246 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



with impatience the arrival of fine weather, to 

 enable me to continue my observations ; but, 

 far from the previous indications of the machine 

 showing any signs of diminution, they only 

 became stronger ; for although with the im- 

 proved weather an augmentation of electricity* 

 might have been expected, in a few days the 

 signs of its presence ceased altogether. On 

 the 4th, 5th, and 6th of June, it was only 

 possible to obtain a slight crepitation; and on 

 the 7th the machine became dumb. This sin- 

 gular decrease in the electric element fatally 

 accorded with a consentaneous increase of the 

 cholera. On the 8th feeble sparks reappeared, 

 and increased in number and intensity. In the 

 course of the day a thunderstorm announced 

 to plague-stricken Paris that electricity had 

 once more entered in its dominion. On the 

 9th, at the slightest touch, the machine gave 

 forth sparks in abundance. Meantime the 

 cholera was rapidly subsiding." 



During the whole year 1849, M. Quetelet 

 has proved, by careful observation, that the 

 electrical intensity of the atmosphere has been 

 about one-half of that observed in former years ; 

 and that from January, in this year,* it regu- 

 larly diminished up to a certain period, when it 



* Mr. Glaisher makes a somewhat similar observation for 

 the quarter ending Sept. 1849. 



