CORRESP OXDENCE. 



409 



should make : In answering a possible ob- 

 jection, namely, that the question in hand 

 is not within the province of the supreme 

 ecclesiastical authority's defining power— 

 " that is, outside the dcpoalinm Jidci " — he 

 savs : " What is or is not within the supreme 

 authority's province to decide must be 

 known to that authority. An infallible au- 

 thority must know the limits of its revealed 

 message. If authority can make a mistake 

 in determining its own limits, it may make 

 a mistake in a matter of faith." Xow, the 

 gist of the first half of Mr. Mivart's paper 

 is taken up by the extended assumption 

 that ecclesiastical authority did make a mis- 

 take in determining its own limits in the 

 case of Galileo. Therefore it must logically 

 follow, according to Mr. Mivart's proposi- 

 tion, that (supreme?) ecclesiastical authority 

 may make a mistake in a matter of faith. 

 Again he says : " Men of science may have 

 a truer perception of what Scripture must 

 be held 1 since it is inspired) to teach than 

 may be granted to ecclesiastical authori- 

 ties " ; that " God has taught us (in the in- 

 stance of Galileo) that it is not to ecclesias- 

 tical congregations, but to men of science, 

 that he has committed the elucidation of 

 scientific questions, whether such questions 

 are or are not treated of by Holy Scripture, 

 etc." ; that " it must bo admitted that men 

 of science so succeeded, and that ecclesias- 

 tical authority so failed, in interpreting the 

 true and inspired meaning of God's written 

 word." It is the duty of men of science, 

 therefore, to point out the limits of infal- 

 lible authority, is Mr. Mivart's assertion. 

 Certainly this is a contradiction to his for- 

 mer proposition, that " an infallible authority 

 must know the limits of its revealed mes- 

 sage." Moreover, in the concluding portion 

 of his article, Mr. Mivart coolly tells us up 

 to what limits ecclesiastical authority infal- 

 libly extends, and weighs it in the balance 

 against scientific probability with an im- 

 plied inference in favor of the latter. Mr. 

 Mivart never learned such logic from Catho- 

 lic sources. He poses in the exact attitude 

 of the objector he so cogently answered in 

 the beginning. Therefore does his own 

 reply rebound upon himself — an infallible 

 authority must certainly determine its own 

 limits. 



While respecting Mr. Mivart's attain- 

 ments to the utmost. Catholics can not do 

 such violence to their faith and their reason 

 as to follow him upon the rash ground 

 whither, no doubt, some hasty and incon- 

 sid'S^-ate motive has hurried him. 

 Yours respectfully, 



CoNDE B. Fallen. 

 St. Louis, October 2T, 1SS5. 



THE GENESIS OF A TORNADO. 

 Menira. Editors : 



At Orange Heights, in Central Florida, 

 on Sunday, October lltla, a stiff breeze was 

 blowing from the north, as it had blown for 

 some forty-eight hours previously. Masses 

 of clouds, with which the air was laden, were 

 scudding by like ships under full sail. Sev- 

 eral times during the day I had noted that 

 an upper current was bearing the higher 

 clouds in an exactly opposite direction. 

 During the afternoon the upper current 

 gradually settled down, until it squarely 

 opposed its adversary, presenting the sin- 

 gular spectacle of two cloud-laden currents 

 of air rushing rapidly together from op- 

 posite directions. My point of observation 

 being on an eminence, commanding an ex- 

 tensive view of the surrounding country, 

 I had a fine opportunity to watch the prog- 

 ress of events. For perhaps half an hour 

 these two air-currents flowed swiftly to- 

 gether without apparent result ; but pres- 

 ently there appeared in the west, scarcely a 

 mile distant, and just where the two cur- 

 rents came together, a heavy mass of clouds, 

 which constantly increased in density and 

 blackness. The south wind grew constant- 

 ly more persistent, and although its antag- 

 onist showed no signs of weakening, it was 

 gradually crowded out of its course toward 

 the west, and for a quarter of au hour the 

 direction of the two currents was squarely 

 at right angles. Then tlie great cloud-nu- 

 cleus, which had so far remained station- 

 ary, began slowly to rotate, the east wind 

 passing across the north side, and thence 

 around toward the south ; the south wind 

 passing up the east side, and thence around 

 toward the west. 



As soon as the rotary motion was estab- 

 lished, a progressive motion began. In a 

 few minutes the whole mass had moved out 

 of sight in a northerly direction, and the 

 south wind had full sway. When it was 

 reported next day that buildings and their 

 occupants had been injured by a " cyclone," 

 a few miles to the northward, I was per- 

 haps the only person to whom the news 

 was not unexpected. Fortunately, the aerial 

 monster made its first descent in the pine- 

 woods before attaining great velocity, and 

 was torn and dissipated by the forest be- 

 fore it could rebound. 



It seems unfortunate that the terms 

 " tornado " and " cyclone," whose primary 

 meanings afford no clew by which they may 

 be distinguished, are popularly used in ex- 

 actly the opposite sense from that in which 

 the Signal Service and scientific writers use 

 them. Charles B. Palmer. 



Obaxge Heights, Floeida, October 13, 1835, 



