March 22, 1877J 



NATURE 



449 



ocean mcteorolopry be transferred to the hydrographical depart- 

 ment of the Admiralty ; ihat the present system of collecting 

 daily information by telegraph and of issuing storm-warnings be 

 continued, an endeavour being made to put into clear shape, for 

 the information of the public, the maxims or principles upon which 

 ftorm- warnings in future are to be given ; that the issuing of 

 daily weather-charts be continued; that a ceitaln number of 

 continuously self-recording stations be retained ; that the present 

 system of supplementing self-recording observations by returns 

 from eye-obseriers, that is, from ordinary meteorological sta- 

 tions, be continued ; and, since the science of meteorology at 

 present F'ands in need of hy, (..thesis and discussion at least as 

 much as, if not more than, of observation, that a part of the 

 annual grant be appropriated to special researches, it resting with 

 the Meteorological Council to select the investigators and fix the 

 remuneration. Several of the recommendations are not put in 

 the clearest shape in the Report, whilst others, such as those 

 relating to the practical applications of the science, which con- 

 cern the investigation of the relations of weatlier to health and 

 agriculture, are so expressed as to suggest the idea that the 

 nature of the problems involved in these large national questions 

 has not been apprehended by the Commission, and consequently 

 no provision is made in the Report for their proper investigation. 



But by far the most important recommendations are those 

 which refer to the constitution and action of the Meteorological 

 Council, or new governing body, who are to be entrusted with 

 the control of the grant, and the relation of the Council to the 

 meteorological societies, which call for the gravest consideration. 

 The services of the Meteorological Committee of the Royal 

 Society are not to be continued, as suggested by some of its mem- 

 bers when under examination before the Commission, the reason 

 assigned being that it is not to be expected that they will continue 

 to give much valuable time to the work under the existing condi- 

 tions. It is proposed that the Royal Society be invited to recom- 

 mend to the Government persons eminent in science who shall con- 

 stitute the Meteorological Council, that they be fewer in number 

 than the present Committee, and that they Idc remunerated in the 

 shape of fees for attendance. This proposed reform as regards 

 the body to be entrusted with the control of the grant in future 

 is thus more nominal than real, and it is not improbable, look- 

 ing at the phraseology of this part of the Report, that the Meteo- 

 rological Council will be substantially the same as those who 

 form the present Meteorological Committee, the only difference 

 being that they will be fewer in number. 



The value of the work of the meteorological societies is ac- 

 knowledged, and it is recommended that co-operation with them 

 be fostered to the utmost . The amount, however, of the assist- 

 ance which the Commission recommends to be given to these 

 societies out of the Parliamentary Grant, is indicated in these 

 words of the Report (Art. 23) : — "No payments should be 

 made to them, except for results sought for by the Council." In 

 other words, no assistance, whatever, is to be given to the 

 meteorological societies out of the grant, because, these payments 

 being only for services rendered to the Meteorological Council, 

 cannot be regarded as grants to the societies, and they will 

 neither aid them in conducting their own operations, nor remu- 

 merate them for the services which have long been rendered, and 

 continue to be rendered, to Government Departments. 



It is not in this way that foreign countries foster the prosecu- 

 tion of meteorology by their different nationalities. Thus, 

 Hungary has its separate grant distinct from that of Austria 

 proper ; Norway has its grant distinct from Sweden ; many of 

 the Germanic States have their separate grants ; and, as the 

 readers of Nature are aware, France is divided into meteoro- 

 logical departments, all of which are subsidised by the State, 

 and their operations are aided, but not controlled, by the central 

 office in Paris. In all cases, this division of work and responsi- 

 bility is productive of greater economy and efficiency in carrying 

 on meteorological research. Voluntary local effort is in this way 

 evoked in a degree and to an extent not otherwise possible, 

 and the healthful principle of competition and mutual criticism, 

 so desirable in the present state of the science, is called into 

 active play. Surely some provision ought therefore to be made 

 by our own Government, to subsidise these societies, it being on 

 all hands admitted that voluntary subscriptions alone are inade- 

 quate for their permanent efficient maintenance. In no other 

 way can they be placed in a position to discharge the duty of a 

 public department in collecting statistics for the elucidation of 

 the climatology of a country in its details and practical appli- 

 cations. 



