1899] METEOROLOGY AND ETHICS 51 
But we must remember where we are and the solemnity of facts, 
and state the problem. Have the various meteorological conditions, ring- 
ing in as they do combinations innumerable, a definite causal relation to 
human conduct? Does the ever-changing weather present conditions 
in which impulse to action is more liable than usual to overcome an 
ordinarily overpowering inhibitory force ? 
The problem was attacked in two ways: “ first, by the tabulation 
and discussion of a questionnaire sent to nearly two hundred teachers 
of all grades, from the kindergarten to the high school, superintendents 
of asylums and reformatories, and wardens of prisons and penitentiaries;” 
second, by an inductive study of several hundred thousand data cor- 
relating weather and conduct. It isevident that the possible fallacies 
are so numerous that a large body of results were necessary before any 
reliable conclusions could be drawn, and it is for those accustomed to 
statistical inquiries to say whether Professor Dexter’s industry was or 
was not sufficiently prolonged to allow of the elimination of errors. 
However this may be, he certainly has not spared trouble in seeking 
to substantiate his thesis, and Mrs. Dexter also shared in bringing the 
immense labour of tabulation to a successful issue. 
It should also be recognised that the author does not take any 
crude or easy-going view of his problem. He has realised the com- 
plexity of the factors which influence conduct, and the difficulty 
of analysing out those which may be called meteorological. As an 
instance of this, we venture to give a quotation—one of the many 
pleasant interludes in his serious argument. 
“The idea that the prevalence of suicide in this country (England) 
is due to our bad weather is precisely one of those hasty and illogical 
inferences which are characteristic of the Gallic mind. The constant 
gloom of bad weather ought to acquaint us so thoroughly with moods 
of depression that suicide would never occur to us. Look at Scotland, 
for instance, where suicides are rare. Why are they rare? Simply 
because a succession of Scotch Sundays has so accustomed the people to 
prolonged despondency, that any sudden misfortune cannot sink their 
spirits any farther. One has only to spend a dozen Sundays in Glasgow 
or Edinborough (sic) to become inoculated against suicide.” .... As 
Dexter says, there is truth beneath the jocular vein of this quotation. 
The results of the study lead to the following five conclusions : 
I. “Varying meteorological conditions affect directly the metabolism of 
life.’ Some of the conditions accelerate the oxidising processes of life, 
while others retard them; the former are called by the author 
anabolic, the latter katabolic, and we would accent his hesitation in 
using these terms, with the remark, that he thereby darkens his 
counsel with words without knowledge. Any other terms would have 
done as well, for no others could be worse. 
Il. The ‘reserve energy’ capable of being utilised for intellectual 
processes and activities other than those of the vital organs,is influenced 
