with Meteoric Phenomena and prevalent Disorders. 295 



1830, on the Continent, and I have suffered from " La 

 Grippe" in 1833, in England; and I am sure I could not 

 have taken the complaint from others. The very sudden, 

 and locally general, as well as individually particular, out- 

 break of this influenza, points to a cause not within human 

 skill to prevent or provide for. Something in the atmosphere 

 there must be which thus strikes down so many, and no two 

 in the same exact way. It is a poison somehow mingled in 

 the breath of life. Horses and other animals are now suf- 

 fering from the effects of a corresponding epidemic disease ; 

 and in Yorkshire hundreds have, in consequence, died. 



Now, I would connect the cholera, the influenza, the con- 

 trasted indications in the seasons, the occurrence of meteoric 

 phenomena, &c, in one chain, as so many links in the 

 argument up to a supposed cause of such general derange- 

 ment in the different systems of nature. And, in order to 

 show how far the supposed cause may be one that can pro- 

 duce such different effects, as far as appearance goes, and yet 

 of the same nature as to the identity of atmospheric agency, 

 I will state one or two preliminary facts, serving to point out 

 a connection between occurrences seemingly distinct. 



It has been acknowledged that meteoric phenomena, such 

 as electrical appearances, &c, have a certain relation to vol- 

 canic agency. In the present imperfect state of science, 

 when the most brilliant discoveries are the result of intuitive 

 guess-work, who shall say that electricity is not connected 

 with the interior of the earth more than with the natural 

 external atmosphere ? * After the battle of Algiers there 

 ensued a most frightful thunder-storm, the acknowledged 

 effect of that action ; and it is also known that other great 

 combats, since the introduction of gunpowder, have been 

 followed by fearful storms, that have vented their destructive 

 power on the combatants that produced them.f 



* Dr. Hibbert (Orc the extinct Volcanoes of the Basin of Nieuwied, p. 252.) 

 has alluded to the notion prevalent in the neighbourhood of Ober and 

 Neidermennig, mentioned also by De Wyck and other writers, that, " on 

 account of the village of Obermennig having been built upon basaltic lava, 

 it has never been struck by lightning. The fact, also, of the Neidermennig 

 quarries, which are only 100 feet deep, being always filled with ice, proves 

 that " the basaltic lava of this district influences the temperature of the 

 air, as well as its electric states." I have heard similar observations made 

 on other volcanic districts. M. Rozet, in his memoir on the Vosges {Bui- 

 letin de la Societe Geologique de France, iii. p. 138.), mentions a glacier 

 near Gerardmer, in a small cavern, which, though exposed to the full heat 

 of the sun, was full of ice in July (1832) ; but, on October 25., after ten 

 days' sharp frost, had not an atom of ice. 



\ Navies have been often dispersed by storms immediately after action 

 as, for instance, after the battle of Trafalgar. 



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