In the estimated expense of the Meteorological Office on its 



proposed new footing, I observe that \,<poi. is set down 

 annually for "New Land Stations," and in the appended out- 

 line of "Duties of Future Council," they are to place them- 

 selves in postal and therefore direct communication with about 

 150 secondary stations in the United Kingdom. What does this 

 mean ? Is it intended quietly but surely to supersede, and in a 

 few years supplant the meteorological societies — a course which 

 the Report not only permits to be done if the Council be so 

 minded, but also includes in the grant an annual sum of r,i;oo.'. 

 which may be so applied ? 



It cannot be supposed that any council, composed of persons 

 eminent in science, could be formed at present, possessing the 

 knowledge and technical training required to direct the conduct 

 of the whole field of meteorological research, both physical and 

 climatological. Certainly, keeping in mind the serious mistakes 

 made under the regime of the Meteorological Committee, and the 

 manner in which the work of the office has been conducted, to 

 both of which attention may here again he drawn, no other 

 result can reasonably be expected than that the programme, as 

 sketched in the Report of the Commission, is seriously in fault. 

 The fact that the work was not efficiently controlled, was no 

 doubt one of the main reasons of appointing the Commission ; 

 and, therefore, virtually to reappoint the same controlling body, 

 only under another name, armed with the means and powers as 

 proposed by the Commission, could scarcely fail to result in work 

 of a more or less unsatisfactory nature, and, besides, in an un- 

 necessarily increased expenditure of public money. 



It is difficult to see how this result can be obviated, except by 

 remitting the whole question of local climatology, including its 

 practical applications, to bodies located in each of the three 

 kingdoms, these societies being at the same time intrusted with 

 supplying the Registrar-General, as has been done in the past, 

 and such bodies as the Medical Coiracil and the agricultural 

 societies of the United Kingdom, with the information they 

 may require. If 1,000/. were given for this work to each of 

 the societies referred to, and 1,500/. to the Admiralty for the 

 work of ocean meteorology, there would still be 10,000/. for the 

 central office in London, to be devoted to the issue of storm 

 warnings and to the prosecution of the more purely physical re- 

 searches of meteorology, of which the science at present stands 

 so much in need, and which is so emphatically the proper work 

 of the central office : and in this case it need scarcely be added 

 that each of the societies would necessarily be represented on 

 the Meteorological Council. Zeta 



Centralism in Spectroscopy 



Permit me to repeat that happy remark of yours, and happy 

 because so true and of wider appUcation than the one meteoro- 

 logical case which called it forth, on p, 427 ; viz. : " We think 

 centralisation hurtful to science, and we regret that 1,000/. a- year 

 has not been granted to Scotland, by which a healthy rivalry 

 would have been gained." 



In the Anniversary Report of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 for last month will be seen a statement that the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, amongst a vast deal of other most undoubtedly 

 admirable work, is also now having a large spectroscope con- 

 structed on a totally new plan. How many spectroscopes that 

 observa'ory has had made for itself during the last twenty years 

 I do not know ! and I, for one single individual in the nation, 

 do not grudge this new one if it should realise only a third part 

 of the wonderful promises made for it. 



In the same Anniversary Report there is also a statement that 

 the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, has been in want of a proper 

 spectroscope for its special local observations for years and years 

 past ; and if at length there is one there now, almost good 

 enough for the required purposes, it is because such a one has 

 been recently made at the private expense of the Astronomer- 

 Royal for Scotland, although his salary is less than that of many 

 a clerk in London. 



Of this, also, I am told there is no reason to complain, be- 

 cause I accepted the situation in its poverty-stricken condition, 

 though when the nation itself was also poverty-stricken as com- 

 pared with its present truly heaven-favoured financial condition. 

 But what I do, merely as an individual, complain of is— that if the 

 new Greenwich spectroscope is to be the only one which the cen- 

 tralisation of the British Government in London allows to be 

 built up at the expense of the whole nation, out of taxes levied 

 in Ireland and Scotland as well as England, that it is being 

 made on a principle which goes against the laws of Sir Isaac 

 Newton'and nature, and which, though it may give with " two 



