NA TURE 



4^5 



THURSDAY, MARCH i5, 1877 



THE TREASURY REPORT ON METEOROLOG F. 



WE gave in our last number the report of the Treasury 

 Committee on the administration of the Govern- 

 ment meteorological grant, and we shall now offer a few 

 remarks on it and on the evidence upon which it has been 

 founded, as contained in the Blue-book before us,^ The 

 expenditure is devoted to the meteorology of the ocean, 

 that is, to the part of it traversed by our ships and to that 

 of the British Isles. 



As regards the former, though much valuable work, 

 especially in the practical point of view, has been done, 

 this work belongs distinctly to a government department 

 of the Admiralty. It does not seem desirable that charts 

 for the direction of seamen should be made out according 

 to different methods by two institutions, supported by 

 national money. It is then proposed by the committee 

 that the charting work, together with the marine superin- 

 tendent of the Meteorological Office, who has done his 

 duty so well, should be transferred to the Hydrographic 

 Department of the Admiralty, while the scientific part 

 should be done in connection with investigations, including 

 observations both over land and sea. This appears a 

 most reasonable decision. 



Though the second part of the business of the Meteoro- 

 logical Office is limited to a small surface, yet it is one with 

 which we are more immediately concerned, and sur- 

 rounded as we are by the sea, this part really involves all 

 the modifications which surfaces of land and water may 

 produce on the actions of meteorological causes. It seems 

 to be supposed that observations on the ocean must 

 present meteorological variations in a much simpler form, 

 because the atmosphere rests on a surface which is at 

 once more level, and at a more constant temperature than 

 that of the land ; but it seems not to have been remarked 

 that the conditions under which the observations are made 

 are much more complex. If we could imagine a search 

 into the laws of continental meteorology founded on the 

 observations made by some passengers in railway trains 

 across France, Germany, and Russia, the difficulty of 

 piecing together observations of very various degrees of 

 merit for the deduction of even accurate means would be at 

 once evident ; that of searching forlaws would become still 

 more so. It is no doubt desirable that the meteorological 

 variations over water should be studied apart, but for this 

 end an observatory placed on some small island in mid- 

 ocean would be a more satisfactory way of obtaining the 

 nd in view. Whether this would aid in the search for 

 he causes of phenomena met with under very different 

 conditions in our latitudes is by no means certain. 



The department of the Meteorological Office occupied 

 jvith the meteorology of the British Isles, includes that 

 )f storm warnings ; indeed this is, at present, the great 

 Dractical work. There are numerous stations at which 

 ' eye " observations are made daily, and these are tele- 

 graphed to the central office in London. There are also 

 seven observatories having instruments which register 



I " Report of the Treasury Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Con- 

 litions and Mode of Administr:ition of the Annual Grant in aid of Meteoro- 

 ogical Observations ; together with Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, and 

 ndex." (London, 1877.) 



Vol. XV.— No. 385 



continuously the variations 'of the meteorological ele- 

 ments. The storm warnings are founded on the tele- 

 graphed observations ; the registered observations have a 

 different object. They can no doubt be employed after 

 warnings have been issued to verify the observations and 

 to satisfy any doubt that may have existed as to errors 

 committed, but their chief object, in the first instance, is 

 purely scientific. 



It has long been seen that storm warnings are not 

 founded upon laws that can be distinctly stated. Though 

 observations made over a considerable tract of country 

 are made use of, and a certain knowledge exists of rela- 

 tions between atmospheric pressure and winds, yet the 

 warnings depend to some extent upon a practical expe- 

 rience which, like that of the shepherd and sailor, cannot 

 easily be communicated to others. 



The seven observatories were established to obtain good 

 materials with which a scientific study might be founded 

 and from which laws might be deduced giving increased 

 probabilities of accurate prediction of the weather to- 

 morrow from our knowledge of what it is to-day. This 

 is not, however, the only use of the observatories. If all 

 the scientific precautions have been taken with respect to 

 them, they will in that case be to the meteorology of the 

 country what carefully measured base lines are to its 

 exact survey ; each will give a point to which the obser- 

 vations made around it may be referred and corrected. 



The great question before the Committee was how best 

 to aid in making meteorology a science — a science from 

 which practical results may be deduced. Millions of 

 meteorological observations have been made and pub- 

 lished ; the seven observatories are producing continuous 

 registers of the variations of barometric pressure, tempe- 

 rature, wind direction and force, &c. What is to be done 

 with all these ? Are we to go on piling Pelion on Ossa 

 with the idea that heaps of observations will enable us to 

 reach the mysteries they enclose ? And can the Govern- 

 ment be satisfied that they have done enough when they 

 present the public with volumes of observation in some- 

 thing of the way in which Hamlet offered his friend the 

 pipe — " Goveni these ventages with your fingers and 

 thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will dis- 

 course most eloquent music " ? 



The question then is how to get at the mysteries ; or 

 how to find a musician with breath enough to blow and 

 skill enough to draw harmonious sounds from this giant 

 pipe. We can only glance at parts of the testimony of 

 the most distinguished witnesses. 



When we remember that after a century ot research by 

 men of the greatest eminence — mathematicians, physi- 

 cists, meteorologists — we cannot tell why the air presses 

 heavier at ten o'clock than at four o'clock ; we see that 

 meteorological investigation includes some of the most 

 difficult scientific problems. With this fact in view, some 

 of the questions put to the witnesses would seem almost 

 comiques, did we not know that their object was to draw 

 out something of value in the reply. Thus, with reference 

 to finding a " man of genius to try and get something out 

 of the observations which have been made" (1,012), the 

 question (ijOiy) is put to Sir G. B. Airy : " But you would 

 hardly think it a safe thing to select, for instance, a young 

 man from Cambridge, and say to him : ' Now you must 

 take up this subject ' ? " When we remember, also, that 



X 



