September 17, 1903] 



NATURE 



469 



satisfactory knowledge of the laws governing the weather 

 would be unimportant from any point of view. Will you 

 take the British Isles on the eastern shores of the Atlantic, 

 th'! great meteorological laboratory of the world, with the 

 far-reaching interests of their carrying trade ; or India, 

 where the phenomena of the monsoon show most con- 

 spicuously the effects of the irregular distribution of land, 

 th-^ second great meteorological cause, and where recurring 

 famines still overstrain the resources of administration. 

 Take the Australasian colonies and the Cape, which, with 

 th-? Argentine Republic, where Mr. Davis is developing so 

 admirably the methods of the Weather Bureau, constitute 

 the only land projections into the great southern ocean, the 

 region of " planetary meteorology " • Australia, with its 

 periods of paralysing drought ; the Cape, where the adjust- 

 ment of crops to climate is a question of the hour ; or take 

 Canada, which owns at the same time a granary of enor- 

 mous dimensions and a large portion of the Arctic Circle ; 

 or take the scattered islets of the Atlantic and Pacific or 

 the shipping that goes wherever ships can go. The merest 

 glance will show that we stand to gain more by scientific 

 knowledge, and lose more by unscientific ignorance of the 

 weather, than any other country. The annual loss on 

 account of the weather would work out at no inconsiderable 

 sum per head of the population, and the merest fraction of 

 success in the prevention of what science must regard as 

 preventable loss would compensate for half a century of 

 expenditure on meteorological offices. Or take a less selfish 

 view and consider for a moment our responsibilities to the 

 general community of nations, the advantages we possess 

 as occupying the most important posts of observation. If 

 the meteorology of the world were placed, as perhaps it 

 ought to be, in. the hands of an International Commission, 

 it can be no exaggeration to say that a considerable majority 

 of the selected sites for stations of observation would be on 

 British soil or British ships. We cannot help being the 

 most important agency for promoting or for obstructing 

 the extension of meteorological science. I say this bluntly 

 and perhaps crudely because I feel sure that ideas not 

 dissimilar from these must occasionally suggest themselves 

 to every meteorologist, British or foreign ; and if they are 

 to be expressed — and I think you will agree with me that 

 they ought to be — a British meteorologist ought to take the 

 responsibility of expressing them. 



And how does our academic organisation help us in this 

 matter of more than parochial or even national importance? 

 There was a time when Meteorology was a recognised 

 member of the large physical family and shared the paternal 

 affection of all professors of Physics ; but when the poor 

 nestling began to grow up and develop some individuality 

 electricity developed simultaneously with the speed of a 

 young cuckoo. The professors of Phvsics soon recognised 

 that the nest was not large enough for both, and with a 

 unanimity which is the more remarkable because in some 

 of these academic circles utilitarianism is not a condition 

 of existence, and pure science, not market value, might be 

 the dominant consideration — with singular unanimity the 

 science which bears in its left hand, if not in its right, 

 sources of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice was recog- 

 nised as a veritable Isaac, and the science wherein the 

 fruits of discovery must be free for all the world, and in 

 which there is not even the most distant prospect of making 

 a fortune — that science was ejected as an Ishmael. Elec- 

 trical engineering has an abundance of academic repre- 

 sentatives ; brewing has its professorship and its corps of 

 students, but the specialised physics of the atmosphere has 

 ceased to share the academic hospitality. So far as I know 

 the British universities are unanimous in dissembling their 

 love for Meteorology as a science, and if they do not actually 

 kick it downstairs they are at least content that it has no 

 encouragement to go up. In none is there a professorship, 

 a lectureship, or even a scholarship, to help to form the 

 nucleus of that corps of students which may be regarded 

 as the primary condition of scientific development. 



