The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

THE NEW JUDGE.

It is with great pleasure we announce the eleva-
tion of Mr. Sergeant Shee to the judicial bench.
The Lord Chancellor yesterday offered to the
learned Sergeant the seat vacant in the Court of
Queen's Bench by the demise of Mr. Justice Wight-
man, and the distinguished advocate, we are happy
to say, accepted the appointment.
The learned gentleman will be sworn in before
the Lord Chancellor, as one of her Majesty's
judges, as soon as possible after the conclusion of
the cases he is to-day conducting in the Court of
Common Pleas.

The appointment has given the greatest satisfac-
tion both to the bar and the public at large.

On the Causes of the Late Gales.

TO TILE EDITOR OP THE SUN.

SlR,—The immense destruction of human life
and of property during the three first days of this
month by a series of storms—there having been
62 bodies picked up at Holyhead alone—induces
me to solicit a portion of your space to examine the
question of the causes of such gales, and the po3-
sibility of foreseeing them and guarding against
their consequences.

In a recent letter from Paris it has been publicly
stated that M. Babinet, in his meteorological bul-
letin, declares that, " when the barometer shows us
a diminution of pressure in the air in various places,
and an increase in another, it may be safely argued
that a mass of air has accumulated in the latter
place, to the detriment of the others ; so that there
are, so to say, vacant spaces into which new air
will rush, causing storms and gales, &c." " This
is, in point of fact, the whole theory by which
storms may be predicted a few days beforehand,"
says the writer of the statement.
Now I wish to observe that M, Babinet builds
on a fallacy in this theory, which, until it. be ex
posed, can only mislead all persons who attempt to
predict storms from a falling barometer. The re-
sult Is that the predictions are often false and value-
less; ships go to sea in spite of them, and often
suffer accordingly. There is no proof that when
the barometer falls very generally, but in some
places does not so fall, or not so extensively, that
there,' any " mass of air has accumulated" in the
latter places. Ail that really is proved is that,
in those places where the pressure becomes
less, the air has changed, not its volume,
but its character or quality ; and in those other
places where the pressure remains unchanged
the quality of the air remains the same, without
any increase in quantity. Indeed there is no means
by which it should increase in quantity, unless new
air were created. When evaporation has gone on
until the air is nearly saturated with aqueous
vapour any change of temperature to a lower degree
will condense that vapour, and may cause it to be
precipitated to the earth in the farm of hail, rain,
or snow. It then occurs that vacant spaces are
formed, and the air in the vicinity rushes into those
spaces to restore the equilibrium of the fluid—
which rushes produce storms, &c. It is not, there-
fore, that the dry air has accumulated in any one
place, as M. Babinet argues, but that the moist air
being deposited leaves a vacancy to be filled up by
the neighbouring dry air. That this is so is obvious
from the hydrostatic fact that the lighter or aqueous
air must ascend (if it be not condensed into rain,
&c.) whenever the dry air meets it ; because pure
dry atmospheric air is much heavier than air sur-
charged with aqueous vapour, and of course falls to
the surface of the earth. Thus falling, while rush-
ing in to fill up the vacancy that has been caused
by the deposition of the moist air, we feel the effect
on the surface in the form of storms ; and where the
vacancy has been excessive, by much heavy rain, as
in the tropics, hurricanes becomes irresistible. In a
letter, dated 2d December, it has been stated by
Admiral Fitzroy that "very different views of at-
mospheric commotions or changes are taken by able
men," and this fact shows thre.; these phenomena
have been hitherto treated on some wrong principle.
The loose way in which such statements as I have
exposed have been made public, is one cause of the
present defective knowledge on this subject. With
your permission, I will now point to a few strange
errors published recently by our great meteoro-
logical Admiral. He states (2d December) that,
"when currents [of air] act against each other,
(gravity restraining upward motion) their tendency
is to cause more or less of rotation." But this can-
not be correct ; for the lighter current—that con-
taining most aqueous vapour—must ascend, beyond
all doubt, and the heavier, or drier current, must
remain on the surface of the earth. The Admiral's
statement could only be true in the case of the two
currents being exactly the same in weight and con-
dition. But, then, there can be no reason why they
should move at all, since their motion is proved to
arise from their being in different conditions. So
far, therefore, as the rotatory, or cyclone, system, or
theory, is founded on this idea of the Admiral's, it
is illusory. He says, again (Dec. Bth), " Wnen a
principal current of wind, or a large combination of
such chief aerial streams, is passing rapidly over any
place an apparently straight-lined gale is the tem-
porary result. Bat when one main current impinges
on another, more or lass rotation ensues." The
latter clause of this statement is, I submit, opposed
to the laws of gravity, as I have shown that the
heavier current must displace the other.
I will now come to the true cause which produces
the rotatory motion of the air that we often do
observe in storms, but not nearly so often as the
cyclone theorists pretend. if a current of air be
passing in a given direction, say from the south
towards the north, to fill up a vacancy formed over
a given portion of the earth; and, while it is so
passing, it reach some spot where, to the north-east
of the line of motion, another vacancy be formed
suddenly, it will often cease to flow in the direction
due north, and will be turned to the north-east,
The result will be a curvilinear direction, or change
in the wind, from south to song:l-west. And, then,
if a fall of rain, &c., occur on a sudden in a direction
45 degrees more to the east, the dry air will rush
thereto and the wind will become due west. so,
again, it may shift or fly round to the north-west,
which is the usual case with what are termed
westerly cyclones in this part of the world. It is
manifest that, as these conditions do not always
exist, all gales are not cyclones; a fact beyond
dispute.
I will avoid further intruding on your space at
present, and defer my explanation of the true origin
of storms in general, the above being the proximate
causes only.
R. J. MORRISON, Commander, R.N.

Royal Free Hospital, Gray's-inn-road.