It is not intended that this astounding statement should be received
without some grains of allowance; but a very elegant and scientific
writer, who adopts it without hesitation, adds, "We can from this
crystal sphere [of water] evoke heat, light, electricity in enormous
quantities, and beyond these we can see powers or forces for which, in
the poverty of our ideas and our words, we have not names."
Flashes of electricity have been detected, during warm, close weather,
issuing from some species of plants. The Tuberose and African Marigold
have been seen to emit these mimic lightnings. (Goethe is the
authority for this.) To atmospheric electricity we doubtless owe the
coruscations of the Aurora, one of the most beautiful of our meteors.
The usual forms of lightning are the zigzag or forked sharply
defined,--the sheet-lightning, illuminating a whole cloud, which it
seems to open,--heat-lightning, not emanating from any cloud, but
apparently diffused through the air and without report. There are also
fireballs which shoot across the sky, leaving a train often visible
for seconds and minutes. These last, when they project any masses to
the earth, are termed aerolites.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48