prevalent Disorders, fyc., with Volcanic Emanations. 425 



sities; still more so, that its productions should have been 

 imitated so admirably, as the constant occurrence of meteors, 

 all round the earth, declares, without the aid of cometic di- 

 gestion ; and that no other comet, save this, should ever have 

 suffered from the same calamity or disease, although their 

 motions have been examined, at leisure, from the days of 

 Pythagoras to the present hour, and some of them have ad- 

 vanced near enough to the earth to have whisked their tails 

 in our faces had they been so unpolitely inclined. 



My readers may, perhaps, think that too much attention 

 has been given to these meteors ; but, assuredly, it would be 

 a brilliant and interesting discovery to make, if they are the 

 evidence of a new comet ; and the interest cannot be diminished 

 should they be proved to be of the " earth, earthy." I would 

 willingly congratulate Professor Olmsted on the establishment 

 of his hypothesis; for, though 1 have presumed to make free 

 with it, I do not despise his science or his ingenuity ; and I 

 am not so bigoted to my own conjectures, as to think them 

 worth keeping, if they can be proved irrational or unsound. 

 I crave, however, a little patience whilst I adduce two or three 

 more facts in connection with the subject, whether for or 

 against it, as the case may be allowed. 



In 1833, it was observed, that the atmosphere in America 

 became suddenly chilled* ; and this I argued to be one proof 

 of the true electrical character of that display (M. N. H., vii. 

 290 — 300.)^ a similar result followed the meteors seen by Mr. 

 Bache at Philadelphia in 1834, and those seen in England. 

 (VIII. 142.) But it is allowed that the display of 1834 was 

 every where of inferior brilliance, so much so, as to lead Mr. 

 Twining to decline to come to any conclusion, to make Pro- 

 fessor Olmsted almost doubt, and Professor Bache to deny the 

 identity of the circumstances. Yet it appears that electrical 

 phenomena, nevertheless, occurred upon a great scale, in some 

 respects, especially as regards cold f, more than ever known. 

 On this side of the ocean we have had frequent interruptions 

 of a very early spring (now retarded) by cold winds of great 

 intensity, frost, snow, and hail, with gales of wind, rainbows 

 in the depth of winter, and frequent displays of the aurora; 

 whilst in America the cold has been more intense than ever 



* To afford another instance of the similar results of electric, meteoric, 

 and volcanic agency, I mention here, that, on Dec. 27. 1831, Vesuvius 

 was in great eruption, rain falling furiously at Naples ; and the next morning 

 the whole of the upper part of Vesuvius was covered with snow. 



f Heat and cold can be considered only as different degrees of the same 

 power : there exists between them no definite point of neutrality." See a 

 clever article on electro-magnetism, Q. R., 35. 237. 



