ON ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA. 



lit 



retains its state of sparkforming concentration, and that it 

 so easily fuses and inflames substances, staying long at each 

 point of its course, and transforming itself easily into light 

 and heat. One portion of the electric fluid separated dur- 

 ing a thunderstorm transforms itself into light, and is dis- 

 sipated in space, at every explosion of a spark, or of a ful-, 

 mination of combustion. The sound of the thunder that Two sounds of 

 bursts toward the Earth is very different too from that of thunder - 

 rolling thunder, and perfectly resembles that of the dis- 

 charge of our electrical batteries. The common people 

 readily distinguish it, and denote it by the name of failing 

 thunder. The opposite winds that blow during a thunder- Oppositewinds 



storm, and are even contrary- to its direction, are the natu- j Urm S a t! >un- 



. der storm. 



ral effect of a strong condensation of the aqueous part of 



the atmosphere. 



A thunderstorm then does not arise from an accumulation Hidrogen gas 

 of hidrogen gas extricated from the Earth, from which none docs not ascend 

 . , i • • t ^1 • • r ,i , from the earth 



is extricated, and rising to the superior regions ot the at- int0 the u r 



mosphere, whither it does not ascend ; this gas never being regions ot trie 

 extricated in its pure state ; and that which is extricated in air ' 

 combination with a combustible substance, whether phos- 

 phorus, sulphur, or carbon, being burned by a concurrence 

 of action on the part of these combustibles as soon as it 

 comes into contact with the air, and no experiment having 

 ever demonstrated the existence of the least bubble of hi- 

 drogen gas in the air at any elevation whatever. Besides, 

 the hidrogen gas we set free in the air does not ascend in it 

 in consequence of its greater lightness, or less specific gra- 

 vity, but becomes incorporated with the air with which it is 

 in contact, remains adherent to it by an affinity of penetra- 

 tion ; and even does not diffuse iteelf in it without difficulty, 

 and in some time, tthen the air is perfectly at rest. Nay 

 more, I have strong reasons for believing, that, at the time Hidrogen gas 

 of p-reat assimilations of water, the affinity of the air for aIone burned 



,./,-.! -IT • P 1 • 1 lI1 tlle air " 



this fluid determines the direct cornoestion or hidrogen gas 

 by the air, without the intervention of any other iirflamma- 

 ble substance. 



The rain too is not the consequence of the condensation Rainnotaqw 

 of aqueous vapour by cold, since the fall of rain always Qm vapour 

 precedes the cooling of the air, while an increa&e of the QQ \^ 



temperature 



