566 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 26, 1876 



Thus, we may ask, with a fluid so mobile as the air, 

 why are there atmospheric basins at the centre of which 

 during months the mean pressure is half an inch of mer- 

 cury below that in neighbouring regions ? Why, in all 

 the disquisitions on fluid equilibrium, are the constant low 

 pressures in the antarctic regions south of 60° neglected ? 

 How shall we account for the permanent barometric 

 depression in the neighbourhood of Iceland referred to 

 by the author (p. 74) ? And to come to our own country, 

 how will cyclonic winds explain the fact that the pressure 

 of the atmosphere dimmishes on the average of the whole 

 year at the rate of one- tenth of an inch of mercury for 

 4° of latitude as we proceed northwards, and increases at 

 the same rate as we move southwards ? 



There are evidently atmospheric conditions with which 

 we are unacquainted and for which no parallel can be 

 found by experiments with air shut up in a box, in which 

 it has been " the fashion " of some meteorologists to tra- 

 vesty our atmosphere. The variations of temperature 

 and vapour tension which have been employed to explain 

 everything occupy a very subsidiary place in weather pre- 

 dictions. Yet the effects of varying temperature on our 

 atmosphere are to a great extent unknown to us ; the 

 only action taken into consideration has been that con- 

 nected with expansion ; but even expansion may affect 

 properties of the atmosphere which have not as yet been 

 investigated. Thus we know that the magnet which is 

 expanded by heat loses magnetism, but of the way in 

 which heat may affect the magnetism, the electricity, and 

 the viscosity of the atmosphere we know nothing, and we 

 are equally ignorant to what extent the pressure of the 

 atmosphere may be affected by its varying electric state 

 through humidity or otherwise. The satisfaction with 

 which insufficient hypotheses have been received has re- 

 tarded the progress of research for other causes ; and it 

 is a good sign of future advancement that a practical 

 meteorologist like the author has left boldly the beaten 

 track and given indications that we must try elsewhere. 



Returning to the practical view, Mr. Scott says : — 



" Various theories have been propounded to account for 

 storms . . . but none of them have met with general 

 acceptance as yet. We must, therefore, only take things 

 as we find them, and endeavour to make the best of 

 them " (p. 28). 



This, in all senses, philosophic view of the subject, is 

 also that of necessity — to make the best of what we know. 

 To do this the author points out the importance of having 

 more stations and more telegrams. As the great mass of 

 storms approach us from the west, more stations are 

 required, especially on the west coast of Ireland ; stations 

 also are required in the interior for the purpose of ascer- 

 taining the rate of progress of any threatening signal. 

 This demand, there can be no doubt, will be granted, 

 together with the means to procure any telegrams which 

 particular cases may seem to require. 



When we remember the great advantage of these 

 storm warnings, not only to ourselves, but, as Mr. Scott 

 has shown, especially to the ports on the western littoral 

 of Europe (where our sailors and ships are also to be 

 found), we trust every means will be given to make them 

 more certain.' 



Though the Director of the Meteorological Office is 

 forced to employ the knowledge he now has, he does not 



seem to feel less the necessity of obtaining more. In 

 spite of the large proportion of successful warnings, he 

 says, in the conclusion of his work, that weather tele- 

 graphy is " a branch of investigation which can hardly be 

 said to have got out of the leading strings of infancy as yet " 

 (p. 146). Although the infant stumbles little, all things con- 

 sidered, yet some astonishment has been expressed that 

 it has not grown more rapidly.^ This astonishment, we 

 beheve, has been due in part to an underestimate of the 

 labour and difficulties connected with meteorological re- 

 search. Every one considers he can commence as master 

 in this subject, if he has only the observations or the 

 instruments to make them with. This error is not con- 

 fined to those ignorant of all science ; it is partaken by 

 many men eminent in other departments, who would 

 smile if their own subjects were treated in a similar way 

 by any tyro, whatever his knowledge otherwise. The 

 low view thus taken of the qualifications necessary for 

 successful inquiry in this branch of science has certainly 

 not been supported by the results of importance which 

 should have been so easily obtained, although meteor- 

 ologists have counted in their ranks some of the most 

 eminent mathematical physicists. 



One of the great causes of the slow growth of meteor- 

 ology is to be found in the long, laborious, and, not un- 

 frequently, unfruitful calculations necessary in seeking 

 laws from great masses of observations. The results 

 obtained, if the inquiry has been successful, may be ex- 

 pressed in a few figures, which may not appear to have 

 the slightest practical value. Few men qualified to 

 direct the lines, and to devise the methods, of investiga- 

 tion have the time to devote to such ungrateful, and to 

 a great extent mechanical, work. Hence the readiness 

 with which speculative views, chamber theories, have 

 been proposed instead, and these, when supported by 

 men of talent, have made research to appear unnecessary 

 or have thrown it into false channels. 



Meteorology, it appears to us, will be best advanced 

 by neglecting at present all theories, unless as far as they 

 indicate new objects of investigation ; and by the devo- 

 tion of qualified workers, each searching in his own way. 

 Also it should not be forgotten that it may not be possible 

 to tell, a priori, in what direction the laws are to be 

 sought, on which satisfactory weather predictions may be 

 founded. It may ibe in some connection between the 

 variations of the earth's magnetism and those of our atmo- 

 sphere that warnings which will outrun the telegraph may 

 be found ; or it may be in some apparently insignificant 

 fact discovered in a neglected corner. All the knowledge 

 we now possess in meteorology would be practically 

 valueless for storm warnings but for the useless-looking 

 experiment of Oersted with a magnetic needle and an 

 electrical current. 



We should notice a few cases in . which, it appears to 

 us, some slight changes may be made with advantage in 

 a second edition of the work before us. In his desire to 

 be brief, the author has not been quite exact in his 

 remarks on the dry and wet thermometers ; thus, p. 5 : — 



" Suffice it to say, the greater the difference between 

 the readings of the two thermometers, the drier the air, 



^ Mr. Scott gives a table showing that in 1873 and 1874 warnings were 

 justified by subsequent gales 45'3 times in a hundred, and by subsequent 

 strong winds 334 times per cent., or in all nearly four times in five (p. 139). 



