Oct. 8, 1874] 



NATURE 



457 



early life of young men, when it is so important that their 

 attention should be directed to original research, is a new 

 feature in this institution, and permit me to say, however 

 important the institution may be in other respects, I am 

 not sure that it is not one of the most important of its 

 features." 



It will be seen that while Prof. Huxley acknowledged 

 the .necessity for the endowment of unremunerative re- 

 search, speaking as a Royal Commissioner, he acknow- 

 ledged also th.at there are difficulties which surround the 

 solution of the question. We are glad of this, because if 

 the things were easy it would certainly not require that the 

 machinery of a Royal Commission such as the one now 

 sitting should be set in motion ; nor, let us add, would it 

 be worth Prof. Huxley's attention. In the fact that the 

 question is a difficult one we see the best justification for 

 the best minds in the country being brought to bear upon 

 it, and we may safely anticipate a satisfactory solution. 



THE REPORT OF THE METEOROLOGICAL 

 COMMITTEE 



Rc-port of the Meteorological Committee of the Royal 

 Society for the Year cnditig December 31, 1873. 

 (London, 1S74.) 



THE proceedings of the Meteorological Committee of 

 the Royal Society for 1873 are detailed in the above 

 Report. The discussion of the meteorology of the dis- 

 trict of the Atlantic Doldrums, known as Square 3, has 

 now been completed, and this piece of work, which the 

 Committee consider may fairly be termed a monograph 

 for the district, will shortly be published. The examina- 

 tion of the eight squares adjacent to Scjuare 3 has already 

 been entered upon. The discussion of the results of 

 Sir J. Ross's Antarctic expedition, from the observations 

 made on board H.M.S. Erebus and Terror in 1840-43 

 and H.M.S. Pagoda in 1S45, has also been completed 

 and published, and is a paper of considerable value. 

 Another good piece of work done by the Office is the 

 examination, at the request of the Astronomer Royal, of 

 the observations bearing on the meteorology of Kerguclen 

 Island for the month of December, the results of which 

 have been forwarded to those who are now stationed 

 there to observe the transit of Venus. 



We are glad to see that an increasing regularity in the 

 receipt of the Weather Telegraphic Reports is notified, 

 and we very cordially join in the regret expressed by the 

 Committee that the Post Office authorities have declined 

 to extend the telegraph wires so that a station might be 

 established at Mull.Tghmore, near Sligo. Inconsequence of 

 this action or want of action on the part of the Post Office, 

 the Meteorological Office continues to be without daily in- 

 formation along the whole of the important and extended 

 line of coast from \'alencia to Lough Foyle. We hope 

 that this blank will soon be filled up, and further, 

 that some arrangement will be entered into by which 

 a constant service will be maint.ained on the west coasts 

 of these islands, and also at the Head Office in London ; 

 for until this be carried out, our system of weather tele- 

 graphy must, of necessity, not unfrequently fail to give 

 warning of approaching storms. A comparison has been 

 instituted, as in the three previous years, between the 

 warnings issued and the weather experienced on our 



coasts, with the general result that the total success of 

 warnings for 1873 was 7g'2 per cent, as compared with 

 8o'5 per cent, for 1872. In 1870 and 1871 the per- 

 centages of success were 68"4 and 63^7 respectively. 

 The mean of these four years is nearly the same as that 

 of the last two years when the office was under Admiral 

 Fitzroy's management, but it will be observed that 

 1872 and 1873 show the largest number of successful 

 warnings. 



The restoration of Admiral Fitzroy's system of 

 warnings, so far as to announce in the warning- message 

 the probable direction of the apprehended storm, is a step 

 which, we sec at p. 51 of the " Report on Weather Tele- 

 graphy and Storm Warnings, presented to the Congress 

 at Vienna," was strongly urged by the council of the 

 Scottish Meteorological Society upwards of a year ago. 

 The practical restoration of Fitzroy's system has been 

 effected by the Committee, and the change took effect in 

 March last, with, however, the very decided improvement 

 of employing the drum simply to emphasize the warning 

 given by the cone, instead of denoting, as it did origi- 

 nally, " dangerous winds from nearly opposite quarters 

 successively." The Committee have attempted to assign 

 the degree of probability to a storm announced by signal, 

 thus : " Hitherto it has been found that at least three out 

 oifive signals of approaching storms (force upwards of 8 

 Beaufort scale, a fresh gale), and foi/r out oifive signals 

 of approaching strong winds (force upwards of 6 Beau- 

 fort scale, a strong breeze\ have been fully justified." We 

 observe with some interest that the Committee have 

 directed that tentative forecasts should be prepared daily 

 in the office, and compared v;ith the facts experienced 

 subsequently, and that they hope ere very long to be able 

 to afford the public the benefit of the information. For 

 the successful development of the important question of 

 weather probabilities, it will be necessary that the Com- 

 mittee investigate weather changes over a much wider 

 area than is covered by the daily weather charts. In this 

 direction, the reports begun to be received during 1873 

 from Sweden and Denmark will prove to be of consider- 

 able utility ; but for the success of the experiment it will be 

 necessary that daily reports be also received from points in 

 the north-west of Russia, and in Germany, Austria, and 

 Switzerland. 



The anemometrical returns from Bermuda for four 

 years have been published. These observations, and 

 similar observations made at Sandwich, Orkney, pre- 

 viously published by the Committee, have been discussed 

 by a method which cannot be recommended. The re- 

 sults are worth little, and altogether inadequate to the 

 expense incurred in their discussion. The discussion of 

 no meteorological data at all approaches in difficulty 

 that of wind observations, and it is necessary at the out- 

 set to apprehend the difficulties to be overcome. 



In several cases the language used in the Report is 

 inexact and tends to mislead. Thus an excess of high 

 winds on the coast of Scotland during 1873, and a 

 deficiency on the coasts further south, are stated to be 

 ex|)lained by the circumstance that in 1873 "the paths 

 of the storm centres lay to the northward of the British 

 Isles, so that our stations felt the barometrical and other 

 meteorological disturbances, but were not exposed to the 

 full force of the wind." Now, as is pretty well known among 



