ART. XIII. _Observations on Salt Storms, and the Influence of Salt and Saline Air upon Animal and Vegetable Life. Read before the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York, March 7, 1819, by_ JOHN B. BECK, M. D. (Communicated for this Journal.) Meteorology is a science of so much general concern, that it seems to be incumbent upon every member of society to aid in augmenting the stock of facts, which the labours of ingenious and scientific men have already accumulated on that subject. Under this impression I propose to devote the following paper to some observations on _salt winds_ or _storms_, as they have occurred in this country and in Europe--a subject, which although presenting many phenomena of a more than temporary interest, has as yet excited but little attention. Indeed, the opportunities for observation have occurred so rarely as readily to account for its having in a great measure escaped the philosophical acumen of the present age. It must have been early observed that the atmosphere in the vicinity of the sea frequently becomes impregnated with saline materials; but the first and only account of a _salt storm_ that I have met with, is to be found in the Transactions of the Linnæan Society of London. The 8th volume of that work gives an interesting narration of the effects of a storm of this description, which occurred in England, in January, 1803. It was occasioned by an east wind, which blew for some days, and which, in its passage over the ocean, had imbibed large quantities of salt water, which were afterward deposited upon the land. In most cases these depositions proved fatal to the plants and vegetables which received them. So extensive were the effects of this singular storm, that they were felt in the vicinity of London, at a distance of about seventy miles from the ocean, and in all the intermediate country. In most instances, the leaves of the plants, which suffered from it, appeared as if they had been scorched, and in some places even the tops of the branches mortified. A storm of the same kind took place in England, in February, 1804; and the memoir states, that Sir Joseph Banks had noticed another some years before in Lincolnshire.[55]