406 PELTIER ON THE CAUSES OF THE 
will approach it: there will also be some as resinous as the 
globe; these will only obey their specific weight: finally, there 
will be some more resinous than the globe, and these will be re- 
pelled by it. This repulsion, joined to the diminution of the 
molecular gravity, carries them far beyond the limits which they 
would have attained without this succession of electric induc- 
tions, according to the transformations which they undergo. 
52. The elastic vapours dispersed in the atmosphere cannot 
follow the ordinary laws of their repulsive forces; subjected to 
the electric element, they are not regularly distributed: the in- 
equality of repulsion, according as more or less electricity has 
been able to coerce itself in different parts, will group the va- 
pours into small masses, which are called flakes in the opake va- 
pours. In the state of transparent vapour, the molecules more | 
distant from each other, more insulated, and more independent, 
retain a greater proper electric tension; all are enveloped by a 
more extended electric atmosphere, which acts on its own ac- 
count. The feeble conductibility of the mass does not allow the 
extreme molecules to have the superiority which the opake 
vapours take; the mass, as a body, can have but a feeble elec- 
tric atmosphere, which increases with their density. To find 
these distinct masses of elastic vapours, forming transparent 
clouds, and carrying within them an electric tension different 
from the neighbouring masses, paper kites or captive balloons 
must be raised, and be caused to ascend sufficiently high to_ 
reach the region of resinous strata. 
53. In dry and very clear weather, it is very seldom that we 
can meet with masses so powerfully charged that their action on 
the wire of the kite is able at first to destroy the effect of the 
inferior mass, and afterwards to give a plus result. The presence 
of a transparent resinous cloud is often not suspected, but by 
seeing the vitreous current diminish, and by seeing it again as- 
sume its first intensity after some moments of feebleness. But 
in slightly damp weather it sometimes happens that the superior 
masses are lowered, so that they float in regions accessible to our 
kites. I have several times found these resinous masses power- 
ful enough at first to neutralize entirely the vitreous current which 
the radiation had produced in the inferior strata, then to give a 
resinous current of from 20 to 30 degrees. At certain periods” 
after a continuation of hot days, which has produced a succes- 
sion of opake and elastic transformations, such as takes place 
