DEVELOPMENT OF METEOROLOGY 
ABBE. 301 
meteorologist of the Indian service, in his annual forecast of the 
Indian monsoons, makes a statement of the conditions affecting the 
monsoon rainfall in which he includes the precedent conditions over 
Australia, South America, and Siberia; he shows that the Asiatic 
and equatorial regions, taken by themselves, do not suffice to deter- 
mine the future character of the monsoon. 
A corresponding indication of the broadening of our field of view 
is found in the fact that our own Weather Bureau has lately begun 
to receive telegrams as to the barometric pressure prevailing in the 
interior of Asia, more especially in Siberia, under the conviction that 
the oscillations that take place in that region give some indication of 
what will subsequently occur in our own territory. These ideas de- 
veloped at once from our experience during the first year of our fore- 
east werk in 1871, and led promptly to the establishment of our 
“ Bulletin of International Simultaneous Meteorological Observa- 
tions ” with its daily charts of the northern hemisphere, undertaken 
by Gen. A. J. Myer in 1873, in accordance with our idea that the 
atmosphere must be studied as a unit. His published bulletin of in- 
ternational observations gives us a daily map of the whole northern 
hemisphere from 1875 to 1884, after which only monthly maps were 
published. But the daily manuscripts have continued to be compiled 
up to the present time, although on a somewhat different plan. These 
afford valuable material for working out the relation between at- 
mospheric movements on a large scale. The first steps in such gen- 
eralizations were taken by Professor Garriott, to whom are due the 
conclusions given in 1891 in “ Weather Bureau Bulletin A, Summary 
of International Meteorological Observations.” 
Next we come to a series of charts published by Hildebrandsson 
about 1895, showing the simultaneous departures in pressure at many 
stations over the whole globe. These tables and charts show that an 
excess or a defect of pressure may be observed simultaneously over a 
very large part of the globe, perhaps one-half or even three-quarters 
of its surface, while in other months the conditions will be nearly 
reversed. Inasmuch as he took monthly averages, he was not able to 
show the progressive movements of these areas of high and low pres- 
sure, if, indeed, they do move, as is fair to presume and as he would 
probably have discovered if he could have compiled daily or pentadic 
instead of monthly maps. 
Hitherto our observations have been largely confined to the earth’s 
surface and to stations near sea level; but we must go higher in the 
atmosphere. The importance of mountain stations and of balloon 
work was recognized a century ago, as shown by the establishment of 
several mountain observatories and by the early balloon voyages of 
Barra! and Bixio and their successors. The numerous voyages by 
Glaisher added greatly to our knowledge, but the systematic work 
