Additional Objections to RedfieUVs Theory of Storms. 131 



the very idea of those moments of awful stillness which place him, 

 in the central vortex of the hunHcane." (Franklin Journal, Vol. 

 SIX, p. 116, and this Journal, Vol. xx, p. 47.) 



64. Amid the neutralization of evidence which inevitably re- 

 sults from the conflicting statements above quoted, I will endeavor 

 to point out the results which ought to ensue if the inferences of 

 the advocates of the whirlwind doctrine were correct. 



65. When a rotary motion is communicated to a solid by a 

 force applied to any part whatever, the tangential velocity at any 

 point will be directly as its distance from the centre. In a fluid,, 

 when the force productive of rotation is applied at any point re- 

 mote from the axis, the motion at the axis can be no quicker than 

 in the case of a solid, but may be slower, since the parts do not 

 of necessity move simultaneously. In the case of a fluid body 

 kept in motion by a momentum resulting from forces previously 

 applied, as in the instance of a Redfield whirlwind, any zone, 

 which has been made to revolve by the direct application of force, 

 will be retarded until it causes, in the adjoining zones, a due pro- 

 portionable velocity. This will not be attained until the whole 

 rotates like a solid. There is however this difference, that the 

 external portions of the whirling zone being pressed by the cen- 

 trifugal force against other portions of the same fluid, the one 

 will conflict with the other, so as to cause the velocity to be com- 

 municated and to lessen outwards from the zone (in which the 

 moving power is or has been applied) till it becomes insensible. 

 This result must ensue the more speedily, since the momentum 

 receives no reinforcement, while the mass which it actuates in- 

 creases with the square of the distance from the axis. 



66. It follows that at any station over which, or near which the 

 centre of a whirlwind shall pass, there will be a breeze scarcely 

 perceptible at first, but which will strengthen gradually into a 

 gale of preeminent fury. Subsequently a declension must take 

 place until the centre arrives ; here again there would be no 

 perceptible wind. The centre having moved away, the wind 

 must increase again to a maximum of force and then decline to 

 a breeze. 



67. Mr. Hedfield alleges, that the storm of August 17th, 1830, 

 whirling to the left, travelled from southwest to northeast at the 

 rate nearly of twenty seven miles per hour ; that its greatest di- 

 ameter was from five hundred to six hundred miles ; that of its 



