403 



of the little pith balls, null during 1 the rest of the 

 day, was from three to four lines at the com- 

 mencement of the night ; which is triple what I 

 generally observed in Europe % with the same 

 instrument, in calm weather. Upon the whole, 

 from the 26th of May, the electrical equilibrium 

 of the atmosphere seemed broken. During 

 whole hours the electricity was null ; then be- 

 came very strong, from four to five lines ; and 

 soon after was again imperceptible. The hy- 

 drometer of Deluc continued to indicate great 

 dryness from 33° to 35° *f~, and yet the atmos- 

 phere appeared no longer the same. Amid these 

 perpetual variations of the electric charge of the 

 air, the trees, divested of their foliage, already 

 began to unfold new leaves, and seemed to feel 

 the approach of spring*. 



The variations which we have just described 

 are not peculiar to one year. Every thing in the 

 equinoctial zone has a wonderful uniformity of 

 succession, because the active powers of nature 

 limit and balance each other, according to laws 



* At Salzbourg, at Bareith, and at Jena, in Germany ; in 

 the plain of St. Denis near Paris ; and on the table-land in 

 Castille. See the table of ray experiments on the electricity 

 of the atmosphere in the Journal de Physique, vol. xlviii, 

 p. 193. 



f 68° to 70»8° of the hygrometer of Saussure, Reaumur's 

 therm, from 23° to 26°; which proves the dryness of the air 

 in the equinoctial zone. 



2 d 2 



