90S 
W I L 
W I N 
W I 1ST 
WILL AND TESTAMENT, in law. 
Every person capable of binding himself by 
contract, is capable of making a will. 
Also a male infant of the age of 14 years 
and upwards, and female of 12 years and up- 
wards, are capable of making a will respecting 
personal estates only. , , ' 
But a married woman caiinot make a will 
unless a power is reserved in’V marriage set- 
tlement ; but wherever personal property, 
however, is given to a .married woman for her 
sole and separate use, she may dispose of it 
by will. 
^If a feme sole makes her will, and after- 
wards marries, such marriage is a legal revo- 
cation of the will. 
Wills are of two kinds, written and verbal ; 
the former are most usual and secure. 
It is not absolutely necessary that a wili 
should lie witnessed ; and a testament of 
< battles, written in the testator’s own hand, 
though it should have neither the testator’s 
name nor seal to it, nor witnesses present at 
his publication, will be good, provided suffi- 
cient proof can be had that it is his hand-writ- 
ing. Gilb. 260. 
By stat. 29 Car. II. c. 3, all devises of 
lands, and tenements, shall not only be in 
writing, but shall also be signed by the party 
so devising the same, or by some other per- 
son in his presence, and by his express direc- 
tion, and shall be witnessed and subscribed 
in the presence of the person devising, by 
three or four credible witnesses, or else the 
devise will be entirely void, and the land will 
descend to the heir at law. 
A will, even if made beyond sea, bequeath 
ing land in England, must be attested by 
three witnesses. 2 Pere Wins. 293. 
A will, however, devising copyhold land, 
does not require to be witnessed : it is suffi- 
cient to declare the uses of a surrender of 
such copyhold land made to the use of the 
will. The party to whom the land is given 
becomes entitled to it by means ot the sur- 
render, and not by the will. 2 Atk. 37. 
A codicil is a supplement to a will, or an 
addition made by the person making the 
same, annexed to, and to be taken as part of, 
the will itself, being for its explanation or al- 
teration, to add something to, or take some- 
thing from, the former disposition, and which 
may also be either written or verbal, under 
the same restrictions as regard wills. 
If two wills are found, and it does not ap- 
pear which was the former or latter, boih will 
be void; but if two codicils are found, and it 
cannot be ascertained which was the first, but 
the same thing is devised to two persons, both 
ought to divide ; but where either wills or 
codicils have dates, (he latter is considered 
ns valid, and revokes the former. See Ad- 
ministrator-, Executor, and Legacy. 
Will with a wisp, or Jack with a lan- 
ihorn. See Meteor. 
WILLICHIA, a genus of plants of the 
class and order triandria monogynia. The 
calyx is four-cleft ; corolla ditto ; capsule 
two-celled, many-seeded. There is one spe- 
cies, an annual of Mexico. 
WILLUGHBEIA, a genus of plants of the 
pentandria monogynia class and order. It is 
contorted; corolla salver-shaped; stigma 
headed ; fruit one or two celled, berry or 
pumpkin. There are two species, trees of 
Guiana. 
WIND, a sensible current in the atmo- 
sphere. The motions of the atmosphere are 
subject, in a certain degree, to the same laws 
as those of denser fluids. If we remove a 
portion of the water in a large reservoir, we 
see the surrounding water flow in to restore 
the equilibrium. If we impel, in any direc- 
tion, a certain portion, an equal quantity 
moves in a contrary direction from the same 
cause. If a portion, being rarified by heat, 
or condensed by cold, ascends or descends, 
a counter- current in another part is the ne- 
cessarv and visible result. It is thus in the 
atmosphere. No wind can blow without a 
counter-current in an opposite direction ; or 
arise without a previous destruction ot the 
equilibrium, the general causes of which afera 
1. The ascent of the air over certain tracts,-: 
heated by the sun. 2. Evaporation causing, 
an actual increase in the volume of the at|; 
mosphere. 3. Rain, &c. causing an acUibl 
decrease in volume by the destruction ot the 
vapour. Currents thus produced may be 
permanent and general, extending oyer a 
large portion of the globe; periodical as in the 
Indian ocean ; or variable, and as it were oc- 
casional, or at least uncertain, as the winds in 
temperate climates. 
General or permanent winds blow always 
nearly in the same direction. In the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans, under the equator, the 
wind is almost always easterly ; it blows, in- 
deed, in this direction, on both sides of the 
equator to the latitude of 28°. More to the 
northward of the equator, the wind generally 
blows between the north and east ; and the 
farther north we proceed, we find the wind to 
blow to a more northern direction ; more to 
the southward of the equator it blows be- 
tween the south and east ; and the farther to 
the south, the more it comes in that direction. 
