246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CLIMATE IN SOME OF ITS BELATIONS TO MAN 1 



By Professor ROBERT DeC. WARD 



HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



Climatology and Meteorology. — In a course of lectures dealing with 

 the present status of meteorology the subject of climate, upon which I 

 have the honor to address you this afternoon, finds an appropriate place. 

 For meteorology and climatology are interdependent, and it is im- 

 possible to distinguish very sharply between them. In a strict sense, 

 meteorology deals with the physics of the atmosphere, and those of you 

 who have attended the preceding lectures in this course have listened 

 to able discussions of the physical problems with which meteorologists 

 are to-day concerned. The view taken by meteorology is largely theo- 

 retical, but the main object in the solution of most of these problems 

 is to make this science of immediate practical service to man, in im- 

 proving and extending our weather-forecasts. 



When the term meteorology is employed in its broadest seme, 

 climatology is a subdivision of meteorology. Climatology is largely 

 descriptive. It rests upon physics and geography, the latter being a 

 very prominent factor. In fact, climatology may almost be denned 

 as geographical meteorology. The main object of climatology is also 

 to be of practical service to man. Its method of treatment lays the 

 most emphasis upon the elements which are of the most importance to 

 life. Climate and health, climate and industries, climate and crops, 

 climate and transportation — these are subjects of vital human interest. 

 It is my privilege this afternoon to suggest a few of the points of 

 contact between man and his climate. If my discussion seems dis- 

 jointed and haphazard, I beg of you to remember that the subject 

 is one of the widest possible range; it concerns all men, in all parts 

 of the world. To select from this immense body of facts the few which 

 it is possible to touch upon in an hour is like trying to decide which 

 of a thousand snowflakes is the most symmetrical; or to determine, 

 in a wonderful view across the snow-covered mountains on a brilliant 

 winter's day, whether it is the sun, or the crisp air, or the snow, or 

 the contour of the hills, or the grouping of the trees, or the picturesque 

 farmhouses, which really contribute most to make the picture what it is. 

 The Climatic Zones. — So great is the variety of climates to be 

 found in the world that it has long been customary to classify these 

 climates into certain broad belts, which we call the zones. These 

 were first suggested, on purely astronomical grounds, in the times 

 of the early Greek philosophers and geographers. It is to be noted 

 1 Lecture delivered at Columbia University, March 2, 1909. 



