As it is important that we should have a clear view of the character of the ether, we will revert to the principle we have advocated, viz.: that in equal spaces there are equal momenta. What the ether wants in inertia, is made up by its motion or specific heat, considering in this case inertia to stand for weight when compared with ponderable matter; so that to raise an equivalent amount of inertia of ether to the same temperature as atmospheric air, will require as much more motion or specific heat as its matter is less. And this we conceive to be a law of space in relation to all free or gaseous matter. To apply it to solids would require a knowledge of the amount of force constituting the cohesion of the solid.
But there is another principle which modifies these effects. We have already adverted to the action of the tangential current of the vortex forcing the outer layers of the atmosphere into waves. These waves will be interfered with by the different vortices, sometimes being increased and sometimes diminished by them.[6] If these waves are supposed very wide, (which would be the case in the attenuated outside layers of the atmosphere,) the action of the vortex will be greater in its passage over a place, which at the time corresponded to the depression point of the wave, that is, to the line of low barometer; because here there would be less resistance to overcome in the passage of the ether from the surface of the earth into space; so that we may conceive each vortex making a line of storms each day around the earth, separated by less disturbed intervals. After the formation of the storm, it of course has nothing to do with the vortex that produced it; it travels in the general direction of the local atmosphere of the place--in intratropical latitudes westward, in extratropical latitudes eastward. If, therefore, the disturbance forms at the place of observation, there will probably be no storm; but further eastward its action would be more apparent or violent. It is impossible, of course, to lay down any general description which shall meet every case. It is a knowledge that can only be acquired by observation, and then is not readily or easily communicated. There are many contingencies to be allowed for, and many modifying causes to keep sight of, to enter into which would only be tedious; we shall, therefore, confine ourselves to the prominent phenomena.