THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 229 



that at which the increase of temperature should commence, as I have 

 proved, both experimental!}'' and theoretically. 



23. Supposing the electrical charge in the upper stratum to be the 

 main agent in the phenomena, it would be consistent that its influence 

 should be exercised more widely, as the air acted upon should be fur- 

 ther off, since distance enlarges the sphere as it lessens the force of the 

 attraction. 



24. This seems to explain the widening of the storm}'^ mass affected 

 towards its base, as stated in the sixth paragraph of the synopsis. 



25. Agreeably to the seventh allegation of the synopsis, the greatest 

 deposition of rain took place towards the interior or central part of the 

 stormy mass, while, according to Esp}^ the moisture ascends over the 

 focal area, and descends on one or more sides. But Mr. Wise was not 

 w^ell situated to form an accurate estimate in this respect. Until the 

 facts are better examined or confirmed, it were better to postpone the 

 examination of this question. 



26. The ninth paragraph is added by me, being founded on the alle- 

 gations of Mr. Wise in the fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraphs of his 

 narrative. 



27. It must be evident that by the narrator the words thunder storm, 

 or thunder gust, are used as synonymous with a stratum of thunder 

 clouds ; so that when he informs us that two tremendous thunder storms 

 were approaching each other rapidly beneath him, it is evidently in- 

 tended to convey tiie idea of two great thunder clouds coming together 

 so as to form one. • 



28. This is not the first time that the coming together of two thunder 

 clouds has been alleged to happen. In the report on the tornado of 

 Chenay, by Peltier, such an approximation is stated to have preceded 

 the formation of the meteor. Evidently they could not be brought to- 

 gether by charges of electricity unless those charges were of an oppo- 

 site kind ; but if they were of an opposite kind, the union of the clouds 

 would have caused reciprocal neutralization, so far as their charges 

 were equivalent. This result would have been inconsistent with that 

 augmentation of electrical energy consequent to their uniting, which is 

 in both cases alleged to have ensued. The only explanation which I can 

 suggest, consistently with the laws of electrical reaction, is, that these 

 masses of vapor were both neutral, and that they were both attracted 

 simultaneously by the upper stratum of clouds, designated by Mr. Wise 

 as the "cloud cap," and charged therefrom as soon as they attained 

 .sufficient proximity so as to form one cloud. 



29. The last paragraph of synopsis was added by me upon the in- 

 ference of the narrator that his balloon acquired an ascensional power 

 which awakened surprise, and respecting which, on reflection and con- 

 :sideration, he came to the conclusion ihdl '•Hlie electrical medium''^ in 

 which he was floating was acting on the gas and attenuating it." 



30. In concluding an essay entitled "Additional objections to Red- 

 field's theory of storms," pubHshed in Silliman's Journal about the 

 year 1843, as well as on various other occasions, and especially in my 

 •two strictures on Espy's report, I have advanced that aeriform par- 

 deles, when existing in a mass of air electrified, either vitriously or 

 aresinously, must repel each other more than when they are in a normal 



