Redfield and Reid on Storms. 343 



dies and the coast of' the United States^ with a charts'''' in which 

 his opinion, as to the nature of storms, is farther enforced and 

 supported by numerous additional observations. Tiiis memoir 

 and the accompanying chart were also published in the 20th 

 volume of TJie Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. In this 

 way we enabled British meteorologists to become acquainted 

 with Mr Redfield's observations and views. As our meteorolo- 

 gists generally had taken but little notice of these memoirs, we 

 were rejoiced to find them brought prominently before the 

 British Association, at Newcastle, by a very intelligent officer 

 and excellent observer, Lieut. -Col. Reid of the Royal Engi- 

 neers, in a " Report explaining the progress made towards de- 

 veloping the Law of Storms, and a statement of what seems de- 

 sirable should be further done to advance our kfiozdedge of the 

 subject.'''' Colonel Reid, at the meeting of the Physical Section 

 of the British Association, commenced by stating " that he had 

 long been convinced that the operations of the Deity in the 

 workings of his providential care over his creatures, were go- 

 verned by fixed laws, designed by incomprehensible wisdom, 

 arranged by supreme power, and tending to the most benevo- 

 lent ends. That however irregular the tempest or the torna- 

 do might appear to the inobservant, yet our own day had seen 

 some of these phenomena reduced to rule ; and he doubted not 

 soon to convince the Section that we were on the eve of ad- 

 vancing some steps farther towards this most desirable end. 

 He felt confident, indeed, that the laws of atmospheric changes 

 were dependent on such fixed principles, that nothing was want- 

 ing but a more intimate acquaintance with the subject, to ren- 

 der man's knowledge of these laws as perfect as that which he 

 had attained in any of the sciences now called strict. His at- 

 tention had been first directed to the subject in 1831. He ar- 

 rived, on military service, at Barbadoes, immediately after the 

 desolating hurricane of that year, which, in the short space of 

 seven hours, destroyed 1477 persons on that island alone. He 

 had been for two years and a half daily employed as an engi- 

 neer officer amidst the ruined buildings, and was thus naturally 

 led to the consideration of the phenomena of hurricanes. The 

 first explanation which to him seemed reasonable, he found in 

 a pamphlet by W. C. Redfield of New York, extracted from 



