THE METEOROLOGY OF THE FUTURE 21 



THE METEOEOLOGY OF THE FUTUEE^ 



By Pbofessob CLEVELAND ABBE 



« TI. S. WEATHEB BCBEAC 



AFTEE some introductory remarks by Dr. Finley, president of the 

 College of the City of New York, Professor Abbe said : 



I think myself specially honored by these kindly words from the 

 president of the College of the City of New York. You all know how 

 thoroughly that noble institution has, during the past sixty years, 

 entrenched itself in the hearts of our citizens, and you know what Dr. 

 Finley is doing to carry its work forward. To it many of us owe those 

 youthful inspirations that have determined our careers in maturer life. 

 It is always a delight to me to recall the years 1851-1857 when at that 

 college I studied the foundations of modern physical science; mathe- 

 matics imder Docharty, descriptive geometry under Koerner, mechanics 

 under Nichols, physics and chemistry under Gibbs. Not to speak of 

 those other revered instructors, Owen in Latin and Greek, Anthon in 

 history, Duggan in architecture, Eoemer in French. Each one of these 

 is still to me a living inspiration. Such men do not die so long as their 

 words and lives continue vividly before us. It was worth living in 

 those days to have listened to the brilliant diction and witnessed the 

 successful experiments of Eobert Ogden Doremus in his lectures on the 

 Nebular Hypothesis. These admirable educators dealt with questions 

 that I have gradually come to see are intimately associated with our 

 atmospheric problems, though they themselves probably did not think 

 of such connection at that time. It may be said that every course of 

 study then pursued at that college has proved useful in the modem 

 development of meteorolog}'. Of course this is equally true of the 

 studies now pursued at Columbia University. May both that college 

 and this university in the future send forth many meteorologists and 

 others to benefit our city, our nation and our science. 



My task to-night is to be as difficult as the problem proposed of old 

 by Pharoah to Joseph. I am to tell you a dream of the future of science 

 and also the interpretation thereof. 



In the preceding nine lectures, my colleagues have given you some 

 idea of the present state of our knowledge of the atmosphere. Possibly 

 you may have already suspected that we know very little about the air 

 in which we live. You must not think less of the honest scholar when > 



*A public lecture, illustrated with experiments, at Columbia University, 

 March 16, 1909. 



