REMARKS ON THE LAW OF STORMS. 295 
jecta membra”’ is far from bemg an unprofitable service. From 
their very nature they were fleeting and evanescent, and often doomed 
to an ephemeral existence, wanting those attributes of bulk and 
density to which many a huge folio and quarto owes its preservation. 
The tract under consideration is worthy of notice on more than one 
account. It gives a minute and apparently trustworthy record of an 
extraordinary natural phenomenon. It exhibits the rude and imper- 
fect outline of that which the youngest in the family of Sciences is 
rapidly ripening into just form and proportions. It points out to the 
meteorologist of the present day, richly furnished with all the means 
and appliances which the genius of the philosopher, aided by the skill 
of the mechanic, can supply, the way in which these phenomena were 
dealt with by those who were utterly without such helps. And in 
the particular case under consideration it will lead to the enquiry 
whether it has not anticipated a theory capable of great results and 
expansion, which has been claimed as the offspring of the present 
generation. : 
The title of this tract is as follows: “The Passage of the Hurri- 
cane from the seaside at Bexhill, in Sussex, to Newingden Level, the 
twentieth day of May, 1729, between nine and ten in the evening, 
containing :— 
(1) An account of the Weather and bearing of the Winds that 
preceded the Hurricane, with the celerity of its circular and pro- 
gressive motion. 
(2) A particular account of the Damage and Devastation of the 
Buildings, Timber, &c., that stood in the way of its course. 
(8) Some observations on the way and manner of its course. 
(4) By way of enquiry, some account attempted of the causes of 
Tempests, Whirlwinds, and Hurricanes. By Richard Budgen. 
The tract is dedicated to “ Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., the President, 
and to the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society,”’ and is accom- 
panied by an “Exact Plan”’ describing the passage of the Tornado or 
Hurricane, which is represented by a spiral line, shewing its breadth, 
and likewise that the gyration was from E. to W. The divisions of 
the several Estates passed over by the Hurricane are carefully deline- 
ated, the whole being a well executed diagram. 
Who or what the said R. B. was, we have no means of knowing. 
He was a dilligent observer of the weather in his way, and he alludes 
to his own and his friends’ journals. He seems to have been a man 
