THE LANGUAGE OF METEOROLOGY 279 



accordingly, be the natural designation of the modification of the cerau- 

 nograph in which a telephone-receiver takes the place of a recording 

 pen. 



Our Weather Bureau has recently contributed to the meteorological 

 vocabulary the name " kiosk/' applied to a little pavilion in which work- 

 ing meteorological instruments are displayed for the benefit of the 

 public. Although the connotations of this word are hardly consistent 

 with the style of architecture adopted for these structures in America, 

 no better designation has been proposed, and it is safe to assume that 

 " kiosk," as well as the object so named, has come to stay. It is rather 

 curious that, although " Wettersaulen " have been familiar objects in 

 Germany for half a century, their use has only recently spread to Eng- 

 lish-speaking countries, and the need of an English name for them has 

 only recently made itself felt. 



When the first complete English meteorological dictionary makes its 

 appearance it will need to take account of fully ten thousand words 

 and plirases; and in connection with hundreds of these much work 

 must be done in tracing their vicissitudes and in bringing them into 

 something like conformity with a systematic and workable language. 

 The terms I have mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs are, in the 

 language of the day, " a drop in the bucket." 



In closing, I wish to repeat a recommendation that I recently made 

 to the International Meteorological Committee, through the kind inter- 

 mediation of the chief of the Weather Bureau, in behalf of the creation 

 of an international commission on terminology, analogous to the com- 

 missions already established by the committee on various other meteoro- 

 logical subjects. The utility of such a step is well attested in the his- 

 tory of other sciences. In electricity, for example, the useful names of 

 the electrical units — "ohm," "volt," "ampere," "coulomb," "farad," 

 " joule," " watt " and " henry " — were all promulgated by formal inter- 

 national agreement. 



The International Meteorological Committee and Conferences have, 

 it is true, given us official definitions of a few terms; but such work can 

 not be done on an extensive scale save by a body especially created for 

 the purpose and having far more time at its disposal than is available 

 at the ordinary triennial assemblies of meteorologists. 



Pending the consummation of this wish, let me urge meteorologists 

 to familiarize themselves with the neglected language of their science; 

 to avoid coining needless synonyms of terms that already exist; and, 

 when a new term is really needed, to create one with due regard to the 

 analogies of the language and its availability for international use. 

 Generally speaking, only Greek and Latin derivatives answer the latter 

 requirement. If a meteorologist feels himself unequal to framing a 

 valid word from the classical vocabularies, he can always appeal for aid 

 to some friendly colleague of philological attainments. 



