504 INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE. 



association will be well employed if it allows the vagaries of our pole 

 to be more closely studied and all the dimensional quantities of the 

 surface of the earth to become more accurately known. 



The contributions received by the central bureau of this associa- 

 tion from the jDarticipating States amount to about £3,000, and there 

 is a balance which at the end of 1904 amounted to over £5,000. The 

 expenditure during 1905 Avas nearly £5,000, reducing the balance by 

 £2,000. The principal items of the expenditure were formed by con- 

 tributions toward the maintenance of six stations in the Northern and 

 two stations in the Southern Hemisphere for carrying out the observa- 

 tions relating to the changes of the position of the earth's axis. The 

 whole cost of this service is about £4,450. The honorarium of the 

 secretary is £250, which, together with the cost of printing, postage, 

 and a small item for grants toward special scientific work, makes up 

 the expenditure. No charges are made for office expenses, which are 

 defrayed by the Prussian Government. 



The geodetic work indirectly gives us valuable, though only par- 

 tial, information on the interior of the earth, but it confines itself in 

 the main to the surface of the globe; the investigation of the atmos- 

 phere carries us beyond. 



In an address delivered to the British Association at its Belfast 

 meeting, in 1902, I expressed the opinion that meteorology might be 

 advanced more rapidly if all routine observations were stopped for a 

 period of five years, the energy of observers being concentrated on the 

 discussion of the results already obtained. I am glad to say that 

 meteorologists have taken seriously a remark the echoes of which 

 still reach me from distant parts of the earth. They disagree with 

 me, but their disagreement is of the apologetic kind. I do not wish 

 to retract or to weaken my previous statement, but merely now 

 qualify it to the extent that it is only to be applied to two-dimensional 

 meteorology. There is a three-dimensional meteorology as far 

 removed from the one that confines itself to the surface of the eath 

 as three-dimensional space is from a flat area. Three-dimensional 

 meteorology is a new science, which at present requires the establish- 

 ment of new facts before their discussion can properly begin. The 

 extension of our range of observations by kites and balloons is of 

 comparatively recent origin. Mr. Archibald in this country was one 

 of the pioneers of meteorological investigation by means of instru- 

 ments attached to kites. In the United States Mr. Rotch, having 

 established a separate observatory, succeeded in convincing scientific 

 men of the great value of the results which could be obtained. Mr. 

 L. Teisserenc de Bort, who established and maintained an observatory 

 for dynamic meteorology at Trappes, near Paris, rendered similar 

 services with regard to " pilot " or manned balloons carrying auto- 

 graphical instruments. The aeronautical department of the Royal 



