surface." The subject was extended afterwards so as to embrace the mathematical theory of cyclones, tornadoes, water-spouts, etc. In 1885 appeared his Recent Advances in Meteorology. In the opinion of a leading European meteorologist (Julius Hann of Vienna), Ferrel has "contributed more to the advance of the physics of the atmosphere than any other living physicist or meteorologist."
Ferrel teaches that the air flows in great spirals toward the poles, both in the upper strata of the atmosphere and on the earth's surface beyond the 30th degree of latitude; while the return current blows at nearly right angles to the above spirals, in the middle strata as well as on the earth's surface, in a zone comprised between the parallels 30° N. and 30° S. The idea of three superposed currents blowing spirals was first advanced by James Thomson, but was published in very meagre abstract.
Ferrel's views have given a strong impulse to theoretical research in America, Austria, and Germany. Several objections raised against his argument have been abandoned, or have been answered by W. M. Davis of Harvard. The mathematical analysis of F. Waldo of Washington, and of others, has further confirmed the accuracy of the theory. The transport of Krakatoa dust and observations made on clouds point toward the existence of an upper east current on the equator, and Pernter has mathematically deduced from Ferrel's theory the existence of such a current.
Another theory of the general circulation of the atmosphere was propounded by Werner Siemens of Berlin, in which an attempt is made to apply thermodynamics to aërial currents. Important new points of view have been introduced recently by Helmholtz, who concludes that when two air currents blow one above the other in different directions, a system of air waves must arise in the same way as waves are formed on the
