Catalogue of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum. 563 
Italian peasantry, it has been said, condemned the use of paragréles and 
lightning-rods, not because they prevented hail-storms, but because they 
caused much and frequent unsettled weather. 
Whether this was only a foolish prejudice of the peasants, we need not 
stop to consider; but, as Mr. Murray is an advocate for the use of para- 
eréles, he must be aware of their effects in fine as well as in foul weather. 
From all he has brought forward respecting electricity, it is manifest that 
when it abounds in the atmosphere in its positive character, we have fine 
weather ; and when it changes to a negative state, the reverse. In the first, 
the air is pure and warm; the aerial spider ascends ; plants secrete their 
juices ; dew is copious, &c. : in the second, the atmosphere is turbid, clouds 
are formed, and rains descend; the flying spider, together with its threads, 
falls to the earth; plants absorb moisture ; and perhaps the tempest rages. 
From these changes it would appear, that as there are oceans of water and 
of air, so there is also what may be called an ocean of electricity constantly 
flowing between the atmosphere and earth, and in quantity alternating from 
the one to the other. When it abounds in the atmosphere, the aqueous 
exhalations from the earth are kept in a state of solution. Though not a 
cloud be visible, the barometer shows that an addition requiring space is 
raised into the air; and it seems that, when this solutive power is arrested, 
water and electricity descend again to the earth, and if after a long course 
of fine weather, often in violent storms of thunder and lightning. 
These few concluding observations are deduced from the author’s state- 
ments ; and, though brief, and not perhaps clearly expressed, are submitted 
to his notice, in order that he may, at some future time, make a more gene- 
ral application of the agency of electricity to define and improve our stock 
of meteorological knowledge. 
Mr. Murray admits that, if the whole country were covered with trees, 
the climate would become more damp; so, if the country were generally 
studded with paragréles, the same effect would follow. The climate of 
Britain, it is very generally believed, has deteriorated, in being much more 
changeable than it was sixty years ago. This has been attributed to the 
extent of planting, to the introduction of green crops, and abolition of 
fallows in our improved system of agriculture. Some think it is owing to 
the accumulation of ice at the north pole; and others, taking a wider 
flight, believe that, as the earth is but a cooled star, it must necessarily 
decrease in its temperature every year. Be these fancies as they may, 
there is much room for improvement in meteorological knowledge; and it 
appears pretty evident that a closer study of atmospheric electricity can 
alone afford the assistance necessary for such improvement. 
Mr. Murray’s intimate acquaintance with experimental and natural philo- 
sophy renders him particularly fit to prosecute such a study ; and, should 
he have leisure to enter upon it, we are certain he will produce something 
as worthy of himself as of the science. — J. M. 
A Descriptive Catalogue of the Contents of the Norfolk and Norwich Museum. 
Part I. comprising Antiquities, Manuscripts, Printed Books, Drawings, 
Engravings, Coins, Medals, Seals, and other Works of Art. Norwich. 
Pamph. small 4to, pp. 46. 1s. 6d. 
This museum has been liberally supported ; and it is gratifying to reflect 
on the pleasure and instruction which local collections of such easy access 
must afford to the neighbourhood. Every county town ought to have such 
a museum, and also a botanic garden and a zoological garden; and the time 
will shortly come when these sources of scientific enjoyment will be as 
common as town-halls and market-places. This tract was accompanied 
with some lithographic sketches by our ingenious and skilful correspondent 
S. Woodward, Esq., author of that useful work A Synoptical Table of Fossils, 
and one of the Committee who have the care of the Institution, and who 
have ordered the publication of this Catalogue. 
