August 25. 1904] 



NA TURE 



399 



of increased national provision being made for 

 university education. The result of the action thus 

 taken by the president at the request of the council 

 has already been described in Nature (July 2i', 

 ]). 271). Several matters relating to the business of 

 the officers of sections were mentioned in the report, 

 and it was recommended that the following resolu- 

 tion sent to the council by the general committee for 

 consideration, should be acted upon : — 



That the sectional committees be continued in existence 

 until the new sectional committees are appointed, and be 

 authorised to bring to the notice of the council in the 

 interval between the annual meetings of the Association 

 any matter on which the action of the council may be 

 desired in the interests of the several sections, and that a 

 committee may be summoned at any time by the president 

 of the section, or by the council. 



Hitherto, the organisation of the work of the 

 sections, and the arrangement of the programme, have 

 been in the hands of the oflficers, but by this resolu- 

 tion the sectional committees are given a voice in 

 I he matter during the year between one meeting 

 .nid the next, instead of ceasing to exist at the close 

 nf the meeting at which the members are appointed, 

 riie sectional committees, as at present constituted, 

 are, however, so large as to be almost unmanageable 

 as working committees, and probably the simplest 

 practical way to secure continuity would be to select, 

 say half a dozen members, from each committee to 

 work with the officers during the year. The only 

 other plan would be to hmit the number of members 

 to be appointed upon the committee of each section. 

 The members of sectional committees are not, in 

 virtue of their membership, expected to take any 

 issenlial part in the work of a section, though they 

 mav, and occasionally do, attend the meetings of the 

 committees upon which they are appointed. In some 

 cases vice-presidents understand their functions to be 

 of the same negative significance, and neither attend 

 the meeting for which they are appointed, nor send 

 .1 limelv notice of their inability to do so. To avoid 

 this inconvenience the council has resolved that 

 gentlemen nominated as vice-presidents of sections 

 b" informed that their attendance at the meeting for 

 which they are nominated is expected. 



.Arrangements for the South African meeting in 

 i()05 have received much attention during the year 

 from a committee of council appointed for the purpose. 

 Thi- first half of the meeting will be held at Cape 

 ' Town and the second half at Johannesburg, and 

 ofticial visits of the Association will be made to Natal 

 and the Orange River Colony, in each of which 

 colonies one or more discourses will be delivered by 

 Ijrominent members of the Association. The meeting 

 will open at Cape Town on .Vugust 15, so that 

 members starting for South Africa at the end ol 

 July will be able to spend at least three weeks in the 

 colonies, and be back in England by the end of 

 .September. Prof. George Darwin will be the 

 president of this meeting. 



.■\t the meeting of the general conmiittee on 

 .Vugust 19 the invitation to meet at York in 190(1 

 was accepted unanimously. 



Ipon the proposal of Sir J. Dewar, seconded by 

 Sir \. Rijcker, Prof. J. Perry was elected to fill the 

 otTice of general treasurer, in succession to Dr. G. 

 Carey Foster, who has resigned that post. 



.\ vote of thanks to Sir Norman Lockyer for the 

 way in which he has discharged his presidential 

 duties was proposed by Sir Henry Roscoe and 

 ^econded by Prof. Perry, and carried unanimously, 

 as was also a similar vote of thanks to Dr. Carey 

 Koster, moved by Sir .A. Geikie and seconded by 

 Major Macmahon. 



NO. 18 I 7, VOL. 70] 



SECTION A. 



SLBSECTION, COSMIC.AL PHYSICS. 



Ope.m.xg Address bv Sir John Eliot, K.C.I.E., M..\., 

 F.R.S., Chairman of the Subsection. 

 When the suggestion was made to me that I should preside 

 over this important Subsection my first thoughts prompted 

 me to decline the honour. The position had been filled 

 during the past two years by two distinguished physicists, 

 both of whom had dealt chiefly with the problems and the 

 position of meteorological science, and hence I thought 

 that it should be offered to some representative of cosmical 

 physics. I also doubted whether an official meteorologist 

 whose time has been chiefly given up to duties of adminis- 

 tration could have anything of interest to communicate to 

 you. However, on fuller consideration it occurred to me 

 that I might be able to place before you some features of 

 Indian meteorology leading up to and assigning, as I 

 hope, adequate reasons for the study of a portion of the 

 field of tropical meteorology as a whole. 



My address consists of three parts, viz. : 



(i) .\ brief sketch of the broad features of the meteor- 

 ology of India in their relations to the general meteorology 

 of the Indo-oceanic region. 



(2) Statement of abnormal features of the meteorology 

 of that area for the unique period 1892-1902 illustrating 

 the remarks in the preceding sketch. 



(3) .Suggestion of the co-ordination of the meteorological 

 observations of the British Empire and the creation of a 

 central office for the investigation of problems of general 

 meteorology. 



India is the most typical example of monsoon conditions, 

 that is, of opposite air movements of six-monthly period 

 which, in its case, depend on the annual temperature changes 

 in the sea and land areas of the Indian Ocean and con- 

 tinent of Asia. The monsoon conditions in India are in- 

 tensified by its unique position and topography. It projects 

 southwards into the Indian seas over 15° of latitude, and 

 is protected northwards by the vast barrier of the Himalaya 

 Mountain range and Tibetan plateau. The axis of the 

 Himalayan range is at least 2000 miles in length and has 

 an average elevation of more than 20,000 feet. The extent 

 of country more than 10,000 feet in elevation to the north 

 of India is from 300 to 500 miles in width. These figures 

 will give some idea of the magnitude of India's northern 

 barrier. 



During one period of the year there is an outflow in the 

 lower atmosphere from land to sea. The direction of the 

 lower air drift in India is determined in part by the lie 

 of the mountains and river valleys, and is from north-east 

 over the greater part of the Indian seas. January is the 

 month most typical of this air movement and of the accom- 

 panying weather conditions. 



During another portion of the year the lower horizontal 

 air movement is from sea to land. This movement is much 

 steadier and more powerful and influential in every respect 

 than the former. July and August are the months most 

 representative of the totality of the weather conditions of 

 this period. 



Conditions similar to those of January prevail in their 

 entirety from about the middle of December to the end of 

 February or middle of March — the period known in India 

 as the cold weather or cool season. The lower horizontal 

 air movement in India during the period has its origin 

 in Upper India, where it is very feeble, and whence it 

 increases seawards and is of moderate force in the Bay 

 of Bengal (mean force 2 to 3, Beaufort scale) and the 

 .Arabian Sea (mean, 2 to 4). It is fed to a certain extent 

 by drift down the river valleys, and passes in the North- 

 West India frontier hill ranges. There is, on the other 

 hand, no general drift down the Himalayan river valleys 

 or across the main ranges from Central .Asia. The normal 

 air movement in the Western Himalayas (and perhaps the 

 whole range) is an alternating up and down, or day-and- 

 night movement, depending upon the diurnal heating and 

 cooling of the plains of Northern India. Hence India (in 

 its lower air movement) is at this time completely shut off 

 from Central Asia. 



The lower air movement is continued over the Indian 

 seas southwards to a region of vertical movement over a 

 narrow belt a little to the south of the equator. This belt 



