Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Chemistry, Meteorology, War, Religion, Scientific Practitioners, Nationalism, Belief, Boundary Formation

    Reports that a French chemist, noting the coincidence between great battles and heavy showers, has suggested that firing a general cannonade would end the present drought—a plan which, if successful, the chemist thinks should be marked by a 'religious celebration'. Wonders how Michael Faraday would have responded to this suggestion which would have 'rather misled the faithful but unscientific multitude'. Insists that a 'true English' philosopher, unlike a French one, would refuse to do this, and 'We would dissociate the theological from the scientific experiment for the deduction of rain'.