Having cut the knot of their difficulties in this very 

 human but not very humane method, the universities are, 

 I think, disposed to adopt a method of justification which 

 is not unusual in such cases ; indications are not wanting 

 which disclose an opinion that Meteorology is, after all, 

 not a science. There are, I am aware, some notable ex- 

 ceptions ; but do I exaggerate if I say that when university 



NO. 1768, VOL. 68] 



professors are kind enough to take an interest in the labours 

 of meteorologists, who are doing their best amid many 

 discouragements, it is generally to point out that their 

 work is on the wrong lines ; that they had better give it 

 up and do something else? And the interest which the 

 universities display in a general way is a good-humoured 

 jest about the futility of weather prophecy, and the kindly 

 suggestion that the improvement in the prediction of the 

 next twenty-four hours' weather is a natural limit to the 

 orbit of an Ishmaelite's ambition. 



In these circumstances such an Address as Prof. 

 Schuster's is very welcome : it recognises at least a scien- 

 tific brotherhood and points to the responsibility for a 

 scientific standard ; it even displays some of the character- 

 istics of the Good Samaritan, for it offers his own beast 

 on which to ride, though it recommends the unfortunate 

 traveller to dispose of what little clothing the stripping has 

 left to provide the two pence for the host. 



It is quite possible that the unformulated opinion of the 

 vast majority of people in this country who are only too 

 familiar with the meteorological vagaries of the British 

 Isles is that the weather does just as it pleases ; that any 

 day of the year may give you an August storm or a 

 January summer's day ; that there are no laws to be dis- 

 covered, and that the further prosecution of so unsatis- 

 factory a study is not worth the time and money already 

 spent upon it. They forget that there are countries where, 

 to judge by their languages, the weather has so nearly the 

 regularity of " old time " that One word is sufficient to do 

 duty for both ideas. They forget that our interests extend 

 to many climates, and that the characteristics of the eastern 

 shores of the North Atlantic are not appropriate to, say, 

 western Tropical Africa. That may be a sufficient explan- 

 ation of the attitude of the man in the street, but as regards 

 the British universities dare I offer the difficulty of the 

 subject as a reason for any want of encouragement? Or 

 shall I say that the general ignorance on the part of the 

 public of the scientific aspirations and aims of meteorologists 

 and of the results already obtained is a reason for the 

 universities to keep silence on the subject? With all re- 

 spect I may say that the aspect which the matter presents 

 to official meteorologists is that the universities are some- 

 what oblivious of their responsibilities and their oppor- 

 tunities. 



I have no doubt that it will at once be said that Meteor- 

 ology is supported by Government funds, and that alma 

 mater must keep her maternal affection and her exiguous 

 income for subjects that do not enjoy State support. I do 

 not wish just now to discuss the complexities of alma 

 mater's housekeeping. I know she does not adopt the same 

 attitude with regard to astronomy, physics, geology, miner- 

 alogy, zoology, or botany, but let that pass. From the 

 point of view of the advancement of science I should like 

 to protest against the idea that the care of certain branche* 

 of science by the State and by the universities can be re- 

 garded as alternative. The advancement of science de- 

 mands the co-operation of both in their appropriate ways. 

 As regards Meteorology, in my experience, which I acknow- 

 ledge is limited, the general attitude towards the depart- 

 ment seems to be dictated by the consideration that it must 

 be left severely alone in order to avoid the vicious precedent 

 of doing what is, or perhaps what is thought to be. Govern- 

 ment work without getting Government pay, and the result 

 is an almost monastic isolation. 



There is too much isolation of scientific agencies in this 

 country. You have recently established a National Physical 

 Laboratory the breath of whose life is its association with 

 the working world of physics and engineering, and you 

 have put it — where? At Cambridge, or anywhere else 

 where young physicists and engineers are being trained? 

 No ; but in the peaceful seclusion of a palace in the country, 

 almost equidistant from Cambridge, Oxford, London, and 

 everywhere else. You have established a Meteorological 

 Office, and you have put it in the academic seclusion of 

 Victoria Street. What monastic isolation is good for I do 

 not know. I am perfectly certain it is not good for the 

 scientific progress of Meteorology. How can one hope for 

 effective scientific development without some intimate 

 association with the institutions of the country, which stand 

 for intellectual development and the progress of science? 



I could imagine an organisation which by association of 



