[ ^h ] 



The repulfion of clouds fiiriilarly eledrified, and not greatly; 

 difFering in magnitude, terminates in a bare increafe of diftance ;. 

 but, if their magnitudes be much difproportioned, it may tet^ 

 minate in attra8ion, or at leafl in forcing the conflituent par- 

 ticles into clofer contadl, and thus by increafing their magni- 

 tude effe£l the fame refult. . 



When the attraction takes place between cloiids differehtliy 

 and highly eledlrified, and within what eledtricians call the 

 Jlriking dijiance^ the eledric fluid is fet free, the coalefcence of 

 the nubilous particles is more rapid and complete, and hefk^ 

 the large drops that follow flafhes of lightning, or even floods', 

 where the quantit-ies both of vapour and eledtron are confidei'abre;^. 

 as between the tropics. 



>i(j 



Upon thefe principles mofl: of the phonomena relative to rain 

 appear to me eafily exph cable ; of thefe the mofl remarkable 

 are : 



i®. 'TAat 'rams are more copious but lefs frequent in the 

 fouthern parts of our hemifphere not much elevated over the 

 fea, than in the more northern latitudes. TTiey are more copious 

 when their produdive caufes occur, evidently becaufe the quan- 

 tity of fufpended vapour is much greater in the hotter than in 



the 



