THB ATMOSPHERE AND STORMS. 125 



air on a mountain top, from that in the valley. All tin 

 atmospheric phenomena we see and hear, fog, rain, thunder, 

 lightning, hail, snow and cloud formations, show us that the 

 constitution of ihe atmosphere is continually changing. There* 

 ton-, to say the atmosphere is composed of two kinds of gases, 

 tain proportions as elements, and nothing else, is simply 

 unscientific. 



inches have been made in balloons, to discover whether 

 the atniosphen! decreases in density, and temperature, at any 

 regular rate, but with no Very successful results. Guy Lussac, 

 a Frenchman, foxmd the temperature at 22,000 feet high, to be 

 15, while other balloonists found it 30, below zero; thus 

 showing that the temperature and composition of the higher 

 atmosphere, varies in a like degree to that on the earth, and is 

 subject to the different conditions and positions of its surround- 

 ings, or the material with which it comes in contact. 



"What then is our atmosphere composed of? We have stated 

 before, that every thing with life, or having a life action, 

 has an atmosphere, consisting of emanations from itself. In 

 life action, the plant or animal is continually throwing off waste 

 material into the atmosphere, through its outer covering. This, 

 keeps around it an atmosphere of its own, peculiarities of which 

 may generally be detected by the organ of smell. Thus we 

 have the atmosphere of a rose, sweet brier, a horse, a cow, a 

 rabbit, an African, or a European. The atmosphere is thus 

 part and parcel of the body, and it would be as impossible for 

 animals to avoid, or cut off their sh'dows, as their emanations. 

 Tin' earth then is a vast body, having a life action. It is 

 composed probably of hundreds of different kinds of mineral 

 and vegetable atoms* These, by the action of water in the 



