July 5, 1877] 



NATURE 



193 



THE METEOROLOGY OF THE FUTURE 



A Vision 



T^REELY tianslated from the Japanese by one who is 

 -•• thankful that he does not live in Japan. The trans- 

 lator would remark that in importing our Western insti- 

 tutions it is of great consequence to appropriate likewise 

 the spirit which pervades them. " Dead flies cause the 

 ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking 

 savour" (old Eastern proverb). 



{N.B. — This translation is dedicated to the Council of the 

 Royal Society.) 



A QUIET people are the dead, 

 What stillness do they keep ! 

 The battle rageth overhead, 

 But marreth not their sleep. 



And yet that this is sometimes broke 

 Hath been revealed to me ; 

 'Twas in eighteen hundred and eighty-one 

 At the bottom of the sea. 



There lay poor Jack, his perils past, 

 No more to turn the quid, 

 Nor pipe his eye (since barnacles 

 Were feasting on the lid). 



Long thin sea- ropes in tangled coils 

 Were round and round him curl'd, 

 Yea, scaly things above him swam, 

 Down in that green sea-world. 



He could not weigh his anchor up. 

 He could not heave astern — • 

 And thus in my bewildered ear 

 He spun his doleful yarn. 



"'Twas not the storm that brought me here 

 " Jn Davy Jones's grip, 

 " But 'twas because my mates and me 

 " Sailed in a rotten ship." 



I answered him : But knowst thou not 

 That Plimsoll's noble band 

 Board every ship, and punch its ribs 

 Before it leaves the land. 



No rotten beam but would be seen 



By such a skilled detector — 



The dead man groaned — " Alas ! dear mate, 



" They jobbed the ship's inspector. 



" Not two hours' sailing from the Nore ' 

 " The wind began to veer, 

 " The storm was strong; the ship was weak, 

 " And we -were dtiven here." 



Belay ! belay ! thou man of Death, 

 Thy yarn won't hold together, 

 Dost thou not know we have a board 

 That telegraphs the weather .' 



A board that sits both night and day, 

 With facts and figures stored, 

 Why man alive ! — The dead man groaned — 

 " Alas they jobbed the board." 



Why dost thou groan thou man of death .' 

 Why so blaspheme and cuss } 

 Their chairman sure was not the tmith 

 To forge thy fetters thus .'' 



His was a mind of many sides, 

 Well filled with i; and b, 

 And .V and y, and likewise z — 

 " B2it he didn't know the sea." 



^ Of course this word does not occur in the original— only its Japanc 

 e uivalcnt. 



As thus he spake I forthwith said- 

 Well, even if this be true, 

 The captain makes not all the ship. 

 Now, what about the crew ? 



There's one I know—" Divine " doth best 

 Express his god-like presence ; 

 " He knew the sea but never dived 

 Beneath its phosphorescence." 



Then, 1 replied, there was a third. 

 In fame to none will yield, 

 He led the band who reaped renown 

 On India's famine field. 



Was he the man to see thee die .'' 



Thou wilt not tax him — come ? 



The dead man groaned — " / met my death 



Through a sun-spot Jiiaximum." 



One more — the rover of the crew — 

 Hath sailed o'er many seas ; 

 Come now, be reasonable, he — 



" Was busy shelli?!g peas." 



I wakened up in sheer disgust. 

 And to myself I said, 

 The living man for prejudice 

 Is beaten by the dead. 



THE SPECTRA OF CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS'^ 

 T N this paper Mr. Moser discusses the question, whether 

 ■*■ chemical compounds have a spectrum of their own 

 or whether they only show the superposed spectra of 

 their elements. To those who have worked at the sub- 

 ject the question can hardly be called an open one. 

 Ever since the too much neglected work of Mitcherlich 

 it was proved that each compound has its own charac- 

 teristic spectrum, and whatever evidence subsequent 

 workers have added to the question, the merit of having 

 decided it belongs solely to Mitcherlich. 



Nevertheless Mr. Moser's work is a valuable one and 

 for several reasons. Other questions still at issue are 

 intimately connected and cannot be discussed without 

 once more referring to Mitcherlich's work. Most of these 

 questions are not as yet amenable to strict proof but must 

 be decided by the common sense of those who work at 

 the subject. It is therefore of importance that as many 

 as possible should take up the question, and though each 

 worker may add little to the stock of knowledge, the con- 

 sensus of opinion, thus established, will advance the sub- 

 ject materially. It is a pleasure to find that Mr. Moser 

 has apparently arrived at the same theoretical views 

 which have formed the leading string during the last 

 years to the experimental work of Lockyer and others 

 in this country. Mr. Moser mentions the suggestion of 

 Prof Helmhohz that the line-spectra are due to the vibra- 

 tions of an atom while the band spectra are due to the more 

 complex molecule. This is precisely the view first put 

 forward by Lockyer, and it has thus received a striking 

 confirmation from an independent quarter. 



Mr. Moser experiments on the changes which certain 

 absorption spectra undergo by a variation first of the 

 thickness of the absorbing layer, and secondly of the 

 temperature. With regard to the variation of thickness 

 of the absorbing layer the conclusions seem simple 

 enough. The bands get darker and wider. The influence 

 of temperature is divided into two parts. On the great 

 majority of bands the increase of temperature has appa- 

 rently the same effect as an increase of mass ; that is, 

 it increases the absorption. 



It is more than probable that this increased absorption 

 is really due to an increase in the number of molecules 

 giving the absorption spectrum in question. If a gas is 



" By James Moser (Pr'te- Ann., vol. clx., p. 177.) 



