688 
The whole aspect of the Glocester storm shows it to be 
extraordinary, and both the quantity of water and the 
continuance and perfection of the vacuum are explained 
by the statement that " the thunder was remarked to roll 
in one continued roar for upwards of an hour and a-half ; 
during which time and long afterwards the flashes of 
lightning followed each other in rapid and uninterrupted 
succession." This coincides exactly with M. Testu's account : 
" the lightnings flashed on all sides, the loud claps were 
incessant, and the Thermometer fell to 21° Fahrenheit."* 
There can be little doubt that electricity maintains aloft 
the enormous weight of water floating in the atmosphere as 
clouds, and that the quantity upheld is proportional to the 
electric tension. This latter may be inferred (when dis- 
charge takes place) from the character of the storm, and 
assuredly the Glocester ice-storm indicates an amount of 
electric tension which seldom happens in England. The 
volume of water descending at once appears, therefore, 
abundantly accounted for. The precipitation of this water 
in masses is an instantaneous consequence of electric 
discharge, and the rapidity with which the electric dis- 
charges followed each other in this instance accounts for 
cold enough to solidify any quantity of water which we 
can conceive to be precipitated. 
I am able to add a few facts illustrative and corroborative 
of the views already advanced, and there is little doubt 
that a large body of similar observations may be made if 
the Members of the Society will bear the subject in 
mind. I shall be glad to receive accounts of similar 
occurrences, and to communicate them to the Society. 
During the night of the 30th of June, 1856, a severe 
frost occurred in the neighbourhood of Wakefield, in places. 
A plot of early potatoes, belonging to myself, in vigorous 
* Pouillet found that the temperature of hailstones varied from 31 degrees to 
25 degrees. — Midler's Physics, p. 545. English Edition. 
