318 Letter of Professor Dove [June 



much kindness. Also I had concerted with Kupffer and Plantamour 

 for attending the Swiss Scientific Meeting at Geneva at the end of August, 

 and inviting the heads of the different systems of observation to assemble 

 there, and consult in common as to the best modes of treatment, commu- 

 nication, and publication. This must, no doubt, now stand over. As to 

 the data to be communicated, it is no doubt right to give, as now, the 

 height of the barometer at the moment the telegram is despatched ; but I 

 think it would be desirable to add a sign indicating whether the barometer 

 is rising or falling. The cotemporaneous temperature is in many cases 

 desirable, and thus I think that this communication might be so arranged 

 that some scientific result could be based thereon. If the maximum and 

 minimum of the preceding day had heretofore been telegraphed, we should 

 have gained six or seven years' materials for enabling us to judge whether the 

 day of the telegram was a relatively warm or cold one. The same hour has 

 in the diurnal variation a very different meaning in different parts of the 

 year ; and in the summer months it is difficult to draw any definite conclu- 

 sions from the temperatures at seven or eight o'clock. It seems to me, 

 moreover, that in the present modes too little consideration is given to first 

 laying down what it is desired to obtain. For England, for instance, the 

 reduction of the barometer to the level of the sea is not difficult ; but yet 

 there are many land-stations in which one does not know whether this 

 reduction has been made or not. Advances in meteorology are based on 

 long-continued labours : we seem now to want to take it by storm ; this 

 may dazzle the public, but the results need control if they are to be recog- 

 nized as really such. 



" The idea that all storms are cyclones is indeed given up by most, and I 

 have lately been taking some pains to contribute thereto. The introduc- 

 tion of the word ' cyclonoid ' means nothing more than that for a given 

 case it is wished to leave the matter undecided. It is a retrograde step. 



" I have read with great interest the paper headed ' Forecasts and 

 Cautions ' kindly sent to me. It seems to me very suitable to the desired 

 end. I cannot recognize any connexion with electrical currents ; I cannot 

 discern any proper bases for doing so. 



" For meteorology itself, I should deem it extremely advantageous if, 

 as you contemplate, the immediate data of observation in England were 

 placed under a common guidance such as that of the Kew Observatory. 

 The British Association does indeed represent in the freest and most inde- 

 pendent manner scientific Great Britain as a whole. I do not certainly 

 recognize what the British and Scottish Meteorological Societies have 

 supplied in this direction ; but an accordant mode of publication and 

 treatment would still give quite other results. So, for example, in the 

 monthly communications the notice of the barometric extremes of the 

 month with the indispensable mention of the date of their occurrence is 

 wanting. These are the very things by means of which it is possible to 

 examine profitably the particular phenomena of a storm. 



