404 



NA TURE 



[August 24, 1905 



honour of the association was held at the City Hall. 

 The degree of Doctor of Science was conferred 

 upon:— Prof. G. H. Darwin, F.R.S. ; Sir William 

 Crookes, F.R.S. ; Sir David Gill, K.C.B., F.R.S. ; 

 Prof. Porter, of Montreal; Prof. Davis, of Harvard 

 University; Dr. Baclilund, director of the Imperial 

 Observatory, Pulkowa, Russia; Prof, Bohr, Copen- 

 hagen; P'rof. Engler, Berlin; Prof. Kapteyn, 

 Groningen University ; Prof. Penck, Vienna ; and Dr. 

 Sjogren, Stockholm. 



At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Vice- 

 Chancellor, Sir John Buchanan, read the following 

 telegram from the Prince of Wales, Chancellor of the 

 university : — " I desire to offer my hearty welcome 

 to the members of the British Association who to-day 

 receive our honorary degrees. — George, Chancellor." 



The members of the association arrived at Durban 

 on Tuesday, and were publicly welcomed in the City 

 Hall, the Mayor of Durban, who was in the chair, 

 expressing his confidence that the meetings would 

 prove beneficial to mankind by widening the bound- 

 aries of scientific knowledge and by inculcating a 

 deeper interest in scientific research. 



In returning thanks on behalf of the association. 

 Prof. Darwin is reported by Renter to have said : — 



It was exactly seventy years since His Majesty's ship 

 Beagle, engaged in an historical expedition, sighted the 

 coast somewhere about the latitude of Natal. At that 

 time Durban was only a small village in the interior, 

 entirely in the hands of the Zulus. It was a fact not 

 hitherto recorded anywhere that his father, who was on 

 board the Beagle, was anxious that Captain Fitzroy should 

 put him ashore in order that he might make his way 

 on foot or on horseback, or as best he could, to Cape 

 Town. But it came on to blow, and the Beagle was 

 unable to send a boat ashore. He felt that the chances 

 which his father had of reaching Cape Town alive were 

 so slight that he might say his presence on the platform 

 that day was the result of a puff of wind. 



The annual report of the council for the year 

 ^904-5 was presented to the general committee at 

 Cape Town on August 15. It is devoted chiefly 

 to a statement of what action has been taken in 

 connection with a resolution from the committee of 

 the section of mathematics and physics expressing 

 the opinion that the organisation of a Central Meteor- 

 ological^ Department for the British Empire would be 

 of the highest benefit to the progress of meteorological 

 science and its application to the economic problems 

 of the various colonies and dependencies. The re- 

 solution was referred to a committee consisting of 

 Dr. A. Buchan, Dr. H. R. Mill, Dr. Shaw, and the 

 general officers, to consider and report thereon to 

 the council; and the memorandum drawn up by the 

 committee and approved by the council on March 3 

 is abridged below : — 



There is at present no provision for the systematic treat- 

 ment of the meteorology of the British dominions. Observ- 

 ations of various kinds are made in nearly all the British 

 colonies and dependencies, and summaries of these observ- 

 ations are generally included in the respective official 

 publications. India, Ceylon, Canada, the several States of 

 Australia, New Zealand, Mauritius, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, and the Transvaal have organised meteorological 

 establishments and issue regular meteorological publi- 

 cations. Information with regard to the meteorology of 

 the Crown colonies and protectorates is to be found in 

 the Blue-books of the several dominions. 



There is no provision for the coordination of the methods 

 of observing, the instruments employed, or the presentation 

 of^ results. The want of a satisfactory system of coordin- 

 ating the observations from the several' dominions is to 

 be deplored from two points of view — the economic and 

 the scientific. 



From the economic point of view, it is eminently 

 desirable that facilities should be given for the comparison 

 of the climatic features of the regions available for settle- 

 NO. 1869, VOL. 72] 



ment and the conditions which affect various industries. 

 At present it is possible to obtain a certain amount of 

 information for an individual colony by reference to 

 colonial Blue-books, but the data are of very different 

 orders of completeness ; and to ascertain in which colonies 

 specified climatic conditions are to be found would be a 

 labour of such difllculty as to be practically prohibitive. 

 The Board of Trade publish a certain number of tables of 

 meteorological results among their colonial statistics, but 

 something of a more comprehensive character is required. 

 From the scientific point of view the regular issue of the 

 meteorological data for the British colonies in a published 

 and easily accessible form is urgently desired by meteor- 

 ologists of all countries. 



But there is another aspect from which the scientific 

 treatment of meteorological data must be regarded as 

 having an important bearing upon the economic interests 

 of remote parts of the Empire. Sir John Eliot, in his 

 address to the British .\ssociation meeting at Cambridge, 

 pointed out how the study of the meteorological conditions 

 of the Indian Ocean and the bordering countries had been 

 already applied to problems affecting the economic con- 

 ditions of India as depending upon the variation of the 

 monsoon rainfall, and he gave reasons for believing that 

 the further prosecution of the inquiry promises valuable 

 results for India, .Australia, South and East Africa, and 

 other countries bordering on the Indian Ocean if provision 

 were made for dealing with the meteorological problem in 

 a comprehensive manner with reference to the Indian 

 Ocean as a whole. 



Similar reasoning may be held to apply also to other 

 oceanic areas, in or on the border of which British colonies 

 are situated. In this connection it should, perhaps, be 

 mentioned that the control of the meteorological organisa- 

 tion of the British West Indies is already passing into 

 the hands of the United States. As a result of Sir John 

 Eliot's representation, the attention of the council of the 

 British Association has been directed to the advantages 

 likely to accrue from the organised study of the meteor- 

 ological problems affecting various groups of British 

 dominions. 



It has been further pointed out that such organised 

 study can be most effectively secured by the establishment 

 of a central institution devoted to these objects. Such 

 an institution ought to be in close connection with the 

 Meteorological Office, which is itself in regular corre- 

 spondence with the meteorological organisations of foreign 

 countries as well as those of the self-governing colonies. 

 The meteorology of the ocean has been an essential part 

 of the work of the office from its establishment in 1854, 

 and oceanic data must necessarily be appealed to for the 

 effective study of the meteorology of the neighbouring 

 land areas. 



By way of summary, the objects of the suggested insti- 

 tution may be briefly stated to be : — 



(i) To give any information that may be required to 

 the Governments or other authorities of the British 

 dominions as to instruments and methods to be adopted 

 for an effective system of meteorological observations. 



(2) To compile and publish periodical reports upon the 

 climatic conditions of the various parts of the Empire upon 

 a comparable plan. To form an accessible depository of 

 information upon matters concerning the climates of the 

 whole Empire, and to afford information upon those sub- 

 jects to inquirers. 



(3) To provide a scientific staff for the study of the 

 general meteorological conditions which affect the weather 

 In the various British dominions, and in particular to 

 promote the formulation of meteorological laws, and to 

 apply them to explain and ultimately to anticipate the 

 occurrences of abnormal seasons. 



A copy of this memorandum was forwarded to the 

 Colonial Office, with a covering letter suggesting that 

 the question might be moved bv a deputation to the 

 Secretary of State. In reply, Mr. Lyttelton said that, 

 whilst sympathisina: with the object which the council 

 had in view, he did not think that there would be 

 any advantage in receiving a deputation until he was 

 in possession of further information on the subject. 

 In satisfaction of this request, the committee drafted 



