TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 43 
On Excessive Falls of Rain. By Professor Forses. 
‘It appears, from the report of the Birmingham Meeting of the 
British Association, as given in the Atheneum (No. 618), that doubt 
has been thrown on the statement of the remarkable fall of rain 
cited in my former report. I was not present at either of the dis- 
cussions alluded to; I therefore take this opportunity of stating 
the authority upon which these very surprising falls of rain were ad- 
mitted into my report,—authority so ample, that, as an historian of 
science, I could not have omitted them, improbable as they do most 
certainly appear. The fall of thirty inches of rain within twenty-four 
hours, took place at Genoa [not Geneva, as printed in the report] on 
the 25th of October, 1822. An assertion to this eftect having appear- 
ed in a Genoese newspaper, the editors of the Bibliotheque Universelle 
wrote immediately to make the necessary inquiries as to an observation 
so unprecedented. ‘The reply which they obtained from M. Pagano, 
‘ observateur exact*,’ is given at length in their journal, and is 
not, I think, the less satisfactory, because this result was obtained 
by the most inartificial of rain-gauges. ‘ Deux sceaux de bois 
presque cylindriques, dont l'un de vingt-quatre et l’autre de vingt- 
six pouces de hauteur, qui m’avoient servi pour quelques expéri- 
ences sur la vendange, étoient restés vides dans mon jardin. La 
pluie de Vendredi 25 Octobre n’avoient pas encore cessé de tomber 
que déja ils en étoient remplis.. He then proceeds to state on 
what grounds he infers that four inches more of rain fell after the 
larger vessel had been filled, making a total of thirty inches French 
(thirty-two English); and adds a statement of several facts, to show 
that the effects of the deluge in the neighbourhood bore a proportion 
to the magnitude of the cause. M. Arago, quoting the result, adds: 
‘Ce résultat inoui inspira des doutes 4 tous les météorologistes, on 
soupconnait une erreur d’impression; mais M. Pagano, observateur 
exact, a écrit aux rédacteurs de la Bubliothéque Universelle une lettre 
qui met le fait hors de toute contestation}. Fortunately, however, 
this local deluge (for it appears, by the letter of M. Pagano, to have 
extended but a very short distance,) is nearly rivalled by a similar fact 
recorded in the south of France by an experienced observer, who 
seems to have been in the practice of measuring the fall of rain for 
twenty-three years at least, M. Tardy de la Brossy, of Joyeuse, Dép. de 
YArdéche. M. Arago, who records the observation, and gives it the 
weight of his authority, does so in these words: ‘ Le 9 Octobre 1827, 
_ dans lintervalle de vingt-deux heures, il est tombé, dans la méme 
ville de Joyeuse 29 pouces 3 lignes d’eau (vingt-neuf pouces trois 
lignes). J’écris le résultat en toutes lettres, afin qu’on ne croie pas 4 une 
faute d'impression{.’ When I add, that these two results, surprising, 
and perhaps unexampled as they are in the history of science, have, on 
* Vol. xxii. partie Physique, p. 67. 
+ Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xxvii. 407. 
t Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xxxvi. 414. 
