430 



A' A TURE 



[SErTEMBER 3, I908 



Office aione, but I believe that the responsible officials of 

 any scientific Government department will agree with what 

 1 say. 



^'ear bv year some Timotheiis " with his sounding flute 

 and tuneful lyre " performs some miracle by the applica- 

 tion of reasoning to the phenomena of Nature. Only last 

 vear vou heard Prof. Love in his presidential address treat 

 of the mundane question of the shape of the earth and 

 otherealise the grim actualities with the magic of his 

 spherical harmonics. Year by year, in every one of the 

 subjects in w-hich the practical world is immediately in- 

 terested, active students, whether public officials, academic 

 officials, or private enthusiasts, not only keep alight the 

 sacred flame but occasionally add to its brilliance ; and all 

 the new knowledge, from whencesocver it comes, ought to 

 be applied to the service of the State. 



The actual volume of original contributions on these sub- 

 jects is by no means inconsiderable. You are all aware 

 that, some years ago, the Royal Society initiated a great 

 international enterprise for the compilation of a catalogue 

 of scientific literature. I have been looking at the fifth 

 annual issue of the volume on meteorology, including ter- 

 restrial magnetism. I may remark that the catalogue is 

 quite incomprehensibly eclectic as regards official literature, 

 but let that pass. I find that, in the year that closed with 

 July, 1907, 1042 authors (not counting offices and institu- 

 tions as such) presented to the world 2 131 papers on 

 meteorology, 220 on atmospheric electricity, and iSo on ter- 

 restrial magnetism. This will give some idea of the 

 annual growth in these subjects, and may convince you 

 that, after all allowance is made for duplicate titles, for 

 papers of no importance, and for mere sheets of figures 

 published for purposes of reference, there remains a bulk of 

 liierature too large for any single individual to cope with if 

 ho has anything else to do. 



If instead of confining ourselves to w'hat can be included 

 in meteorology alone we extend our view over the other 

 allied sciences, it would be necessary to take- in other 

 volumes of the international catalogue, and there would be 

 some overlapping. I have taken instead the volume of the 

 *' Fortschritte der Phvsik " for 1Q06, which deals with 

 " Kosmische Physik." It is edited by Prof. .Assmann, \vho 

 adds to his distinction as head of the Royal Prussian 

 Aeronautical Observatory of Lindenberg that of an accom- 

 plished bibliographer. In this volume are given abstracts 

 or titles of the papers published during the year which can 

 be repardod as worthy of the attention of a physicist. An 

 examination of the volume gives the following numbers of 

 (he papers in the different sections : — 



P.ipers 

 Astro-Physics ... ... ... ... ... 222 



Meteorology ... ... ... .. ... 1122 



Atmospheric Electricity ... ... ... ... 135 



Geophysics : 



Geodetics ... ... 105 



Seismology and Volcanic Phenomena 2i6 

 Terrestrial Magnetism and Aurora ... loS 

 Currents, Tides, and Waves... ... 46 



Inland Hydrography ... ... ... I17 



Ice, Glaciers, and Ice Age ... ... 139 



Other papers ... 126 



Sq7 



Total 2376 



I need hardly say that these 2376 papers are not all 

 English ; in some of the sections few of them are in that 

 language, and fewer still are British. If British students, 

 official and unoflicial, are to make the most of the oper- 

 ation of drawing the angels down, they need help and co- 

 operation in dealing with this mass of literature, in win- 

 nowing the important from the unimportant, and in 

 assimilating that which makes for the real progress of the 

 practical application of science. This is the more neces- 

 sary for these subjects because there is no organised sys- 

 tem of academic teaching, with its attendant system of 

 text-books. In a subject which has many university 

 teachers it might reasonably be supposed that any im- 

 portant contribution would find its way into the text-books, 

 which are constantly revised for the use of students ; and 

 yet in his presidential address to the Royal Society in 

 November of last year, Lord Rayleigh felt constrained to 



NO. 2027, VOL. 78] 



