church College, Oxford, he devoted himself to the minute and almost uninterrupted study of classical literature and history. From 1800 to 1826 he was M.P. for Aldborough.
His chief works are-Fasti Hellenici, a Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece, which also contains dissertations on points of Grecian history and Scriptural chronology (4 vols., 1824, 1827, 1830, 1834); and Fasti Romani, a Civil and Literary Chronology of Rome and Constantinople from the Death of Augustus to the Death of Heraclitus (2 vols., 1845 and 1851). In 1851 he published an epitome of the former, and an epitome of the latter appeared in 1853. The Literary Remains of H. F. Clinton were publish by C. J. F. Clinton in 1854.
