WATER AND HAW. 109 



description, ;ire continually being manufactured by the agency 

 of \\Mt.T in the interior, and thrown into the atmosphere; where 

 they a^.-iin n-t'oMii and descend in the shape of rain, or snow, of 

 hail, to repeat the same transformation below. 



y account for rain, therefore, by saying that all the water 

 that comes down to us in that form, must have arisen first aa 

 vap'iur, and so remained for a time in invisible particles in the 

 atmosphere, till it accumulated and fell again. Thus Prof, 

 Tyndall in his "Forma of Water," says: "Solar heat is the true 

 origin of Glaciers. The sun acting on the ocean within the 

 tropics, causes an exl.alition which floats away as clouds to the 

 Polar regions, as well as the high mountain range?, where, in 

 each case, the clouds yield up their contents as snow or rain." 

 The too common practice of tracing everything to the sun, is 

 something to be deprecated, and just as absurd, as to be for* 

 ever blaming Adam for all the ills and miseries that afflict the 

 human race. There is no necessity for searching for a remote 

 ancestry for any natural phenomenon, when Its own immediate 

 cause is explained. Apart from this, the theory is incorrect, aa 

 We will show further on. Thus also Sir John Herschell in 

 "Good Words," 1864, says: "Common sense assures us, that all 

 the rain, etc., which falls from the skies must have origina- 

 ted in the sea, and must (if the present state of things is to 

 cntluiv) find its way back to it." Common sense is a very good 

 guide for a man's actions, but a poor guide to the study of science, 

 I the given principles of science ate correct. In our 

 opinion, this theory would be merely distillation, which is an 

 induced process, whereby the particles of water are expanded 

 by heat, when confined in a vessel, so that their properties or 

 compounds, are in no way altered by coming in contact with 



