THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1897. 



M, 



I: .„.,„,_,„,, 



^^^^Nouvelle ^tude sur les Temp^ies, Cyclones, Trombes ou 

 ^^R Tornados. Par M. Faye, Membre de I'lnstitut et du 

 ^^P Bureau des Longitudes. Pp. vii + 142. (Paris : 

 * Gauthier-Villars et fils, 1897.) 



FAYE has quitted the position of dignified retire- 

 ment to which he is entitled by his age and his 

 scientific reputation, to do battle with the meteorologists. 

 For the last twenty-five years, as he reminds us, he has 

 struggled to ensure the recognition of his views concern- 

 ing the origin and development of cyclones and tornados. 

 At the advanced age of eighty-three, he again enters the 

 arena of polemics and controversy, hoping to secure 

 converts and supporters of the views that he has con- 

 sistently held. We may offer our congratulations to the 

 distinguished physicist on the vigour which such an 

 undertaking demonstrates, but we could have wished 

 that it had been exhibited in a manner better qualified 

 to justify his reputation, and increase the number of his 

 admirers. In the work which M. Faye has undertaken, 

 of collecting his scattered writings and systematising 

 the information which supports his views, he is perhaps 

 supported by the belief that his theory is making head- 

 way. He quotes the remark of M. Sainte-Claire Deville, 

 who, in the Academy, asserted with some warmth that 

 M. Faye was entirely alone in his opinion, that there 

 was not a meteorologist, not a sailor, who shared his 

 views, and at that time the author admits that he was 

 universally condemned, but adds, " If I were put on my 

 rial to-day I should get some votes, though not enough 

 o acquit me." In this opinion we think M. Faye deceives 

 himself— the views of American and German meteoro- 

 logists are as much opposed to those he holds as when 

 M. Deville made his cutting rejoinder. 



The interest which M. Faye takes in meteorology in 

 general, and in cyclones in particular, is the outcome of 

 the attentive study which he has given to the behaviour 

 of sun-spots. As is well known, he is the author of a 

 theory concerning the origin of these phenomena which 

 was respectfully received at the time it was enunciated, 

 and gained some adherents, but accumulated knowledge 

 drawn either from spectroscopic or photographic observ- 

 ations has done nothing to support it, and probably the 

 hypothesis would now find fewer partisans than when 

 originally conceived. M. Faye tells us that these spots 

 are due to downward gyrating movements produced in 

 the currents that everywhere furrow the photosphere, 

 and carrying with them the cooler gases of the solar 

 atmosphere. Fully possessed with the accuracy of this 

 notion, it is easy for him to pass to terrestrial cyclones, 

 and to see the same mechanism operating in our atmo- 

 sphere. His judgment seems to be warped by his pre- 

 conceived theories, and he views a cyclone or a tornado 

 as originating in the upper strata of the atmosphere and 

 penetrating downwards to the earth's surface. Herein 

 lies the fundamental diflference between the theories of 

 M. Faye and those of modern physicists. The unani- 

 mous opinion of meteorologists, he is forced to admit, is 

 NO. 1448, VOL. 56] 



NATURE 



289 



that our cyclones are not the result of downward, but of 

 an ascending motion. The evidence that is sufficient 

 to convince most inquirers leaves M. Faye in doubt. 

 While all the observed phenomena of a cyclone are 

 not fully explained, there is still room for an alternative 

 theory. M. Faye quotes with approval Dr. Sprung's 

 admission that the motion of translation of cyclones is 

 not adequately explained by any accepted theory. Like 

 a practised controversialist, he knows how to make the 

 most of such difficulties. 



" Je disais aux metdorologistes : Vous cherchez en bas, 

 au sein d'un air calme, ce qui ne peut s'y trouver : la 

 cause de cet effroyable mouvement ? Eh bien 1 levez les 

 yeux, et voyez quels mouvements rapides existent dans 

 les hauteurs de I'atmosph^re k 2000™ seulement, ou les 

 couches d'air se transportent k grande vitesse sans que 

 nous en sentions rien en bas ; c'est Ik qu'il faut chercher ; 

 c'est Ik et non au ras du sol, qu'il faut placer I'origine du 

 ph^nom^ne. Mais alors il faut renoncer aux trombes 

 ascendantes, il faut reconnaitre que les mouvements 

 d'ensemble sont descendants." 



Meteorologists would probably give M. Faye his 2000 

 metres, or something like it. The greater the saturation 

 of the air the « easier would the ascending current be 

 maintained, and the greatest saturation would probably 

 occur near the lowest cloud stratum. The origin of the 

 tornado or the cyclone would probably not be " au ras 

 du sol," but at some distance from the surface. But in 

 the " drift " theory of translation M. Faye has no original 

 rights. Ferrel and Loomis have equally asserted the 

 principle of the " drift " theory, and it is difficult to see 

 what support it lends to the "downward" motion or 

 advances our knowledge of either the origin or the motion 

 of cyclonic centres. 



The real question at issue, and one which it would 

 seem might be settled by observation, is one of fact. Is 

 there an indraught of air to the cyclone vortex at or near 

 the earth's surface and a consequent ascending current 

 over it, or, on the other hand, an outflow from a descend- 

 ing current ? Or, to adopt the characteristics and nomen- 

 clature with which the author sums up the discussion on 

 tornados, and contrasts his theory with those of meteoro- 

 logists, we may arrange the question thus : — 



M. Faye. 

 nuUe. 

 neant, I'air de la trombe est descendant 



par sa trompe. 



Aspiration 

 Ascension 



Aspiration 

 Ascension 



Meteorologists, 

 ^nergique, en masses enormes. 

 totale, couches inferieures portees en haut. 



The two theories are the reverse of each other ; we can- 

 not say with the author that the meteorological theory is 

 the reverse (contrepied) of the truth. Observation, as 

 mentioned above, ought to be able to settle this question, 

 and consequently a large portion of M. Faye's book is 

 occupied with accounts of cyclones and tornados, drawn 

 from various sources from the time of Dampier to the 

 present day. And the author, as we think, lingers rather 

 lovingly over the older sources of information. His 

 sympathies and his admiration centre round Redfield 

 and Piddington rather than Ferrel and Loomis and 

 Blandford. We doubt if the last-named occurs once in 



