

RESEARCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF M. HOWARD'S THEORY OF THE ORIGIN AND 

 MODIFICATIONS OF CLOUDS. 



A CLOUD is a visible aggregate of minute 

 particles of water suspended in the atmo- 

 sphere. In the more extensive signification of 

 the word, smoke and all the visible effluvia 

 of volatile substances may be considered as 

 clouds ; meteorologists have, however, confined 

 this term to aqueous particles.* 



* Our English word Cloud is derived of the Anglo-Saxon 

 verb hliban or Eehliban, legere, to cover; from the same verb 

 came glade, blot, lot, and lid. In like manner, the Latin 

 nubes, and its diminutive nebula, came from the Latin verb 

 nubere; and from the same verb is derived nupta. So the 

 Greek ys<po$ and vB$eXy from ve<psov. It need hardly be ob- 

 served here, that all that words can do, is to express some of 



B 



