678 
In form, the hailstones were spheroidal, sensibly bulged at 
the equator, having depressions corresponding to the tropics, 
and the arctic and antarctic circles upon a terrestrial globe, 
and in some, if not all cases, slightly elevated at the poles. 
My attention was specially directed to the latter point, and, 
although in some cases the elevation of the poles was 
insufficient (if any) to warrant a judgment without measure- 
ment, in many, no doubt whatever could be entertained, for 
the polar portions were evidently tending to form points. It 
appeared as if the drop had been originally a perfect sphere, 
which, by rotation on its own axis, had become formed as 
found before congelation. The bulging towards the equator, 
and the elevation of the poles, appeared the complements of 
the depressions above described. The regular form of these 
bodies forbids the notion of gradual accretion in their 
descent, and puts beyond question the fact of their form 
being due to the action of a natural law upon fluid bodies 
placed in the same circumstances. It is to be hoped that 
other observations, or direct experiments, may enable us to 
ascertain whether this is the normal form of drops of water 
falling freely and rapidly through air, and afterwards solidi- 
fied in a vacuum. 
The phenomena of this storm seem to explain the formation 
of hail. Indeed I should not have thought it worthy of gen- 
eral notice, had it not tended to clear up the difficulties which 
appear to surround all attempts at giving a rational account 
of hail. The facts appear to me to teach the following 
theory of hail. 
The clouds before a hail storm are highly charged with 
electricity of an opposite kind to that of the earth at the 
time, and the charge at length reaches such a tension that 
longer retention of it is impossible. These highly electrized 
clouds contain a superabundance of aqueous vapour, upheld 
by them in consequence of their electric condition. When 
