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Ordinary Meeting, December lOth, 1861. 

 J. P. Joule, LL.D., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Wm. K. Deane, was elected an Ordinary Member. 



Mr. Baxendell made the following communication : — 

 A paragraph, headed '^Rain following the Discharge of 

 Ordnance," appears in the number of the Londoii Remeio for 

 November 16th, 1861. In this paragraph some new facts, 

 drawn from the American war, are adduced by Mr. J. C. 

 Lewis, in support of the view that a violent concussion of the 

 air by the discharge of heavy artillery has a tendency to 

 cause a copious precipitation of rain. Now, if we may be 

 allowed to regard this effect as an established fact, it seems 

 to me to be one of some interest in connection with the 

 disputed question whether, in thunderstorms, a discharge of 

 lightning is the cause or the consequence of the sudden 

 formation of a heavy shower of rain. Almost every day's 

 experience, in this climate at least, shows that the production 

 of rain is not dependent upon sudden discharges of electricity 

 from the clouds; and no evidence has ever been brought 

 forward to prove that a high degree of electrical tension in a 

 cloud has a tendency to prevent the resolution of the cloud 

 into rain. Heavy showers often fall from highly electrified 

 clouds without any visible discharge of electricity taking 

 place. "VVe are, therefore, not entitled to assume that the 

 sudden diminution of the electrical tension of a cloud by a 

 lightning discharge can have any material influence upon the 

 rain-forming processes going on in the cloud. As, however, 

 very heavy showers of rain do almost invariably follow light- 

 ning discharges, it seems necessary to seek some other cause 

 to account for them. But if we admit that a violent con- 

 Proceedings— Lit. & Phil. Society— No. 6.— Session 1861-62. 



