PROFESSOR LOOMIS'S STORM. 281 



there is no conceivable way of preventing an accumulation 

 of air over a space towards which the air below blows, and 

 thus a rise of the barometer under the ascending column or 

 current, but by supposing an outward motion of the air 

 above; and this is true in all cases where the motion of the 

 air is inwards below, even if there should be a gyration or 

 whirlwind there. Now, as the barometer stands low in the 

 middle of all storms, it follows that the air must run out 

 above as fast as it runs in below ; and if Professor Loomis 

 will calculate the expansion of the air in the cloud, due to 

 the evolution of the caloric of elasticity and caloric of flu- 

 idity, during the condensation of vapor which formed the 

 cloud, he will find it adequate to produce the effect in ques- 

 tion, without calling in the aid of any other causes. It is 

 not the acceleration of the air below towards the centre of 

 the storm which causes the barometer to stand low there ; 

 it is the out-spreading of the air above, which is the cause 

 both of the fall of the barometer and of the inward motion 

 of the air below. In the case of tornadoes, it has been sup- 

 posed that the outward motion of the air above was pro- 

 duced by the centrifugal force of a mighty whirlwind in 

 those lofty regions; and Mr. Osier, finding there was no 

 whirl below, applied that conjecture to the great Liverpool 

 storm of the 6th and 7th of January, 1839; but since that 

 storm, as well as this, was of immense and unknown 

 length from N. N. E. to S. S. W., this conjecture cannot be 

 true ; and therefore it seems probable, from this fact alone, 

 that it is not true in case of tornadoes. 



Besides, it is altogether unphilosophical to suppose a 

 whirlwind above, without showing some possible way in 

 which that whirlwind could be produced, which I think 

 never can be done. Professor Loomis has not attempted to 

 show that the cause which I assign for the fall of the baro- 

 meter in storms, is inadequate to produce the effect; though 



