^^ PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION A. 



the distribution of the pressure, the movement of the air being 

 towards the centres of areas of low pressure. The weather in 

 general is connected with the variations of pressure. The areas 

 of low pressure have a general movement from West to East 

 over Europe. These conclusions, which we now accept as exact, 

 were not accepted in Brandes' time, for he was ahead of his 

 generation. His thesis could not be reconciled with the theories 

 then prevalent among meteorologists. The same ideas were 

 revived later, owing especially to the study of tropical cyclones 

 by Piddington in India and Redfield in America, and to the 

 works of the great American investigators Espy and Loomis, on 

 the disturbances of the Temperate Zones. 



It is to Le V^errier chiefly that Meteorology owes the impulse 

 that determined its start and progress on new lines, and brought 

 it definitely into the realm of e.xact sciences. In November, 

 1854, fluring the Crimean War. a disastrous storm burst upon 

 the Allied fleets in the Black Sea, and caused the loss of one of 

 the French men-of-war. Le Verrier was commissioned by his 

 Government to investigate this storm and to report on it. In 

 his report he showed clearly that an atmospheric disturbance had 

 crossed Europe from north-west to south-east in about four 

 days, and that an organised meteorological service could have 

 detected this before it reached the fleets, and given them timely 

 warning. In conclusion, he strongly advocated the con.stitution 

 of a regular daily service of meteorological information, tele- 

 graphed to Paris from a certain number of stations distributed 

 throughout Europe. Both the (lOvernment and the public in 

 general fell in with his plan, and in the course of a year Le 

 X'errier had organised the first international service of more or 

 less simultaneou.s observations. Synoptic charts were drawn 

 up regularly and a bulletin published. His initiative was fol- 

 lowed by Fitzroy in England and Buys Ballot in Holland. The 

 aim of T.e X^errier was to organise a weather prediction service. 

 But the material difficulties which he encountered, and especially 

 the slackness of the Government in supplying the necessary 

 funds when once the first enthusiasm had cooled down, robbed 

 him of the honour of being first in the field. His rivals abroad. 

 Fitzroy and Buys Ballot, had been before him. It is interesting 

 to note that Le Verrier met with rather strong opposition in the 

 scientific circles of the day. The great physicists Biot and 

 "Regnault. for instance, energetically opposed his plans. One can 

 easily understand Regnanlt's attitude. With his refined methods 

 of investigation, which have been the bugbear of our schooldays, 

 Regnault was perhaps ill-prepared to see what results could be 

 obtained from the cruder methods of meteorological investiga- 

 tion. Le Verrier, however, by the force of his genius, the 

 tenacity of his will, and, we may add, perhaps also by the dread 

 which his none too sweet temper inspired, bore down all resis- 

 tance, and the results he obtained very soon showed the accuracy 

 of his views. 



