[ 488 ] 



has been fatisfadorily refuted : the firft by SaufTure* and the 

 fecond by De Lucf- And in fa(5l refrigeration will indeed 

 feparate moifture from air cooled below the temperature iiccef- 

 fary to hold it in folution. But this feparation will terminate, 

 if gradual, in the produ(flion of dew, as already feen , or, if fudden, 

 in the produdion of a cloud, as in the experiment of Torn.a men- 

 tioned by Maupertuis, but cannot nor has in any initance pro« 

 duced rain. 



Rain is the immediate refult of the union of the particles 

 which form clouds ; and this union is the confequence of the 

 fubtracflion of the eleclric atmofpheres which keep them at a 

 diftance from each other ; and this fubftracflion is itfelf the con~ 

 fequence either of the fuperior attradlioa of better condudors 

 or of the attra«5tion or repulfion of other clouds through the 

 caufes mentioned in the firft fedlion of this chapter. The confe- 

 quence of the cittraElioti of clouds is their incorporation, ana the 

 refult of their incorporation is the increafed volume of their 

 conftituent particles, an increafe proportioned to the attraftion 

 that produced ir.jthe increafed volumes, thus produced, form thofe 

 ■ drops whofe collecSlion we call rain. The weight of thek being 

 fuperior to the refiftance of air, they neceflarily defcend, and 

 the caufe of their different fize is thus clearly difcerned. 



Th£ 



* Hygrom. § 224. f De Luc Idees de Meteorologie, p. 43, &c. 



