"with reference to the JV/iirlwhid Theory of Storms. 369 



storms which overlooks the part performed by electricity, must 

 be extremely defective," I do not perceive that the part per- 

 formed by electricity in a gale of wind, squall, tornado, or 

 other storm, ever constitutes an essential feature of the same; 

 but the part so performed appears to me to be only incidental 

 and subordinate to the action and main effects of the storm. 

 Electricity is not wind, nor water, nor vapour, but an impon- 

 derable matter or effect, which is not known to exert any con- 

 stant mechanical force or action upon the efficient currents of 

 the atmosphere. "Thunder and lightning, and convective 

 discharge," are but momentary or transient exhibitions of 

 electricity, producing no visible effects upon these currents, 

 whatever may be their agency in restoring the disturbed equi- 

 librium of the different atmospheric elements. The electri- 

 city developed by a steam boiler is not considered as producing 

 the steam or its jet, or the condensation of the latter, but is 

 Itself produced by these. Even were it shown that a stream 

 of electricity was constantly developed between the rarefied 

 column of a moving tornado and the surface beneath, I cannot 

 see how this could be assumed as the cause rather than the 

 effect of the local rarefaction. If the part which electricity 

 performs in a storm be essential, or controlling, its functions 

 ought to be distinctly pointed out. 



I would humbly suggest that the old practice of forming or 

 inventing theories or schemes of action for the powers of na- 

 ture, ought to be mainly abandoned. The Wernerian and 

 Huttonian theories are well remembered ; and how small 

 would have been the progress of the science to which they re- • 

 late, had its cultivators continued to exhibit only the spirit 

 and philosophy of the early advocates of these theories; and 

 how much less, if guided by a philosophy so speculative and 

 untenable as that of the affluent and up-moving hypotheses of 

 winds and storms ! More strict and extended observations 

 and inquiry, with more caution in the adoption of hypotheses, 

 whether old or new, would, in my opinion, tend greatly to the 

 advance of meteorological science. 



Observation, rather than "lucubration," has been my em- 

 ployment when exempted from other duties; and if the re- 

 sults of observation do not accord with the "lucubrations" of 

 Messrs. Espy and Hare, I conceive that I am in no degree 

 responsible for the difficulties of their position. 



New York, January 20, 1842. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 20. No. 1 32. May 1842. 2 C 



