126 Additional Objections to Redjield's Theory of Storms. 



inconsistently with his own rule above stated, but I am astonish- 

 ed that he should, without any new experiments or any demon- 

 strations, by an ipse dixit undertake to make a novel application 

 of the gravitating power, and the forces arising from the earth's 

 motion ; and to inform one of the most eminent astronomers of 

 the age that he had committed an error in overlooking their all- 

 important meteorological influence. 



48. Turning from an endless controversy with a writer with 

 whom I differ respecting first principles, I shall address myself 

 to that great school of meteorologists who concur with me in 

 the ^^ grand errof of considering heat and electricity as the 

 principal agents of nature in the production of storms, and who 

 do not concur with Mr. Redfield in considering gravitation and 

 the earth's annual and diurnal motion as the great destroyer of 

 atmospheric equilibrium. So far as it may conduce to truth, I 

 shall incidentally notice some parts of Mr. Redfield's reply ; but 

 my main object will be to show the inconsistency of his theoretic 

 inferences with the laws of nature, and the facts and observations 

 on which those inferences are alleged to be founded. To follow 

 him in detail through all the misunderstandings which have aris- 

 en, and which would inevitably arise during a continued contro- 

 versy, would be an Ixion tasle 



49. Speaking of the trade winds and monsoons, our author 

 states : " It is to the operation and effect of these great and regular 

 moving masses,^' that we are disposed mainly to ascribe the more 

 active and striking meteorological phenomena of every latitude. 

 * * And again, ^^ At these seasons the northern margi?i or par- 

 allels of the trade loinds sweeping toivards the gulf, m,ust neces- 

 sarily come in collision with the great archipelago of islands 

 ivhich skirt the Carribean /Sm," * * * (this Journal, Vol. xx, 

 p. 31,) " ^Ae obstruction which they afford produces a constant 

 tendency to circular evolution.^^ # * * u j^jiggQ masses of atmos- 

 phere thus set into active revolution continue to sweep along the 

 islands with increased rapidity of gyration until they impinge 

 upon the American coasts " We have assumed that the leading 

 storms of the northern and western Atlantic and the Ame7^ican 

 coast originate in detached and gyrating portions of the northern 

 margin of the trade winds, occasioned by the oblique obstruction 

 which is opposed by the islands to the direct progress of this part 

 of the trade, or to the falling of the northerly and eddy wind 



