52 METEOROLOGY AND ETHICS [suLY 1899 
toa marked degree by meteorological conditions.” Again we must demur 
most emphatically to the quasi-physiological expression which the 
author uses in summing up his results, His conception of “reserve 
energy” is a reflex of a commercial environment, and appears to us 
quite inapplicable to the real business of metabolism. It is an 
unconscious ‘materialism’—an attempt to give a false simplicity to the 
facts. 
Ill. “ The quality of the emotional state is plainly influenced.” “ It 
is safe to say that high conditions of temperature and humidity, cloudy 
and rainy days, and for many people high winds, are generally product- 
ive of more or less negative emotional states; while moderate and cool 
temperatures, low humidities, mild winds, and clear days are usually 
positive in their effects.” But, as the author says, this thesis must be 
defended by means of an analysis based solely upon introspection ; and 
though he tries to connect it with his doctrine of “reserve energy” he 
is not certain about it, and it is just as well. 
IV. “ The reserve energy and the emotional state are both factors in 
the determination of conduct.’ Here the author seeks to show that 
his theory of “ reserve energy ” accounts for the discrepancies which are 
apparent on the supposition that the emotional state is the only 
factor. 
V. “Conduct, in the commonly accepted sense of the term, Death and 
Intellectual and Physical Labour bear very different relations to reserve 
energy. “Asa conclusion, it would seemingly be safe to say that of 
the activities (or cessation of activity) possible to human beings, some 
are the result of excessive vitality, and others of deficient states,” and 
that, generally speaking, “those misdemeanours which have been classed 
under our study as those of conduct are the results of the former, while 
death is an accompaniment of the latter.” 
As it seems to us, the conclusion of the whole matter is that the 
author has brought forward strong evidence to substantiate the thesis 
that there is an indirect causal nexus between weather and conduct, 
But we do not feel sure of anything else in his results, and particularly 
we would respectfully suggest to him, that he has departed from the 
scientific method by mingling with his inductive results a physiological 
theory which is probably erroneous and certainly unnecessary. 
X. 
