AKSEL S. STEEN. M.-N. Kl. 



or several unknown factors, in co-operation, whose action cannot be 

 taken into consideration. 



It is of course difficult to form any well-founded opinion as to what 

 may be the nature of these missing factors. It is possible that the 

 systematic investigations of more recent times of the higher atmospheric 

 strata by the aid of balloons and kites, may to a considerable degree ex- 

 tend our understanding of the thermodynamics of the atmosphere ; but the 

 practical difficulties in the way of obtaining direct observations, whenever 

 they are required, from atmospheric strata at various heights, as an assi- 

 stance in the daily weather-service, cannot but be regarded as so insur- 

 mountable that there can hardly be any question of such assistance in 

 the more or less immediate future. 



There is, however, one factor to which, in my opinion, too little 

 attention has hitherto been paid, and which perhaps plays a prominent 

 part in the dailj^ changes in the weather, namely, the electrical conditions 

 of the atmosphere. 



I will mention in this connection a phenomenon in everyday life, 

 which seems to me to be not altogether without significance. It is a well- 

 known fact that many persons feel more or less sharp rheumatic pains 

 previous to a change in the weather, some little time, often 24 hours or 

 more, before such change becomes apparent through meteorological obser- 

 vations at the place where the person in question resides. It is scarcely 

 to be imagined that it is the meteorological elements themselves, the 

 atmospheric pressure, the temperature, the amount of moisture in the air, 

 or the wind, whose variations in one place could, by a kind of telæsthesia, 

 exert an influence on a human body in another town or another country; 

 but on the other hand, it is not inexplicable from a physiological stand- 

 point, if we assume that the painful sensations in question are due to 

 electrical influence from the atmosphere, caused by the temporary dis- 

 turbance, for some reason or another, of the latter's normal electrical con- 

 ditions. I shall not, however, enter further into this question, for the 

 scientific treatment of which there is not, as far as I know, the very 

 smallest amount of material in the way of observations. 



The investigations hitherto carried out for the purpose of finding a 

 connection between the electrical condition ot the atmosphere and the 

 various meteorological elements, do not appear to have led to any parti- 

 cularly noteworthy results; but this is not to be wondered at, when it is 

 remembered that the above-mentioned investigations are based upon ob- 

 servations made with an electroscope in the atmospheric strata nearest to 

 the earth. It appears now, however, as though brighter prospects may 



