$14 On Correcting the Anomalies of the Atmoafphere by Art. [May 1, ' 
accommodations; the other for that. of 
fuperintending and directing the forma- 
tion of the library. The diligence and 
fuccefs of thefe fub-committees, will be 
beft underftood by an examination of the 
houfe of the Inftitution, and of the li- 
brary. ‘The ftate of the houfe and the 
accommodations given tothe proprietors 
and fubfcribers, will fpeak futhciently -: 
the one, and the value; and the utility of 
the books felected for the library, will 
fpeak the induttry, talents, and attention, 
paid by the other to the accomplifhment 
ef an objet fo truly defirable in the me- 
tropolis. 
—ia 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AVING long confidered your work 
H as the moft eligible channel, from 
its refpectability and great circulation, 
in which to circulate enquiries on me- 
terology, and through which to communi- 
eaté any hints which may forward this 
{cience; I have regretted that none of 
your ingenious and obferving corre- 
{pondents have publicly noticed the 
memoir inferted in your laft July Maga- 
zine (vol. xxi. p. 525) on the expedients 
reforted to in France, for diffipating or 
preventing ftorms of hail &c. and the 
mnportant note at page 524; ftating, that 
a plan for correcting and regulating the 
anomalies of the atmofphere in general; 
was announced at Leicefter in the year 
1794, founded chiefly on the application 
of electric conductors*. I am {ure, Sir, 
that you would he performing a moft 
acceptable piece of fervice to all thofe 
engaged in fuch enauiries, if you cquld 
procure information of the particulars of 
the plan. laft_alluded to, and communi- 
eate the fame in your Magazine. 
In the mean time, I beg to call the 
attention ef your readers to fome curious 
invefigations on this fubject, by John 
Williams, efq. in hig.work lately publith- 
ed “ On the Climate of Great. Britain”: 
this writer fuppofes it eftablifhed by his 
experiments, that the leaves and pro- 
jecting points of trees and vegetables, 
are principally employed by natvre, in 
diminijhing or altering the fiate of at- 
nofpheric electricity: at the fame tine 
that the aqueous evaporation from the 
leaves of trees, plants, graffes, &c. caufes 
fogs, mifls, and clouds, owing to the defi- 
ciency of eleétricity therein: it refuits 
from his experiments, that the leaves of 
* Vide alfo Skinner's Prefent State of 
Peru, p. 42. Peer: 
different kinds of trees, &c. are endowed 
with very different powers for evapora- 
ting moifture, and that the exotic trees 
and plants, fo greatly mcreafed and cul- 
tivated in this country in modern times, 
poilefs vatily greater powers of evapora- 
ting, even when naturalized here, and 
{pread their leaves earlier in the fpring, 
than our native trees and plants: and 
thefe circumftances he contends, joined 
to the general increafe of plantations, 
hedges, and trees, and of permanent 
pafture and crops of exotic or highly eva- 
porating plants, in place of arable land, 
tarmerly covered with vegetables only 
_ during a few of the fummer months, and 
when in fallow not at all; together with 
the converfion of commons and waties 
beariug low evaporating plants, to carry+ 
ing increafed guantities df fuch as potlels 
this property in an high degree; have 
operated, and particularly within thefe 
thirty-five years paft, a moit effential and 
perceptible change in the atmofphere 
and climate of this kingdom: occafioning 
the damp, cold, and late {prings, and 
fummers, and the blighted crops, parti- 
cularly ef fruits and of wheat, of which 
complaints have been fo loud and fre- 
quent of late. _ “An 
‘Befides recommending the correcting 
the evil as far as may be, by a@ difufe 
of fuch broad and early-leaving © exotic 
trees and plants as can be fpared; fub- 
flituting the oak, afh, and beach, in place 
of the elm: and the holly in hedges, in 
place of the hawthorn, (whofe eyaporas. 
tion from the fame weight of branches 
‘and leaves, is ttated to be nine times as 
great as the former) and the leffening of 
the furface of permanent. pafture, (a 
thing much to be wifhed for, in other 
refpecis), Mr. Williams fuggefis the pro- 
priety of attempting by art to fupply 
the deficient quantity of electricity, im 
occafional. blue mifts, fogs, and haze, 
which now fo often imtereept the fun’s 
rays and caufe vegetation to languifh; 
by which eleétrizatian, according to, his 
theory, thefe vapours are rendered capaz 
ble of being difolved er rendered. trantf- 
parent in the air, by the heat of the tun. 
The method he propofes is, to con< 
firu& fuch a number of electric mills 19 
different parts of the country, each cons 
taining many revolving cylinders or 
plates of glafs, and furnifhed with rubbers, 
whofe electricity is to bescollected in an 
upright infulated bar, extending above 
the building, and terminating in a large 
lamp, or a feries of lamps and points, for 
diffuing the electric fluid in the furs 
rounding 
