METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY 177 



military and civil aviation, needs no demonstration), 

 special reference should be made to the report on the 

 then state of knowledge of the subject compiled by 

 Messrs. E. Gold and W. A. Harwood, and issued by 

 the Association in 1909, which includes a full historical 

 summary of earlier work, and of the Association's 

 connexion with it. 



The support accorded by the Association to the 

 observatory on Ben Nevis is an outstanding example 

 of the sympathy of our body with climatological 

 research. But another branch of the same depart- 

 ment of research, that upon British rainfall, calls 

 for fuller notice, because it provides a good example 

 of an investigation of national importance, set on foot 

 by individual genius, supported in its initiatory 

 stages by the Association, and finally passing from 

 private control to that of the State. 



In 1861 G. J. Symons began to collect and publish 

 all available records of rainfall in England and 

 Wales ; and extended the area to cover Scotland and 

 Ireland in the following year, when the first volume 

 of British Rainfall appeared, giving data for about 

 500 stations. In the Report of the Association for 

 1862 a paper by Symons was published, dealing with 

 the data more fully. The Association made its first 

 grant in connexion with the work, to enable Symons 

 to supply rain-gauges to new observers. Symons 

 made further detailed reports in succeeding years, 

 and in 1865 a Rainfall Committee was appointed, 

 with Glaisher as chairman. It was re-elected each 

 year until 1876, and its reports (mainly Symons' 

 work) remain as original documents of great value, 

 as they amplify the material published in British 

 Rainfall In 1876 the authorities of the Association 



