412 The Eev. H. Lloyd on the Meteorology of Ireland. 



For these and other reasons it is desirable that, in every country, such ob- 

 servations should be provided for by the Government, and placed under the 

 direction of one of its official departments. And there can be no doubt of the 

 services which meteorology, properly studied, may be made to contribute to 

 those interests which it is the duty of every Government to promote. The 

 health of man, the operations of agriculture by which he procures his food, 

 and many other of his material interests, are dependent upon climatological 

 relations, which must be known and studied before they can be applied. Every 

 one acknowledges the fact, that the salubrity of a district, and its adaptation (or 

 the reverse) to particular human constitutions, is intimately connected with its 

 meteorological conditions. And the same thing is true of all organized beings, 

 and especially of those which are subservient to the uses of man. Thus, 

 the question of the naturalization of exotic plants is, mainly, a meteorological 

 problem, dependent upon the climatological relations of the region to which 

 the plant is indigenous, and of that to which it is to be transferred ; and the 

 importance of obtaining accurate data for its solution will be recognised, when 

 it is borne in mind that, in Europe, most of the plants useful to man belong 

 to this class, and that those hitherto acclimatized probably bear a very small 

 proportion to the whole. Lastly, the processes of cultivation, to which these 

 vegetables are to be subjected, are also connected in an intimate manner with 

 meteorological knowledge. "We may instance this connexion in the operations 

 of irrigation, and of drainage, both of which are dependent upon the knowledge 

 of the amount of rain-fall in the district to be operated on. 



It is true that meteorological science has been hitherto comparatively bar- 

 ren in such applications; and the fact itself, with many persons, would be 

 accepted as evidence that abstract and practical knowledge are wholly separate 

 and unconnected. But, when properly understood, it leads to a different con- 

 clusion. Superficial knowledge in this science can indeed yield but few prac- 

 tical results ; and those by whom such results have been hitherto sought have ex- 

 pected to find them at the surface. There are indeed cases — such, for example, 

 as the one last referred to — in which the connexion between meteorological 

 science and its applications is obvious and simple, and in which, accordingly, 

 that connexion has been traced and made use of But in general it is other- 

 wise. In a subject so complex as the laws which govern the aerial envelope 



