836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In 1840 Prof. Espy, by invitation, visited England for the pur- 

 pose of explaining his theory of storms before the British Associ- 

 ation. He presented it, in an elaborate paper, in September, 1840, 

 Prof. Forbes being the presiding officer of the meeting, after 

 which it was subjected to a lively discussion, in which some of 

 the most eminent British scientific men of the day took part, some 

 sustaining it, and some presenting objections to it. He afterward 

 visited Paris, and presented a communication to the Academy of 

 Sciences. The committee to whom the communication was re- 

 ferred, consisting of MM. Arago, Pouillet, and Babinet, at the 

 conclusion of their report, admitted that the memoir " contains a 

 great number of well-observed and well-described facts. His the- 

 ory in the present state of science alone accounts for the phenom- 

 ena, and when completed, as Mr. Espy intends, by the study of 

 the action of electricity when it intervenes, will leave nothing to 

 be desired. In a word, for physical geographj'-, agriculture, navi- 

 gation, and meteorology, it gives us new explanations, indications 

 useful for ulterior researches, and redresses many accredited 

 errors. The committee expresses, then, the wish that Mr. Espy 

 may be placed by the Government of the United States in a posi- 

 tion to continue his important investigations, and to complete his 

 theory, already so remarkable, by means of all the observations 

 and all the experiments which the deductions even of his theory 

 may suggest to him in a vast country, where enlightened men are 

 not wanting to science, and which is, besides, the home of those 

 fearful storms. The work of Mr. Espy causes us to feel the neces- 

 sity of undertaking a retrospective examination of the numerous 

 documents already collected in Europe, to arrange them, and 

 draw from them deductions which they can furnish, and more 

 especially at the present period, when the diluvial rains which 

 have ravaged the southeast of France have directed attention to 

 all the possible causes of similar phenomena. Consequently, the 

 committee proposes to the Academy to give its approbation to the 

 labors of Mr. Espy, and to solicit him to continue his researches, 

 and especially to try to ascertain the influence which electricity 

 exerts in these great phenomena, of which a complete theory will 

 be one of the most precious acquisitions of modern science." 



This report was incorporated in full in the introduction to 

 "The Philosophy of Storms"— "not merely," as the author says 

 with characteristic independence of opinion, " for the purpose of 

 showing the reader that I have the highest authority on my side 

 —for I do not submit to authority myself— but to exhibit a beau- 

 tiful analysis of my theory by three of the most distinguished 

 philosophers in Europe. As a matter of authority, however, I 

 should be justified in bringing forward the report to rebut au- 

 thority. It had been sneeringly said before a large audience, by 



