762 



NA TURE 



[December 9, 1922 



conference of the Museums Association and now pub- 

 lished in the Museums Journal (October 1922), supports 

 Lord Sudeley in his demand for a Royal Commission. 

 Mr. Bailey, who. as sometime secretary for the Circula- 

 tion Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum, 

 knows the provincial museums on their art side better 

 than most men, has no difficulty in making out a case 

 for reform. He is particularly strong on the unjust 

 and unequal incidence of the aid which, though 

 diminished, is still given to local museums by the 

 State through some of the national museums. The 

 officers of the Government establishments, always so 

 willing to help, would doubtless be glad to see the way 

 made clearer for them. Mr. Bailey's criticism on these 

 and other weaknesses is destructive. There are schemes 

 enough in the air, and he does not add to them. Ik- 

 asks, and he has induced the Museums Association to 

 ask, for a Royal Commission, so that any recommenda- 

 tions may ultimately be based on the fullest possible 

 knowledge. We agree fully that there is need for 

 reorganisation, and we believe that a large amount of 

 reform might be effected without material increase of 

 expenditure ; indeed, some of the obviously desirable 

 reforms would tend to economy. But, while we 

 sympathise with the request of the museum folk for 

 a Royal Commission, we fear that they are not now- 

 very likely to get it. The subject, indeed, deserves 

 serious discussion and it would be well to have various 

 proposals compared and investigated, so that when 

 changes are effected they may be guided by a definite 

 policy. Some inquiry, less expensive than that by a 

 Royal Commission, might elicit the information and 

 put forward an accepted ideal towards which all could 

 work. 



Any such inquiry should, however, approach the 

 subject on the broadest possible lines. The resolution 

 passed bv the Museums Association asks for a " report 

 upon the work of the museums of the United Kingdom 

 in relation to industries and general culture." The 

 importance of museums on the industrial side has been 

 recognised by the Federation of British Industries in 

 a recent report. " General culture " is an expression 

 that may include much or little ; presumably it is 

 intended to comprise scholastic education. But there 

 are the numerous activities of museums that aid the 

 extension and application of knowledge in ways that 

 do not seem to fall under these heads. Whatever their 

 subject-matter, and whatever their immediate and 

 distinctive aim, all museums work by the same method 

 — the accumulation, preservation, and demonstration 

 of concrete objects ; they are guided by the same 

 broad principles, and need the same kind of assistance. 

 Though they may be co-ordinated with other social 

 activities — industrial, educational, artistic, and the rest 

 NO. 2771, VOL. I 10] 



— they must not be confused with them. Any inquiry 

 therefore must deal with museums as such, in relation 

 to all their multifarious aims and activities, and must 

 seek to bring all into one harmonious collaboration 

 for the common weal. 



Meteorological Theory in Practice. 



(1) Weather Prediction by Numerical Process. By 

 Lewis F. Richardson. Pp. xii + 236. (Cambridge: 

 At the University Press, 1922.) 30s. net. 



(2) Forms whereon to Write the Numerical Calculations 

 described in " Weather Prediction by Numerical 

 Process." By Lewis F. Richardson. 23 forms. 

 (Cambridge : At the University Press, 1922.) 25. 



IN the book under notice Mr. L. F. Richardson 

 presents to us a magnum opus on weather pre- 

 diction. The numerical manipulation of the dynamics 

 and physics of the atmosphere is its mainspring ; but 

 there is a fine display of other works of an intricate 

 character. Its avowed object is nothing less than the 

 calculation of future events in weather ; and this by 

 inserting numerical values in seven fundamental 

 formulae, which, taken together, embody the essential 

 analysis of the sequence of weather. Three of the 

 equations express the time-rate of change of the 

 easterly, northerly, and vertical components of the 

 momentum of the air ; other three express the time- 

 rate of change of its density, water-content, and heat- 

 content respectively. The seventh is the characteristic 

 gas-equation for air ; it contains no differentials. 



The whole history of the atmosphere is to be unrolled 

 on computing by finite differences the changes in the 

 elements in terms of the changes of four independent 

 variables representing space of three dimensions 

 and time. The formulae all relate to an individual 

 sample of air in a column at a single point ; but the 

 calculation has to say what will happen to the whole 

 mass in the neighbourhood of every specified locality 

 within the region of observation. Hence representative 

 points are chosen for which the changes of the variables 

 are to be computed at a sufficient number of levels 

 to give a working idea of the changes in the weather. 

 The points are grouped in a lattice or chess-board 

 with each square 200 kilometres long, 3 of latitude 

 broad, and 2 decibars of pressure thick : the whole 

 atmosphere is thus treated as made up of 16,000 

 slab-units each weighing about half a billion tons. 

 What we call weather is represented by the physical 

 changes in the slabs. The standard time-interval 

 over which uniformity of change is preserved is six 

 hours. Observations of pressure and temperature are 

 taken for the centres of the " red " slabs of the chequer, 



