.470 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



The preceding remarks are penned in a spirit of perfect 

 candor and impartiality, and I hope you will receive them 

 in a similar spirit. They will point out the objections to 



advocate. Indeed, I doubt not that the intelligent reader who has made him- 

 self thoroughly acquainted with the theory, will see that many points could 

 be much more clearly elucidated. If, indeed, I had not been able to answer 

 any one of the objections, the theory might still be true, for the foundation of 

 it is not shaken by any one of them. 



Suppose, for instance, I had not been able to show that the barometer does 

 actually fall in the torrid zone, on the passage of a hurricane, it would not 

 prove my theory untrue, because it might have so happened that no barom- 

 etrical observations had ever been recorded in the midst of the storm. If, 

 indeed, it had been established by well-authenticated observations, that the 

 barometer does not fall in the middle of a hurricane, I would have to acknow- 

 ledge it to be the experimentum crusis to disprove my theory. But this fact 

 never will be established. For so long as the laws of gravity remain un- 

 changed, the barometer will fall when pressed by Jess incumbent weight ; 

 and as long as the relation between the caloric of elasticity of vapor and the 

 specific caloric of atmospheric air, remains unchanged, this caloric will ex- 

 pand the air in contact with the condensing vapor, in the formation of cloud, 

 upwards of six thousand cubic feet for every cubic foot of water thus genera- 

 ted, after making allowance for the condensation of the vapor itself; as I 

 have demonstrated by experiment, independent of the chemical principles on 

 which the calculation was originally made. (65.) 



I thank the author of these able strictures for the candid manner in which 

 they were made. If my theory is true, it will bear the test of the severest 

 examination, which I invoke from other minds of equal acuteness. If it is 

 false, no one is more interested than myself that it should be speedily refuted. 

 But in this inquiring age, when men will think for themselves, neither the 

 hasty and unpremeditated opinion of one of the most distinguished philoso- 

 phers of Europe, that Mr. Espy's theory could not be true, for it requires the 

 barometer to stand high in the middle of hurricanes, nor the deliberate and 

 long-cherished opinion of a distinguished chemist of America, of whose dis- 

 coveries his country is justly proud, that Mr. Espy's theory is suicidal, re- 

 quiring the air to be colder, to condense the vapor, and at the same time 

 warmer, to produce an ascending motion, will satisfy the mind of any one 

 who chooses to investigate the subject thoroughly j for he will perceive, that 

 neither of these conclusions follows from the doctrine which I teach. 



The foundation on which I build must be sapped, before the superstructure 

 can be overthrown. Let any one try the following experiment, and he will 

 be able to tell whether my corner-stone is firmly laid or not? Try how much 

 the temperature of both dry air, and air saturated with aqueous vapor, is re- 



