Trying to Account for It.
THE Detroit Post, of Nov. 22, says:— The New York Times seeks to account for the extensive fires of the present day, and for the rapidity with which they seem to spread at one time compared with others, by supposing that the atmosphere contains certain combustible qualities more pronounced at one time than another. The Chicago Tribune says this theory is simply superstition, and dismisses the whole subject with an infallible contempt. In spite of the Tribune, however, it is in the experience of every person who has observed or felt the changing conditions of the atmosphere, that for two or three years the air has been less moist than usual, there has been an unwonted dryness and harshness in it, except, of course, in the wettest of the weather. Taken together with the extreme heat of summer, and the extreme and continued cold of winter, this phenomenon certainly betrays an unusual, if not an abnormal, status of the air, at least, in this country. All over the world there have been more convulsions of nature than during previous years, which can be directly or indirectly traced to disturbances in the air. It is difficult, in the present state of knowledge, to prove any specific statement upon the subject; but it is equally presumptuous to deny that there is something extraordinary and unaccountable in the disasters which have afflicted the world during several previous months.