THE BIRTH, LIFE, AND DEATH OF A STORM. 
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THE BIRTH, LIFE, AND DEATH OF A STORM.* 
By ROBERT H. SCOTT, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 
W HEN we are asked to give an account of the birth of a 
storm, we are reluctantly compelled to admit that our 
storms are, almost without exception, foundlings, and that, as 
the precise conditions to which they owe their origin are, for 
the most part, shrouded in uncertainty, warm discussions at 
times arise as to the parish from whence they have set out on 
their wanderings. 
Dove said long ago that storms were due to the interference 
of the Polar current or the East wind with the Equatorial current 
or West wind. He gave the winds these names, because on his 
views the east winds really consisted of air flowing from the 
North or South Pole towards the equator, which was modified 
in the direction of its motion by its change of latitude ; while 
west winds were really due to air endeavouring to make its way 
back to the Pole from the equator, whose course was in its turn 
modified by its moving from lower to higher latitudes. To the 
conflict of these two grand currents, east and west winds, Dove 
attributed all our storms ; but he did not attempt to explain 
how the currents came into collision. 
These views, however correct on their cosmical principles, have 
been superseded, of late years at least, as regards the explanation 
of our winds, by the modern views of the relation between the 
wind and the distribution of barometrical pressure ; but, unfortu- 
nately, we still remain in comparative ignorance of the ultimate 
causes to which this distribution of pressure, or the rise and fall 
of the barometer, are due. To give some conception of the exist- 
ing difference of opinion on these fundamental principles of our 
science, I may say that while some authorities maintain that 
the force of the wind in a hurricane is caused by the amount of 
barometrical disturbance which accompanies it, others hold 
* Founded on a Lecture delivered by the Author at the LondonTnstitu- 
tion, February 3, 1879. 
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