published his theory of storms, of which Professor Olmsted gives the following

account:

"I chanced, at that period, to meet him for the first time on board a steamboat on the way from New York to New Haven. A stranger accosted me, and modestly asked leave to make a few inquiries respecting some observations I had recently published in the American Journal of Science on the subject of hailstorms. I was soon sensible that the humble inquirer was himself a proficient in meteorology. In the course of the conversation, he incidentally brought out his theory of the laws of our Atlantic gales, at the same time stating the leading facts on which his conclusions were founded. This doctrine was quite new to me; but it impressed me so favorably that I urged him to communicate it to the world through the medium of the American Journal of Science. Ile manifested much diffidence at appearing as an author before the scientific world, professing only to be a practical man little versed in scientific discussions, and unaccustomed to write for the press. At length, however, he said he would commit his thoughts to paper, and send them to me on condition that I would revise them anuscript and superintend the press. Accordingly, I soon received the first of a long series of articles on the laws of storms, and hastened to procure its insertion in the Journal of Science. Some few of the statements made in this earliest development of his theory he afterward found reasons for modifying; but the great features of that theory appear there in bold relief. Three years afterward he published, in the 25th volume of the same journal, an elaborate article on the hurricanes of the West Indies, in the course of which he gives a full synopsis of the leading points of his doctrine, as matured by a more extended analysis of the phenomena of storms than he had made when he published his first essay. I understand this theory to be, substantially, as follows :

That all violent gales or hurricanes are great whirlwinds, in which the wind blows in circuits around an axis either vertical or inclined; that the winds do not move in horizontal circles, as the usual forms of his diagrams would seem to indicate, but rather in spirals toward the axis, a descending spiral movement externally, and ascending internally.

That the direction of revolution is always uniform, being from right to left, or against the sun, on the north side of the equator, and from left to right, or with the sun, on the south side.

That the velocity of rotation increases from the margin toward the centre of the storm.

That the whole body of air subjected to this spiral rotation is, at the same time, moving forward in a path, at a variable rate, but always with a velocity much less than its velocity of rotation, being at the minimum, hitherto observed, as low as four miles, and at the maximum, forty-three miles, but more commonly about thirty miles per hour, while the motion of rotation may be not less than from one hundred to three hundred miles per hour.

That in storms of a particular region, as the gales of the Atlantic, or the typhoons of the China seas, great uniformity exists in regard to the path pursued, those of the Atlantic, for example, usually issuing from the equatorial regions eastward of the West India islands, pursuing, at first, a course toward the north-west, as far as the latitude of 300, and then gradually wheeling to the north-east, and following a path nearly parallel to the American coast, to the east of Newfoundland, until they are lost in mid-ocean; the entire path when delineated, resembling a parabolic curve, whose apex is near the latitude

of 300.

That their dimensions are sometimes very great, being not less than one thousand miles in diameter, while their path over the ocean can sometimes be traced for three thousand miles.

That the barometer, at any given place, falls with increasing rapidity as the centre of the whirlwind approaches, but rises at a corresponding rate after the centre has passed by; and finally,

That the phenomena are more uniform in large than in small storms, and more uniform on the ocean than on the land.

These laws Mr. Redfield claims as so many facts independently of all hypothesis; as facts deduced from the most rigorous induction, which will ever hold true, whatever views may be entertained respecting the origin or causes of storms.

The method adopted by the author of this theory, in all his inquiries, the method which first led him to the discovery of the whirlwind character of storms, and afterward fully confirmed the doctrine, was first to collect and then to collate as many records as possible of vessels that had been caught in the storm, in various parts of the ocean.

In the character of the researches before us, conducted as they were, not in the shades of philosophic retirement and learned leisure, but in hours redeemed from the pressing avocations of an onerous and responsible business, or borrowed from the season allotted to sleep, we trace qualities of mind that belong only to the true philosopher.

The idea of whirlwinds is indeed much older than Redfield or Reid, being as old as the writings of the Psalmist and the Prophets; and we safely admit further, that the doctrine of ocean gales being sometimes of a rotary character had been hinted at by several writers, as hints of such a principle as gravitation had long preceded the investigations of Newton; but the honor of having established on satisfactory evidence the rotary and progressive character of ocean storms, and determining their modes of action or laws, it is due alike to the memory of the departed, and to our country's fame, to claim for WILLIAM C. REDFIELD.

Various other contributions to science of our departed friend must, for want of space, be passed by with hardly a notice. Such are his published meteorological essays, his reports of meteorological observations, which contain many original hints of much value, his paper on the currents of the Atlantic, and his researches in geology, which occupied much of his attention during the latter years of his life; all of which speak the skillful observer, the judicious philosopher, the lover of science, the lover of his country and of his kind.

Three distinguishing marks of the true philosopher met in William C. Redfield, -originality to devise new things; patience to investigate; and logical powers to draw the proper conclusions. The impress of his originality he left, in early life, upon the village where he resided; he afterward imprinted it still deeper on his professional business, as naval engineer; and most of all on his scientific labors, his observations, and his theories. Originality to invent without patience to investigate, leads to hasty and wild speculation; but united, they lay the deep foundations for a severe logic.

