Quitting, therefore, the region of the planets, we will come down to the
surface of our own globe, to seek for some more palpable evidence of the
truth of the following propositions:
1st. That space is filled with an elastic fluid, possessing inertia
without weight.
2d. That the parts of this fluid in the solar system circulate, after
the manner of a vortex, with a direct motion.
3d. That there are also secondary vortices, in which the planets are
placed.
4th. That the earth is also placed in a vortex of the ethereal medium.
5th. That the satellites are passively carried around their primaries,
with the ethereal current, and have no rotation relative to the ether,
and therefore they always present the same face to their primaries, and
have no vortex.
The consideration of these propositions involves many others, many
difficulties, many apparent anomalies and contradictions, which should
bespeak for such a theory,--the offspring of observation, without the
aid afforded by the knowledge of others, and of toil without leisure,--a
large share of indulgence. With this we will close these preliminary
remarks, and present our theory of the physical cause which disturbs
the equilibrium of our atmosphere, and which appears the principal agent
in the production of storms, in the following words:
The dynamical axis of the terral vortex passes through the centre of
gravity of the earth and moon, and is continually circulating over the
earth's surface in both hemispheres, in a spiral,--its latitude and
longitude, at any particular time, being dependent,--
1st. On the relative mass of the moon.
2d. On the inclination of the axis of the vortex to the earth's axis.
3d. On the longitude of the ascending node of the vortex on the lunar
orbit.
4th. On the longitude of the ascending node of the lunar orbit on the
ecliptic.
5th. On the eccentricity of the lunar orbit at the time.
6th. On the longitude of the perigee of the lunar orbit at the time.
7th. On the moon's true anomaly at the time.