442 Biographical Memoir of William C. Redfield. 



established movements of the atmosphere, or the extraordinary 

 commotions which constituted the chief objects cf his study, hur- 

 ricanes and tempests. But he considered what he called the 

 " dynamics of the atmosphere," as connected with and resulting 

 from the diurnal and annual motions of the earth. While, from the 

 first, I have heartily embraced Redfield's doctrine that ocean gales 

 are progressive whirlwinds, and have further fully believed that 

 he had established their laws or modes of action on an impreg- 

 nable basis, a regard to truth and candour obliges me to say, that 

 I have never been a convert to his views respecting the ultimate 

 causes of storms, especially so far as he assigned for these causes 

 what he denominates the " diurnal and orbitual motions of the 

 earth," but his notions on this point have always appeared to me 

 unsatisfactory. Nor, while I have been impressed with the belief 

 that heat is, in general, by far the most influential of all natural 

 agents in destroying the equilibrium of the atmosphere, and of 

 causing its motions, both in established currents, as the trade 

 winds and the monsoons, and in its violent commotions, as in 

 hurricanes and tornadoes, yet I am compelled to think that but 

 little progress has yet been made in determining its modus ope- 

 randi, or in tracing the connection between changes of tempera- 

 ture and the actual phenomena of winds and storms : — why, for 

 example, the Atlantic gales originate where they do, in the tropi- 

 cal regions — why they first pursue a path to the northwest as far 

 as the latitude of 30 '-' , and then gracefully wheel in parabolic 

 curves towards the northeast, and pursue this course for the re- 

 mainder of their way — why they revolve on their axes and always 

 in one direction — whence they acquire so tremendous a force, 

 especially towards the central parts — why the barometer is so low 

 in the center and so high on the margin of the storm. These and 

 various other points connected with the whirlwind character of 

 storms, seem to me to have met hitherto with but a partial and 

 doubtful solution. The laws constitute th6 true theory of storms : 

 the rest is yet hypothesis. 



Various writers have severally displayed great ingenuity and 

 profound knowledge ofatmospheric phenomena, in their endeavours 

 to solve these problems, but with respect to the causes which lie 

 back of the laws of storms, we still remain to a great degree ia 

 ignorance. Each of the combatants appears to me to be more 

 successful in showing the insufiiciency of the other's views, than 

 in establishing his own. With respect to him who is more par- 



