650 HISTORY OF SCIENCE. 



well-known flint implements, the discovery of which attracted so much 

 attention when it was announced in 1847 by M. Boucher de Perthes 

 that he had found stone implements in the gravel-pits near Abbeville. 

 Flint implements had, however, been found more than twenty years 

 before this in a cave called Kent's Hole, near Torquay; but little 

 notice had been taken of the circumstance. The reality of Boucher de 

 Perthes' discoveries was discredited, and it was not until Mr. Prest- 

 wich visited the site in 1858 that geologists were aroused to the fact 

 that evidence of the existence of mankind in a geological epoch had 

 been obtained. Since that period flint implements have been found 

 in great numbers in various parts of the world, and the inference that 

 mankind existed on the earth at a very remote period seems to have 

 been confirmed by other discoveries. Its correctness has, however, 

 been called in question by some. 



There is one branch of the general science of the earth which is 

 almost universally interesting, and is in some degree studied by nearly 

 every one. It is occupied with the investigation of the phenomena 

 that specially belong to the aerial ocean at the bottom of which we live, 

 and move, and have our being. This science seeks to ascertain the 

 laws which govern storms and tempests, and to foretell their approach. 

 That in late years great progress has been made in our knowledge of 

 Meteorology is evident from the regular publication in our daily papers 

 of scientific predictions of the state of the general weather for the next 

 twenty-four hours in a certain number of districts into which the country 

 is divided. The means by which it has been found possible to accom- 

 plish this, and generally the progress of meteorology in recent times, 

 can hardly fail to possess a certain attractiveness, though the progress 

 of discovery here does not present us with any of those springs and 

 bounds that lend a quasi-dramatic interest to certain other paths of 

 research. Countless observations and registrations of the readings of 

 a few known indicating instruments, and the collation of an immense 

 mass of facts, which have thus been gathered now by one person and 

 now by another, do not offer any striking materials for these pages. 

 And in truth meteorology has yet to make good its claim to be con- 

 sidered as an exact science. The subjects of meteorology are the 

 motions, temperature, and other conditions of the atmosphere. It 

 belongs, therefore, to the group of sciences which deal with the con- 

 dition of our planet generally. To foretell the weather at any given 

 place is no doubt an extremely useful application of the science, even 

 when the prediction applies only to the next few hours. As knowledge 

 increases, it will doubtless be found possible to extend the period over 

 which the forecast applies, and give the forecast itself with increased 

 confidence. 



Meteorology is by no means a new study. Three centuries before 

 the commencement of our era Aristotle wrote a treatise, TO, nerkupa, 

 " the things above the earth." Nevertheless, scientific knowledge of 