point out that, for the advance of science, although the 

 main requirement is original work of a high standard, that 

 alone is not sufficient. " The advances made must be 

 secured, and this can hardly be unless they are appreciated 

 by the scientific public." He adds that " the history of 

 science shows that important original work is liable to be 

 overlooked and is, perhaps, the more liable the higher the 

 degree of originality. The names of T. Young, Mayer, 

 Carnot, Waterston, and B. Stewart will suggest themselves 

 tj the physicist, and in other branches, doubtless, similar 

 lists might be made of workers whose labours remained 

 neglected for a shorter or longer time." 



If this is true of physics how deplorably true it is of 

 meteorologv. If I allow a liberal discount of more than 50 

 per cent, from the numbers that I have given, and estimate 

 the number of effective contributions to meteorology as 

 recognised by the " International Catalogue " at a 

 thousand, which agrees pretty well with that given by the 

 "Fortschritte der Physik," and if I were to ask round 

 this room the number of these papers read by anvone here 

 present, I am afraid the result would be disheartening. 

 Many of us have views as to the way in which the study of 

 meteorology ought to be pursued, but the views are not 

 always based on an exhaustive examination of the writings 

 of meteorologists. Few of us could give, I think, any 

 reasonable idea of the way in which it is being pursued b}" 

 the various institutions devoted to its application, and of 

 the progress which is being secured therein. Meteorological 

 papers are written by the hundred, and whether they are 

 important or unimportant, they often disregard what has 

 been alreadv written in the same or some other language, 

 and are themseh'es in turn disregarded. I do not think I . 

 should be doing any injustice if I applied similar remarks 

 to some of the other subjects included in the table which I* 

 have quoted. How many readers are there in this country 

 for an author in terrestrial magnetism, atmospheric elec- 

 tricity, limnology, or physical oceanography? But, if the 

 papers are not read and assimilated, the advancement of 

 science is not achieved, however original the researches 

 may be. 



By way of remedy for the neglect of important papers in 

 physics, Lord Rayleigh suggests that teachers of 

 authority, who, from advancing years or from some other 

 reason, find themselves unable to do much more work in 

 the direction of making original contributions, should make 

 a point of helping to spread the knowledge of the work 

 done by others. But what of those subjects in w-hich 

 there are no recognised teachers? and in this country this 

 is practically the case with the subjects which I have 

 mentioned. It is true that many of them are made the 

 occasion of international assemblies, at which delegates or 

 representatives meet. But such international assemblies 

 are of necessity devoted, for the most part, to the elabor- 

 ation of the details of international organisation, and not 

 to the discussion of scientific achievements. The numbers 

 attending are, equally of necessity, very restricted. 



The want of opportunity for the discussion of progress in 

 these sciences is specially lamentable, because in its 

 absence they lose the valuable assistance of amateur 

 workers, who might be an effective substitute for the 

 students .of an academic study. In no subject are there 

 more volunteers, who take an active part in observing, 

 than in meteorology ; but how few of them carry their 

 work beyond the stage of recording observations and taking 

 means. The reason is not lightly to be assigned to their 

 want of capacity to carry on an investigation, but far 

 more, I believe, to the want of knowledge of the objects 

 of investigation and of the means of pursuing them. 



Among the agencies which in the past have fostered the 

 knowledge of these subjects, and stimulated its pursuit, 

 there stand out prominently the annual meetings of this 

 association. It was the British Association which in 

 1842 re-founded the Kew Observatory for the study of the 

 physics of the atmosphere, the earth, and the sun. It was 

 the British Association which promoted the establishment 

 of magnetic observatories in many parts of the earth, and 

 in the earlv 'sixties secured the most brilliant achievements 

 in the investigation of the atmosphere by means of bal- 

 loons. I know of no other opportunity of anything like 

 the same potentialities for the writers of papers to meet 

 with the readers, and to confer together about the progress 