Between the parallels of 28° and 40° south 
lat. in that tract which extends from 30° west 
to 100° east longitude from London, the wind 
is variable, but it most frequently blows from 
between the N. W. and S. W. so that the 
outward-bound East India ships generally run 
down their easting on the parallel of 36° 
south. 
Navigators have given the appellation of 
trade-winds to these general winds. 
Periodical winds. Those winds, which 
blow in a certain direction for a time, and at 
certain stated seasons change and blow for an 
equal space of time from the opposite point of 
the compass, are called monsoons. During 
the months of April, May, June, July, Au- 
gust, and September, the w ind blows from 
southward over the whole length of the Indian 
ocean, viz. between the parallels of 28° N. 
and 28° S. lat. and between the eastern coast 
of Africa and the meridian which passes 
through the western part of Japan ; but in 
the other months, October, November, De- 
cember, January, February, and March, the 
winds in all the northern parts of the Indian 
ocean shift round, and blow directly contrary 
to the course they held in the former six 
months. For some days before and after the 
change, there are calms, variable winds, and 
tremendous storms, with thunder, &c. 
Philosophers differ in their opinions re- 
specting the cause of these periodical winds ; 
but a more probable theory of the general 
trade-winds is, that they are occasioned by 
the beat of the sun in the regions about the 
equator, where the air is heated to a greater 
degree, and consequently rarefied more, than 
in the more northern parts of the globe. -I 
From this expansion of the air in these tro- J 
pical regions, the denser air., in higher lati- 
tudes, rushes violently towards the equator | 
from both sides of the globe. By this con- 1 
flux of the denser air, without any other cir- g 
cumstances intervening, a direct northerly 
wind would be produced in the northern 
tropic, and a southern one in the other tropic ; 
but as the earth's diurnal motion varies the f 
direct influence ot the sun over the surface of 
the earth, and as by that motion this influ- 
ence is communicated from east to west, an 
easterly wind would be produced it this in- 1 
iluence alone prevailed. On account ot the | 
co-operation of these two causes at the same 
time, the trade-winds blow naturally horn the ; 
N. 1C. on the north, and from the S. L. on the £ 
south of the Line, throughout the whole year;® 
but as the sun approaches nearer the tropic I 
of Cancer in our summer season, the point | 
towards which these winds are directed will 
not be invariably the same, but they will m- 
cline more towards the north in that season, 
and more towards the south in our winter. 
The land and sea breezes in the tropical I 
climates may be considered as partial inter— 1 
ruptions of the general trade-winds; and the 
cause of these it is not very difficult to ex-j 
plain. From water being a belter conductor! 
of heat than earth, the water is always of a 
more even temperature. During the day, 
therefore, the land becomes considerably 
heated, the air rarefied, and consequently in 
the afternoon a breeze sets in from the sea,, 
which is less heated at that time than the 
land. On the other hand, during the night 
the earth loses its surplus heat, while -the_sea 
continues more even in its temperature. To- 
wards morning, therefore, a breeze regularly 
proceeds from the land towards the ocean, 
where the air is warmer, and consequently 
more rarefied, than on shore. 
The cause of the monsoons is not so well 
understood as that of the general trade-windi 
but what has been just remarked, suggests, at 
least, a probable theory omthe subject. It is 
well known, that at the equator the changes 
of heat and cold are occasioned by the di- 
urnal motion of the earth, and that the dif- 
ference between the beat of the day and the 
night is almost all that is perceived in those 
tropical regions; whereas in the polar re- 
gions the great vicissitudes of heat and cole 
are occasioned by the annual motion of tin" 
globe, which produces the sensible change 
of winter and summer; consequently, if the 
heat of the sun was the only cause of the va- 
riation of the winds, the changes, if any, that 
would be produced by those means in equa 
torial regions, ought to be diurnal only, bu 
the changes about the pole should be expe 
rienced only once in six months. As th< 
effects arising from the heat of the sun upoi 
the air must be greater at the equator that 
at the poles, the changes of the wind arising 
from the expansion of the air by the suit 
rays must be more steady in equatorial tha 
in polar regions. The incontrovertible evi 
dence of navigators proves this truth, tha 
winds are more variable towards the poles 
and more constant towards the equator. Bu 
in summer, the continual heat, even in hig 
latitudes, comes to be sensibly felt, and pr 
duces changes 011 the wind, which are di 
tkictly perceptible. In our own cold region 
