ESPY, JAMES P., one of the most original and able meteorologists of the present century, was the son of a farmer in western Pennsylvania, where he was b. in 1784 01.1785. He re ceived a superior education, and, during he earlier part of his career, was one of the best classical and mathematical instructors in Philadelphia. E.'s attention was first strongly turned to science by the writings of Dalton and Daniell on meteorology. After some time, his enthusiasm became so great, that he resolved to give up teaching, and to rely for the means of prosecuting his meteorological researches upon his slender savings and the success of his lectures on the subject, which, fortunately, turned out to be far more attractive than the average of popular lectures. His first course was delivered before the Franklin institute of Pennsylvania. E.'s theory of storms (with which his name is specially connected) drew general attention to itself, especially in the United States. Sec STORMS. A memoir on this subject gained for him, in 1836, the Magellanic pre mium of the American philosophical society of Philadelphia. In 1841, appeared his work on the Philosophy of Storms, regarding which the report of the Academie des Sciences (Paris) says, "that the theory on which it is based alone accounts for the phenomena. . . . In a word, for physical geography, agriculture, navigation, and meteorology,' it gives us new explanations, indications useful for ulterior researches, and redresses many accredited errors." Later in his life, E. became professor in the Phila
delphia high school, and afterwards in the Franklin institute of that city, He traveled extensively through the United States, lecturing on his favorite theory of storms, and st adying the laws of climate, until he acquired the popular title of the " storm-king." After the organization of the Smithsonian institution at Washington, lie was commissioned by Dr. Henry, its superintendent, to pursue his researches, It was in the halls of the Smithsonian that his experiments on the rate of cooling of gases of different densities when expanded were made. The cooling effects of expansion on dry and moist air also formed the subject of nice experiments. The results of these experiments have thrown much light on the formation of cloud and rain, and the propelling power of winds. They afforded materials for his elaborate and valuable reports ou meteorology, presented to the senate of the United States. Four of these reports were published at the expense of government. The last was issued in 1857, which embodies all his matured opinions on meteorological phenomena. This is one of the most valuable works on the princi ples of the science. He d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, 24th Jan., 1860, at the residence of his nephew.