348 Prof. J. P. Epsy on the Law of Storms. 



the same hour, according as the observations were near the 

 southern or northern part of that sea. Now I most earnestly 

 hope, if you pubUsh these few remarks, that the subject will at 

 least appear worthy of examination, and that very many learned 

 bodies (and especially the Board of Trade) will appoint com- 

 mittees of men who have the confidence of these bodies, with in- 

 structions to examine whether or not the wind did blow inwards in 

 all the storms which I have examined of lledfield, Keid, Piddiug- 

 ton, and Thorn at the time mentioned in my diagrams. I doubt 

 not the result. 



lu all the great winter storms of the United States, their north 

 and south diameter is four or five times greater than their east 

 and west; and it is not certain that hurricanes are all round, and 

 if not, the wind will blow in towards a line rather than towards 

 a point; and even if it blows invi^ards spirally, that is not incon- 

 sistent with my theory. 



In narrow storms of great length it will hardly be contended 

 that there could be a whirl, nor in the belt of rain at the equa- 

 tor. There the wind blows inwards nearly perpendicular to the 

 equator near the belt of rain, and yet the barometer stands below 

 the mean under the belt, which shows that the air runs out 

 above, and keeps the barometer above the mean at the outer 

 borders of the trade- winds, just as it does both in front and in the 

 rear of all the great storms which pass over the United States. 



I think if Sir John Herschel examines this subject, he will 

 retract what he said nearly twenty years ago, before the British 

 Association, " That the leading fact of Espy^s theory could not be 

 true, for if the wind blew inwards towards the centre of storms, 

 it would make the barometer rise there above the mean." And 

 if he shall find, as I think he will on examination, that the the- 

 ory explains more than a hundred phajnomena never explained 

 before, many of which were not known before, but predicted by 

 the theory, he will cheerfully acknowledge that the long chain of 

 cause and efi"ect exhibited by my theory of storms, is a far more 

 magnificent specimen of inductive philosophy than Wells' theory 

 of dew, which he so justly praises. I have tried every means in 

 my power for years to induce Sir John to examine my theory, 

 carefully, and then re-affirm his former statement or retx'act it. 

 Perhaps this eulogium of my own theory may induce him, from 

 its very impudence, to take up the subject. If he does, he will 

 find that atmospheric waves, which seem to trouble him, arc the 

 very reverse of what is generally believed; the depth of the at- 

 mosphere is greater where the barometer stands low, and less 

 where the barometer stands high, and that in proportion to the 

 fall of the barometer. Over all great storm-clouds, the air is 

 swelled up by the latent caloric evolved by the condensing 