In society he was courteous, sincere, upright, and benevolent; in his family tender, affectionate, wise in counsel, and pure in example; in all his walk and conversation, and especially in the church of God, a devout and humble Christian." DAVID WATKINSON, (whose bequests in his last Will and Testament to various humane and educational institutions, make him the largest pecuniary benefactor to such objects that the State of Connecticut has yet known,) was born January 17, 1778, in Lavenham, in the county of Suffolk, England. His mother was Miss Sarah Blair, of Ayrshire, Scotland, a pupil of Miss Isabella Graham, afterward so well known in this country for Christian excellencies.

His father, Samuel Watkinson, belonged to the dissenting body, a direct ancestor of his having been a soldier of Cromwell; and his own house was always open to clergymen of this class. He was deeply interested in the war with the American colonies, and sided with Edmund Burke and the other champions of our cause. He was a woolen manufacturer, at a period when wool was combed by hand, given out about the country to be spun, sent to Holland to be woven, and brought back to England to be sold. Influenced by the disposition of his family to emigrate to America, and also by his own predilections for American institutions, he removed to this country with his family in 1795 residing at Middletown, Conn., where he died in 1816, at the age of seventy years, universally respected.

David was one of twelve children, and received his education partly at home, at an endowed grammar school, and partly in a school near Palgrave, kept with the assistance of her husband, by Mrs. Barbauld, whose name has been made so deservedly popular through her writings for children. He acquired a knowledge of business in the counting-room and store of Samuel Corpe, then one of the leading merchants of New York. The death of two brothers of Mr. Watkinson in New York, of yellow fever, gave him a distaste to that city, and in 1799 he removed to Hartford. Here he commenced business, in the fall of 1800, associating with himself his brother William, and a few years later his brother Edward, under the firm of Watkinsons & Co. In 1819 he associated Mr. Ezra Clark in his business, and in 1835, Alfred Gill, and Ezra Clark, Jr., were admitted to the firm. His brother Robert Watkinson was for some time a clerk in the house.

In 1841 Mr. Watkinson retired from active mercantile pursuits, having by his energy, industry and sagacity, achieved a handsome fortune, and by his uprightness, public spirit, and liberality, won the universal respect of the community in which he lived.

Although closely attentive to his own business, and moderate in his own personal expenditures, Mr. Watkinson never withheld his influence, or his purse from any enterprise which promised to advance the general prosperity of his adopted home, or promote its religious, moral and educational interests. His name is found as original subscriber, and frequently as an office-bearer in every association incorporated to open new, or improve old avenues of travel, or increase the facilities of business. He was a liberal subscriber to the funds of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, of which he was a director and vice-president, to the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, of which he was treasurer and director, to Trinity College of which he was trustee, to the Hartford Female Seminary, to the Hartford Orphan Asylum, to the Hartford Young Men's Institute, and to the Wadsworth Athenæum.

But Mr. Watkinson's liberality was not confined to these larger and permanent institutions. He was always ready to listen to the daily application for aid to objects local and general, and if the object appeared to him worthy, and the

"Extract from a Memoir read before the Connecticut Historical Society by Henry Barnard, LL. D., on the 2d February, 1858.

agents likely to carry it forward with fidelity and success, he gave cheerfully, and without reference to the contributions of others. He judged each case on its own merits, and gave according to his own ability at the time, in reference to other claims on his means.

Mr. Watkinson was a member, (and at his death the oldest,) of the First Congregational Church of Hartford, and one of those constant and liberal givers to the great religious enterprises of the day, which have made the annual contributions of that church remarkable among the churches of New England.

He married in 1803 Miss Olivia Hudson, daughter of Barzillai Hudson, who died in 1849, leaving no children. Mrs. Watkinson is gratefully remembered for her many Christian virtues, and for her wise and careful administration of several useful charities.

Although not endowed with a strong constitution, yet by his temperate habits, and constant exercise in the open air, he enjoyed almost uninterrupted health to the advanced age of eighty years. He died on the 13th of December, 1857, after an illness of only three days.

After providing liberally for each of his nephews and neices, (thirty-one in all,) and for his pastor and several personal friends, Mr. Watkinson makes the following bequests to the

Hartford Hospital and Dispensary,

Orphan Asylum and Female Beneficent Society,

Juvenile Asylum and Farm School for neglected and abandoned children,

$40,000

20,000

40,000

Library of Reference in connection with Connecticut Historical
Society,

100,000

Widow's Society of Hartford,

5,000

Connecticut Retreat for the Insane, in aid of an Institution for
Idiots,

3,000

The will provides that the Trustees of the Library of Reference may appropriate $500 a year in the purchase of books for the Library of the Hartford Young Men's Institute, (having now 10,000 volumes,) or any other Library of Circulation, on condition that the Library which receives the same, shall appropriate and expend the like amount for the same object. There is a similar provision in favor of the Gallery of Art belonging to the Wadsworth Athensæum.

C

OF

BARNARD'S AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

Abstract terms, learned by Laura Bridgman, 379. Barbier, C., music printing for the blind. by. 137.

Agricultural education and schools, 252, 371, 486. Belfast Museum of Natural History, 790.

society for diffusion of useful knowledge, 577. Book notices, 272.