EXTRACTS FROM M. PELTIER. 353 



trial bodies will be attracted ; if it is formed of vapors or 

 of objects taken up from the surface of the earth, it will 

 repel all the neighboring objects, since they will all have 

 the electricity developed by the same influence. It may 

 happen, and it often does happen, that during the continu- 

 ance of a spout, these two conditions present themselves 

 successively according to the state of the soil, or the spe- 

 cific levity of the clouds which lend themselves or oppose 

 themselves to descent. 



It is sufficient to read some accounts of these spouts, to 

 be assured that the force is sometimes attractive and some- 

 times repulsive; and in the first case the objects are thrown 

 towards a centre, and in the second, in the opposite direc- 

 tion. The forest of water (bosquets] at the foot of the 

 spouts, is the product of attraction at first, then of repul- 

 sion, when the drops of water raised up have changed their 

 electricity. 



The immediate cause of the lowering of one of the clouds, 

 may vary from one spout to another, though it may be the 

 product of the same power. In the meteor of storms, a 

 cloud but little elevated above the ground, and very highly 

 charged with electricity, may be attracted by the contrary 

 electricity, which is accumulated on a portion of the soil 

 underneath (en regard) and so much the more as the ground 

 is more elevated, humid and good conductor; the electric 

 tension of the soil reacts on that of the cloud, neutralizes 

 the reaction, which the lower portion produced on the rest 

 of the electricity of the cloud, as the lower plate of a 

 condenser neutralizes the reaction of the stratum of elec- 

 tricity of the upper plate. This reaction of the lower elec- 

 tric stratum of the cloud being neutralized, a new commu- 

 nication is made to the inferior surface, a greater mass of 

 statical electicity is accumulated there, and so in succes- 

 sion ; during which the exterior electric charge is augmented, 

 the cloud, being a movable body, is attracted and ap- 

 45 



