Excerpt from Notices of Tornadoes, &C Peltier concurs with me in the Opinion that the tornado super sedes lightning by affording a conducting communication between the terrestrial surface and thunder cloud: but he conceives that the cloud by its descent becomes the conductor through which the electric discharge is accomplished: whereas agreeably to the explanation which I suggested, a vertical blast of air and every body carried aloft contributes to form the means of communication. Agreeably to this suggestion the electric fluid does not pass by conduction, but convection, as explained in my letter of the 26th ult. That the idea of the Parisian savant that the cloud acts as a conductor is untenable, must be evident, since the light matter of which a cloud is constituted could not be stationary be tween the earth and sky in Opposition to that upward aerial cur rent of which the violence is proved to be sufficient to elevate not only water, but other bodies specifically much heavier than this liquid. SO much of the narrative of Peltier as relates to the repulsion between the thunder clouds, is inconsistent with any other facts on record respecting tornadoes which have come within my knowledge. It should be recollected that this part of the story does not depend upon the observation of the author, and may be due to the imagination of the witnesses whom he examined. The, most important part of his evidence is that respecting the effect upon the trees, which appears to me to demonstrate that they were the medium of a tremendous electrical current. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.