Tornadoes of Kansas and Missouri. 
621 
1879.] 
As the atmosphere is carried around with the earth in its 
daily revolution, the greater the elevation the greater the 
velocity eastward. A stream descending from the upper 
regions of the atmosphere would be impelled by its inertia 
when it reached the earth in an eastward direction. As 
parallels of latitude decrease in diameter from the equator 
to the poles, every parallel, going from the equator, revolves 
with less velocity than the preceding one. Should a portion 
of the atmosphere become saturated and unduly heated at 
the surface of the earth, it would be forced up by colder and 
heavier air. Currents of air would be formed blowing toward 
a common centre. In the northern hemisphere those from 
the north would naturally find the centre moving eastward 
with a superior velocity, and, falling behind, be projected 
toward the west, while those from the south would find the 
centre moving eastward with an inferior velocity, and be 
projected toward the east. The north half of the tornado 
would be impelled westward, and the south half eastward, 
establishing the whirl or vortex, which is a low barometer. 
The currents descending into the vortex on the south side 
having a greater impulse eastward, from the earth’s rotation, 
than the impulse of the currents westward descending on the 
north side, the tornado- would be deflected toward the north- 
east. The liberation of the latent heat by the condensation 
of the vapour would be the “ steam power of the air ” to 
drive up the ascending current ; large amounts of electricity 
would be developed for destructive purposes, and the tornado 
would sweep on its path to overwhelm towns, crush forests, 
lick up rivers, and make the solid earth tremble. 
The Thermal theory only uses heat, under cosmical con- 
ditions, as the motive power, leaving much of the phenomena 
to be accounted for by electricity and other destructive 
agencies. 
Modesty should cover all theories of these awful but occult 
visitors like a garment. A few golden threads are in our 
scientific fingers, but the theoretic fabric for tornadoes is 
still largely to be woven. Do not let us imitate that great 
German scholar, who in his mature years found the works 
of his earlier life the hardest to answer. 
There need not be any special alarm about tornadoes. 
Like great comets, they seldom appear, but on that account 
are the more noticeable. Destructive tornadoes only occur 
during dry seasons, and then, in this latitude, only on the 
last few days of May or on the first few days of June. The 
greatest tornado on record occurred June 3, i860, the year 
of the drought. It passed over a large portion of Iowa and 
