ctric activity, and winds, in
_different strata_ and directions, occur, with or without cumulus, or scud
condensation, according to their activity, and the proportion of moisture
of evaporation they may contain.

I am well aware that the various received theories of meteorology
attribute condensation to the action of cold, mingling of colder strata,
etc. But I think that view will have to be abandoned.

It assumes that moisture is evaporated and held in the atmosphere by
latent heat, which is given out during condensation, and actually warms
the surrounding atmosphere. Thus, the Kew Committee undertook to explain
the development of greater heat, at the elevation where they, in fact,
found the counter-trade. But how unphilosophical to suppose a portion of
the air or vapor contained in it, can give out to another adjoining
portion _more heat than is necessary to produce an equilibrium_. This can,
indeed, be done by experiment--_but the experiment is made with currents
of electricity_. How unphilosophical, too, to talk of latent heat in
connection with evaporation, _at the lowest temperature known_.
Meteorologists must revise their opinions on the subject of condensation.
This latent heat has never been actually met with; on the contrary, the
most sudden and complete condensations of the vapor of the atmosphere are
attended by as sudden and extraordinary productions of cold, and
consequent hail, and the connection between condensation and electricity
is shown by too many facts to permit the old theory to stand.

_Fog never forms with the thermometer below 32 deg.._ It is mainly a _summer
condensation_, especially high fog. It has been attributed to the cooling
effect of an atmosphere colder than the earth, but it often occurs when
the earth is the coldest, and when the vapor, as it rises, is colder than
the air, and could not give out heat to a warmer medium. (See American
Journal of Science, vol. xliv. p. 40.) Again, it is not mere condensation,
but a formation of globules or vesicles, hollow, and the air expanded in
them, by means of which they float like a soap bubble which contains the
warm air of the breath. Is not every vesicle a model shower, positively
electrified on the outside, negatively in the center, or the reverse,
according to the strata, with the air expanded in the middle by the excess
of heat which negative electricity detains? Look at them, as they attach
themselves to the slender nap of the cloth you w