PROCEEDINGS OF THE REGENTS. 109 



As he observed, experimented, and studied, his enthusiasm grew, and 

 his desire to devote himself exclusively to the increase and diffusion 

 of the science finally became so strong that he determined to give up 

 his school, and to rely for the means of prosecuting his researches 

 upon his slender savings and the success of his lectures, probably the 

 most original which have ever been delivered on this subject. His 

 first course was delivered before the Franklin Institute of Penn- 

 sylvania, of which he had long been an active member, and where he 

 met kindred spirits, ready to discuss the principles or the applica-. 

 tions of science, and prepared to extend their views over the whole 

 horizon of physical and mechanical research. As chairman of the 

 committee on meteorology, Mr. Espy had a large share in the organi- 

 zation of the complete system of meteorological observations carried 

 on by the institute under the auspices and within the limits of the 

 State of Pennsylvania. 



Mr. Espy's theory of storms was developed in successive memoirs 

 in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, containing discussions of the 

 changes of temperature, pressure, and moisture of the air, and in the 

 direction and force of the wind and other phenomena attending re- 

 markable storms in the United States and on the ocean adjacent to 

 the Atlantic and Gulf coast. Assuming great simplicity as it was 

 developed, and founded on the established laws of physics and upon 

 ingenious and well-directed original experiments, this theory drew 

 general attention to itself, especially in the United States. A me- 

 moir submitted anonymously to the American Philosophical Society 

 of Philadelphia gained for Mr. Espy the award of the Magellanic 

 premium in the year 1836, after a discussion remarkable for ingenuity 

 and closeness in its progress, and for the almost unanimity of its result. 



Mr. Espy was eminently social in his mental habits, full of bonhom- 

 mie and of enthusiasm, easily kindling into a glow by social mental 

 action. In the meetings and free discussions in a club formed for 

 promoting research, and especially for scrutinizing the labors of its 

 members — and of which Sears C. Walker, Professor Henry, Henry 

 D. Rogers, and myself were members — Mr. Espy found the mental 

 stimulus that he needed, and the^riticism which he courted, the best 

 aids and checks on his observations, speculations, and experiments. 

 But there was one person who had more influence upon him than all 

 others besides, stimulating him to progress, and urging him forward 

 in each step with a zeal which never flagged — this was his wife. 

 Having no children to occupy her care, and being of high mental en- 

 dowment and of enthusiastic temperament, she found a never-failing 

 source of interest and gratification in watching the development of 

 Mr. Espy's scientific ideas^ the progress of his experiments, and the 

 results of his reading and studies; the collection and collation of ob- 

 servations of natural phenomena in the poetical region of the storm, 

 the tornado, and of the aurora. Mrs. Espy's mind was essentially 

 literary, and she could not aid her husband in his scientific inquiries 

 or experiments: her health was delicate, and she could not assist him 

 in his out-door observations; but she supplied what was of more im- 

 portance than these aids — a genial and loving interest ever manifested 

 in his pursuits and successes, and in his very failures. Alere Jlam- 



