CHAP. 7. 6. OF ELECTRICITY. 227 



mountains, described as having rectilinear 

 spouts at the top, and which, from the des- 

 cription, I take to be a kind of cirrus.* Other 

 clouds appeared at the time, which, by the ac- 

 count, appear to have been dense cumulostrati 

 and cumuli. As irregularities in the electric 

 state of the air may be concerned in the 

 production of many disorders of health, the 

 investigation of them becomes additionally 

 interesting. It is much to be wished, that those 

 who have opportunities of making experiments 

 with electrical kites, &c. would attend to what 

 is the general disposition of the clouds, which 

 prevail during different states of the atmospheric 

 Electricity. An instrument likely to throw 

 some light on this subject has been invented by 

 M. de Luc, described in the next section. 



* Clouds of this kind, attaching themselves to the tops of 

 high hills and mountains are noticed by Saussure as being 

 called les nuages parasites; and considered as portending 

 Rain. Refer to Saussure, Voyage dans les Alpes, 2070, 

 and M. Du Car la in Journal de Physique for 1784. Homer. 

 Iliad, v. 522. Theophrastus, De. Sign. Temp., and Aratus, 

 Dios. 188. 



