XVII. NOTES ON THE METEOROLOGY OF IRELAND, DE- 

 DUCED FROM THE OBSERVATIONS MADE IN THE 

 YEAR 1851, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ROYAL 

 IRISH ACADEMY. 



Transactions of the Itoyal Irish Academy, Vol. XXII. 



THE science of meteorology is, perhaps more than any other, 

 dependent upon co-operation and upon method. Individual ob- 

 servers may investigate successfully certain detached meteorolo- 

 gical problems, such as the laws of the diurnal and annual changes 

 of temperature, pressure, and humidity, at a given place ; but little 

 progress can be made in climatology, or in the knowledge of the 

 greater movements of the atmosphere, and their relation to the 

 non-periodic variations of temperature and pressure, without the 

 co-operation of many observers distributed over a large area, and 

 acting upon a common plan. 



For this task the voluntary association of individuals is insuffi- 

 cient. However zealous such persons may be, it is not possible to 

 bind them to that uniformity of system without which little can be 

 effectively done. Observations taken at different hours, or by dif- 

 ferent methods, can never be compared satisfactorily; and any 

 comparison will involve an amount of labour in the processes of 

 reduction which may render them impracticable. In addition to 

 this, certain rules of observation are imposed by the conditions of 

 some of the great problems of meteorology ; and no co-operation 

 in which these. rules are deviated from can contribute to their 

 solution. 



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

 such observations should be provided for by the Government, and 

 placed under the direction of one of its official departments. And 



