468 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1903 



wise the importance of increased national provision 

 being made for University education. 



A recommendation was received from Section A 

 referring to a suggestion from the International 

 Meteorological Committee. At a meeting of that 

 committee on September ii it was decided to direct 

 the attention of Section A to the inconveniences 

 which arise from lack of uniformity in the units- 

 adopted in meteorological observations, and to ask 

 it to consider if the time has not come for bringing 

 about this uniformity. Acting upon this suggestion, 

 the committee of Section A expressed the opinion " that 

 the introduction of international uniformity in the 

 units adopted for the records of meteorological observ- 

 ations would be of great practical advantage to 

 science." The committee of recommendations was 

 asked to take such steps as it may think fit toward 

 giving effect to the above resolutions. It was decided 

 that the matter should be sent to the council through 

 the general committee. 



It was resolved to ask the council to consider whether 

 the form of the daily journal of the Association should 

 not be changed so that a provisional list of arrange- 

 ments for the reading of papers could be published 

 in the journal at as early a date as possible. 



The committee also decided to forward the follow- 

 ing recommendation to the council : — 



"It is desirable that further steps should be taken 

 to make the reports (as distinguished from papers) 

 communicated to the Association more accessible to 

 the general public by the provision of indices to the 

 published volumes and otherwise." 



The following is a synopsis of the grants made 

 at the meeting just concluded :— 



Mathematics and Physics. 



Rayleigh, Lord — Electrical Standards... Unexpended balance 



Judd, Prof. J. W. — Seismological Observations ... ;^40 



Shaw, Dr. W, N. — Upper Atmosphere Investigations 50 



and unexpended balance 



Preece, Sir W. H. — Magnetic Observations 60 



Chemistry. 

 Roscoe, Sir H. — Wave-length Tables of Spectra ... 10 

 Divers, Prof. E. — Study of Hydroaromatics ... ... 25 



Geology. 



Marr, Mr. J. E.— Erratic Blocks 10 



and balance in hand 

 Scharff, Dr. R. F.— To Explore Irish Caves Balance 



in hand 

 Watts, Prof. W. — Movements of Underground Waters 



Balance in hand 

 Marr, Mr. J. E. — Life Zones in Carboniferous Rocks... 35 

 Herdman, Prof. — Fauna and Flora of the Trias ... 10 

 Lamplugh, Mr. G. W. — To Investigate Fossiliferous 



Drifts 50 



Zoology. 

 Hickson, Prof. S. J. — Zoological Table at Naples ... 100 



Woodward, Dr. H. — Index Animalium 60 



Weldon, Prof. — Investigations in Development in the 



Frog 15 



Hickson, Prof. S. J. — Researches on the Higher Crus- 

 tacea 15 



Economic Science and Statistics. 

 Cannan, Dr. E. — British and Foreign Statistics of 



International Trade 25 



Mechanical Science. 

 Thornycroft, Sir J. J. — Resistance oif Road Vehicles 



to Traction 90 



Anthropology. 

 Evans, Sir John — Archaeological and Ethnological Re- 

 searches in Crete 100 



Munro, Dr. R. — Researches in Glastonbury Lake 



Village ••• 25 



Macalister, Prof. A. — Anthropometric Investigation 



on Egyptian Troops 10 



NO. 1768, VOL. 68] 



Evans, Dr. A. J. — Excavations on Roman Sites in 



Britain ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 



Physiology. 

 Halliburton, Prof. — The State of Solution of Proteids 20 

 Gotch, Prof. — Metabolism of Individual Tissues ... 40 



Botany. 

 Vines, Prof. S. H. — Completion of Monograph on 



Potamogeton ... ... ... ... ... ... 10 



Miall, Prof. L. C. — Botanical Photographs 5 



Ward, Prof. M. — Respiration of Plants 15 



Ward, Prof. M. — Experimental Studies in Heredity ... 35 



Corresponding Societies. 



Whitaker. Mr. W. 



;^90O 



SECTION A. 



SUB-SECTION OF ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 



Opening Address by W. N. Shaw, Sc.D., F.R.S., 

 Chairman of the Sub-Section. 



Methods of Meteorological Investigation. 



In opening the proceedings of the Sub-section devoted to 

 Cosmical Physics, which we may take to be the application 

 of the methods and results of Mathematics and Physics to 

 problems suggested by observations of the earth, the air, or 

 the sky, I desire permission to call your attention to some 

 points of general interest in connection with that depart- 

 ment which deals with the air. My justification for doing 

 so is that this is the first occasion upon which a position 

 in any way similar to that which I am now called upon to 

 fill has been occupied by one whose primary obligations 

 are meteorological. That honour I may with confidence 

 attribute to the desire of the Council of the Association to 

 recognise the subject so admirably represented by the dis- 

 tinguished men of science who have come across the seas 

 to deliberate upon those meteorological questions which are 

 the common concern of all nations, and whom we are 

 specially glad to welcome as members of this Sub-section. 

 Their presence and their scientific work are proof, if proof 

 is required, that meteorologists cannot regard meteorological 

 problems as dissociable from Section A ; that the prosecu- 

 tion of meteorological research is by the study of the kine- 

 matics, the mechanics, the physics, or the mathematics of 

 the data compiled by laborious observation of the earth's 

 atmosphere. 



But this is not the first occasion upon which the Address 

 from the Chair of the Sub-section has been devoted to 

 Meteorology. Many of you will recollect the trenchant 

 manner in which a university professor, himself a meteor- 

 ologist, an astronomer, a physicist, and a mathematician, 

 dealt candidly with the present position of Meteorology. 

 After that Address I am conscious that I have no claim to 

 be called a meteorologist according to the scientific standard 

 of Section A. Prof. Schuster has explained — and I cannot 

 deny it — that the responsible duty of an office from which 

 I cannot dissociate myself is signing weather reports ; and 

 I could wish that the duty of making the next Address had 

 been intrusted to one of my colleagues from across the sea. 

 But as Prof. Schuster has set forth the aspect of official 

 meteorology as seen from the academic standpoint with a 

 frankness and candour which I think worthy of imitation, 

 I shall endeavour to put before you the aspect which the 

 relation between Meteorology and academic science wears 

 from the point of view of an official meteorologist whose 

 experience is not long enough to have hardened into that 

 most comfortable of all states of mind, a pessimistic con- 

 tentment. 



Meteorology occupies a peculiar position in this country. 

 From the point of view of Mathematics and Physics, the 

 problems which the subject presents are not devoid of 

 interest, nor are they free from that difficulty which should 

 stimulate scientific effort in academic minds. They afford 

 a most ample field for the display of trained intellect, and 

 even of genius, in devising and applying theoretical and 

 experimental methods. And can we say that the work is 

 unimportant? Look where you will over the countries 

 which the British Association may be supposed to repre- 

 sent, either directly or indirectly, and say where a more 



