Objections to Mr. Redfield’s Theory of Storms. 143 
14. He alleges that all fluid matter has a tendency to run into 
whirls or circuits, when subject to the influence of unequal or 
opposing forces; and that, in this way, a rotative movement a 
unmeasured vidence:3 is sometimes produced. 
15. If this were true, evidently whirlpools-o or vortices of some 
kind, ought to be as frequent in the ocean, as agreeably to his ob- 
servation, they are found to be in the atmosphere. 'The aqueous 
Gulf Stream, resulting from the impetus of the trade winds, ought 
to produce as many vortices in its course as the aerial currents de= 
rived from the same source; especially as in the ocean, the great 
laws of gravitation have full liberty to act, without any important 
interference from calorific changes, to which the advocates of the 
agency of such changes in producing wind, will not ascribe much 
y where non-elastic fluids are in question. » 
16. There are few vortices or whirlpools in the ocean, because 
there are in very few cases descending currents, to supply which 
the confluence of the surrounding water is requisite. Of course 
vertical currents cannot arise from any imaginable cause. 
- 17. The conflict of opposing or unequal forees does not produce 
curvilinear motion unless there be a successive deflection ; as in- 
the case where it results from centripetal force, or the influence of 
gravity upon a projectile. If one of two opposite forces be less 
than the other, tetardation: will ensue, and a lateral current or 
currents, arrying o off Tf en 
egmntedi-eocle’ ices sidibuneppasdiaahsieccindner eilcaniiena | 
doubt if a whirlpool éver Pgh SORES Rica 
resulting from a vacuity. 
18. But the author has not informed us how these unequal or 
opposing forces are generated in the atmosphere. Without any 
assigned cause, he appeals to “certain unequal or opposing forces 
by which a rotative movement of unmeasured violence is produ- 
ced ;” this rotative movement, although alleged to be an effect 
in the first instance, is stated subsequently to be “the only known 
cause of violent and destructive winds or tempests.” 
» 19. In a memoir on the causes of tornadoes, and in some subse- 
quent communications published in the Transactions of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society, and republished in this Journal, vari- 
ous facts and arguments were mentioned tending to prove that 
the proximate cause of the phenomena of tornado is an ascend- 
ing current of air, and the afflux of wind from all points of the 
compass to supply the deficiency thus created. 
