Objections to Mr. Redjield's Theory of Storms. 143 



14. He alleges that all fluid matter has a tendency to run into 

 whirls or circuits, when subject to the influence of unequal or 

 opposing forces ; and that, in this way, a rotative movement of 

 unmeasured violence is sometimes produced. 



15. If this were true, evidently whirlpools or vortices of some 

 kind, ought to be as frequent in the ocean, as agreeably to his ob- 

 servation, they are found to be in the atmosphere. The aqueous 

 Gulf Stream, resulting from the impetus of the trade winds, ought 

 to produce as many vortices m its course as the aerial currents de- 

 rived from the same source ; especially as in the ocean, the great 

 laws of gravitation have full liberty to act, without any important 

 interference from calorific changes, to which the advocates of the 

 agency of such changes in producing wind, will not ascribe much 

 efficacy where non-elastic fluids are in question. 



16. There are few vortices or whirlpools in the ocean, because 

 there are in very few cases descending currents, to supply which 

 the confluence of the surrounding water is requisite. Of course 

 vertical currents cannot arise from any imaginable cause. 



17. The conflict of opposing or unequal forces does not produce 

 curvilinear motion unless there be a successive deflection ; as in 

 the case where it results from centripetal force, or the influence of 

 gravity upon a projectile. If one of two opposite forces be less 

 than the other, retardation will ensue, and a lateral current or 

 currents, carrying off" the excess of momentum. If currents en- 

 counter each other obliquely, a diagonal current will result. I 

 doubt if a whirlpool ever takes place without a centripetal force 

 resulting from a vacuity. 



18. But the author has not informed us how these unequal or 

 opposing forces are generated in the atmosphere. Without any 

 assigned cause, he appeals to '^certain unequal or opposiiig forces- 

 by ivhich a rotative movement of unmeasured violence is produ- 

 ced ;" this rotative movement, although alleged to be an eflect 

 in the first instance, is stated subsequently to be " the only known 

 cause of violent and destructive winds or tempests." 



19. In a memoir on the causes of tornadoes, and in some subse- 

 quent communications published in the Transactions of the Amer'- 

 ican Philosophical Society, and republished in this Journal, vari- 

 ous facts and arguments were mentioned tending to prove that 

 the proximate cause of the phenomena of a tornado is an ascend- 

 ing current of air, and the afliux of wind from all points of the 

 compass to supply the deficiency thus created. 



