189 



of the gales of the West Indies and Atlantic, in which their pro- 

 gressive rotary character, and the opposite directions of the 

 movement on different sides of the equator is shown by an inves- 

 tigation of between three and four hundred distinct storms, ex- 

 tending over a period of about the same number of years. 



How far these laws are applicable to other than ocean storms, 

 and what new laws or modifications of the rotary principle may 

 obtain in the interior of continents, are questions which do not 

 seem at present capable of a satisfactory answer. But however 

 they may be decided by future investigations, we cannot, I think, 

 fail to recognize in the generalizations of Redfield and his co- 

 workers a valuable contribution to positive knowledge, and an 

 induction which, even should it be found strictly applicable only 

 to the oceans and their coasts, is fraught with great practical 

 good as well as scientific interest. 



In saying thus much, I would not be considered as accepting 

 the theoretical views which Mr. Redfield from time to time 

 suggested in explanation of the origin of the revolving and pro- 

 gressive motion which he labored to demonstrate. These specu- 

 lations rarely put forth, and never very strenuously urged, appear 

 to have had but little interest for him in comparison with the 

 establishment of the Icnv of the plienomena. Indeed, they were 

 so briefly, and I must in candor add, so indistinctly presented, as 

 to attract but little attention from the scientific world. At the 

 same time it should be considered that even had Mr. Redfield 

 possessed a philosophical inventiveness and a command of the 

 exact sciences beyond what we would claim, or his own modest 

 self-appreciation would admit as his, we could hardly have hoped 

 that, in the present stage of investigation, he could have furnished 

 a really satisfactory solution of the complex problem of the 

 dynamics of storms. His labors, together with the concurring 

 or the conflicting views of other Meteorologists at home and 

 abroad, mark a great and beneficent progress in this difficult 

 inquiry, and encourage the hope that, along with a knowledge of 

 the laws of the winds, we shall hereafter be able to grasp in our 

 thoughts the mode of their origin and the physical forces by 

 which they are produced. 



While giving his chief attention to the development of the 

 Law of Storms, Mr. Redfield found time for many useful obser- 



