nen 
SS  —— 
ELECTRIC PHENOMENA OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 401 
distributions in opake vapours; the electricity which proceeds 
to the surface of the masses, as it does to the surface of bodies ; 
and that which is retained around these vesicular particles, suffi- 
ciently insulated from each other to maintain a portion of 
their primitive electric tension. The result of this better con- 
ductibility is, that by the resinous induction of the earth, the 
lower side of the cloud will be less charged with this same 
electricity, the upper side will be more charged, and our instru- 
ments will give better indications beneath an opake cloud 
than when they were enclosed in the elastic vapour which served 
to form it. On account of its importance we insist upon, and 
we return to this first modification of the elastic vapours: at 
first all are equally resinous, and the electric manifestations of 
our instruments immersed within them, diminish more and more. 
In consequence of their transformation into opake vapours, 
called vesicular, they by forming masses approach the nature of 
conducting bodies ; a part of their electricity is coerced at the 
periphery, the other remains coerced around each vesicle. By 
the induction of the earth, the external portion of this electricity 
is repelled towards the upper part, and renders the lower part 
less resinous, which gives to our instruments the possibility of 
manifesting an electric difference. It is in these changes of 
 conductibility and of electric distribution, that we must seek to 
explain the anomalous indications of our atmospheric apparatus. 
When we apply these principles to the entire range of aqueous 
meteors, it will be seen, with the aid of the barometer, the in- 
dications of which will then be better understood, that the 
transformations may be easily followed and more readily pre- 
dicted. 
45. When a new elevation of temperature makes this cloud 
again pass into a state of elastic vapour, the upper vapours 
which arise are more charged with resinous electricity than those 
which were primitively formed; the intermediate position of 
the cloud between the earth and the celestial space is very fit for 
the unequal distribution of resinous electricity; the superior 
part possesses a much higher tension than the inferior portion, 
since its resinous electricity is repelled by the terrestrial induc- 
tion. The last vapours produced will consequently be in a less 
resinous state than the first; they will be vitreous as regards 
them. From this new evaporation results masses of elastic 
vapour of different electric tensions ; the superior masses are 
