156 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
really any and every occurrence that ever took place. ‘The wide realm of ether 
becomes God’s book of remembrance, and ‘‘ the book shall be opened” to us 
when these limits that now enthrall us are laid aside and power and liberty is ours 
to go in space wheresoever we wish. 
FRANKLIN’S PLACE IN SCIENCE. 
Franklin’s contributions to science are not limited to his electric discoveries 
and inventions. Out of many such that might be mentioned there are two that 
deserve especial attention. They are (1) the course of storms over the North 
American continent; (2) the effects of the Gulf Stream. 
He relates the circumstances of his meteorological discovery in a letter dated 
February, 1749. ‘‘ You desire to know my thoughts concerning the northeast 
storms beginning to leeward. Some years ago there was an eclipse of the moon 
at nine o’clock in the evening, which I intended to observe, but before night a 
storm blew up at northeast, and continued violent all night and all the next day, the 
sky thick-clouded, dark, and rainy, so that neither moon nor stars could be seen. 
The storm did a great deal of damage all along the coast, for we had accounts of 
it in the newspapers from Boston, Newport, New York, Maryland, and Virginia. 
But what surprised me was to find in the Boston newspaper an account of an ob- 
servation of that eclipse made there, for I thought as the storm came from the 
northeast it must have begun sooner in Boston than with us, and consequently 
prevented such an observation. I wrote to my brother about it, and he informed 
me that the eclipse was over there an hour before the storm began. Since which 
I have made inquiries from time to time of travelers and of my correspondents 
northeastward and southwestward, ana observed in the accounts in the newspapers 
from New England, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and I 
find it to be a constant fact that northeast storms begin to leeward, and are often 
more violent there than to windward. Thus the last October storm, which was 
with you on the 8th, began on the 7th in Virginia and North Carolina, and was 
most violent there.’’ 
Of late years this observation of Franklin’s has been greatly extended. It 
now appears that almost all the chief atmospheric disturbances of this continent 
pass in an easterly or northeasterly direction toward the Atlantic Ocean. Nor do 
they stop on gaining the sea coast. Why should they? In making their way 
over the ocean, though some may disappear, many reach Europe. It follows, 
then, that the approach of these storms, may be foretold by telegraph, and that not 
only in the case of the more intense atmospheric disturbances, but the coming of 
minor ones, such as are popularly designated waves of heat and cold, and varia- 
tions of atmospheric pressure, may be predicted. The introduction of the land 
and ocean telegraphs for this purpose constitutes an epoch in the science of 
meteorology. Ships about to cross the Atlantic may be forewarned as to the 
weather they may expect. An exhaustive examination of the whole subject was 
