490 



NATURE 



\Oct. 15, 1874 



channels, tliey and their flocks will be overtaken, though from 

 opposite directions, by the inevitable Nemesis of disproportion. " 



A SEVENTH edition of "The London Catalogue of British 

 Plants " has just been issued. The chief differences between 

 this and the preceding edition is in a renumbering of the specific 

 names, and in those changes of technical arrangement which 

 have now rendered it necessary to abandon the original series of 

 numbers. The first edition of 1S44 was closely adapted to the 

 " British Flora " of the late Sir Wm. Hooker. This seventh 

 edition is made to correspond with the "English Botany" of 

 Dr. Boswell-Syme, third edition, as far as to the grasses. For 

 the ferns and allied orders, the arrangement and nomenclature 

 of Dr. Hooker's "Student's Flora" are closely followed. The 

 species of Chara are taken from Prof Babington's "Manual of 

 British Botany." Mr. Backhouse is followed in the species of 

 Hieracium ; Prof. Babington in the Rabi ; Mr. Biker in Wild 

 Roses. 



The CiiyJeiicrs Chronkle quolc5 from the IHiis/ralioH 

 Horticole that the recent International Botanical Exhibition at 

 Florence yielded a net profit of 1,000/., and that the disposal of 

 this sum to the best advantage of horticulture is under considera- 

 tion. 



A School of Mines has been established by the Territorial 

 Government at Golden, Colorado, one of the best places in the 

 country for practical instruction. 



The Sixth Annual Report on the noxious, beneficial, and other 

 insects of the State of Missouri has been issued. 



Mr. Edward Bellamy, of the Charing Cross Hospital, has 

 been appointed to deliver the course of lectures on the Anatomy 

 of the Human Form, at the South Kensington Museum. 



"Elementary Astronomy, or Notes and Questions on the 

 Stars and Solar System " (Van Voorst), a small text-book for 

 the use of schools, by C. C. Reeks, contains a great deal o( recent 

 and accurate inTormation in small space, and seems calculated 

 to serve the purpose for which it is intended. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include an Australian Rail (Kalliis pcctoralis) from 

 New Holland, presented by Mr. J. Harris ; a Gannet (Sula 

 bassaiia), European, presented by Mr. R. R. B. Norman ; a 

 White-winged Trumpeter (Psophia leiicoptcra) from S. Ame- 

 rica ; a Dusky Monkey {Seinnopithaus obiciinis) from Malacca ; 

 a Pinche Monkey (Midas adiptis) from New Granada ; a Bonnet 

 Monkey (Jilacacus radiatus) from India, deposited. 



ON THE NECESSITY FOR PL A CING PH YSICAL 



METEOROLOGY ON A RATIONAL BASIS* 

 I WISH at the outset pointedly to disclaim originality in the 

 main ideas to which 1 propose here to invite attention. The 

 subject of my paper has occupied the thoughts of many men of 

 science, with some of whom I have been in communication 

 regarding it for several years. But though the conclusions to 

 which I wish to lead you are the product of many minds, 1 am 

 bound to accept to the fullest extent the self-imposed responsi- 

 bility of bringing them forward at the present time and in the 

 present form. 



The branch of inquiry which has been very unsignificnntly 

 named Meteorology (meteoric phenomena being but slightly and 

 remotely included in it) deals with the climate of the glube, and I 

 seeks to explain the vicissitudes of temperature and moisture, 

 storm and calm, to which that globe is exposed. It is a subject 

 of the highest importance to mankind generally, as affecting 

 health, navigation, and agriculture ; and possesses an interest 

 acknowledged by every individual, from the savage to the sii7':i>i/, 

 influencing as it does the personal well-being anddail}' comfort of 

 all. Everyone discusses, and thinks himself competent to dis- 

 cuss, the weather. 



* By Lieut. -Col. A. Strange, F.R.S., Inspector of Scientific Instruments 

 to the Indiaa Government ; a paper read at tlie British Association. 



My present object necessitates a broad classification of this 

 department of inquiry into two main branches. The more 

 obvious one of these, for which a fitting name has yet to be pro- 

 posed, relates to changes of weather from day to day, and to the 

 varieties of climate found in different localities. I shall not say 

 much on this branch of Meteorology, but shall confine myself 

 principally to the o'her main division, which has been named — 

 1 believe, first by Prof. Balfour Ste%\'art — Physical Meteorology. 

 Under this term are included, amongst other important matters, 

 fluctuations in the seasons ; the causes, external to the earth, 

 which occasion or contribute to them ; and the laws which 

 regulate these fluctuations. The opinion is daily gaining ground 

 that this_branch of Meteorology has been unduly neglected, that 

 it offers a magnificent field of inquiry and discovery, and tliat 

 i:s vigorous cultivation must gre.itly aid the solution of those 

 more limited and local inquiries to which observation has been 

 hitherto more ]iarticularly applied. My present object is to 

 urge the cultivation of this wide and almost unoccupied field of 

 research and to point out some of the steps which should now 

 be taken to that end. 



It will be necessary for my purpose first to advert to so.Tie 

 of the most e'ementary facts connected with Meteorology. Speak- 

 ing in general terms, there are but four principal elements con- 

 cerned in the production of all meteorological phenomena — the 

 familiar elements of antiquity — fire, water, earth, and air. The 

 part played by each is obvious to every observer. 



lI'iifcT, sucked up by heat from the ocean, and from the land 

 which has imbibed it, falls again from the clouds in the form of 

 rain, undergoing alternately, through excess of heat, evaporation 

 and condensation. T/ie carllt, a great reci]5ient of both heat and 

 moisture, gives up each gradually and silently, and helps to 

 maintain equability of temperature and of humidity. The air, 

 set in motion by he.it locally applied, becomes breeze, or wind, 

 or storm, according to the amount, duration, and locality of that 

 heat. In each of these three cases we see that an external force, 

 heat, plays a conspicuous part. Can either of the three named 

 elements, Water, Earth, or Air, perform its functions without 

 the aid of that external force ? Have they any innate power, 

 enabling them to act independently of each other, or of all ex- 

 ternal forces ? Will water, if left to itself at an unchangeable 

 temperature, rise into vapour and fall in rain? What power 

 resides in the earth to cause meteorological phenomena? It 

 may possibly be replied that It boasts volcanic power, but as this 

 exists only locally, it can play but a small part in the great 

 economy of the whole earth. The internal heat of the globe 

 may also be claimed as an independent attribute of the earth, 

 and it m.iy be so — but on this question we have as yet but very 

 little reliable knowledge, though much interesting speculation. 

 It may, however, be stated that, as an explanation of leading 

 meteorobgical jihenomena, the internal heat of the globe has 

 not as yet been allowed much, if any. Weight, though its use as 

 a modifier of such phenomena may be considerable. As to the 

 air, no innate power has hitherto been assigned to it. We may 

 therefore, without much risk of error, regard water, earth and 

 air, for the purpose of the present inquiry, as three forms of inert 

 matter, capable of exercising independently no force whatever, 

 but when acted upon, either separately or in combination, by 

 heat, capable of producing the most: s.upendous results. 



We come now to this heat — the sun. Has this any innate 

 power ? It seems almost needless to answer the question. Tne 

 most familiar occurrences attest his paramount influeice : the 

 alternations of day and night, the march of the seasons, the 

 daily variations of warmth — all bear testimony to his all-per- 

 vading and tremendous power. 



It might seem superfluous to state facts which are almost 

 truisms. But would it not seem to follow as a matter of course, 

 needless to dwell upon, that such being the paramount influence 

 of the sun, its study must be the first and most anxious object of 

 solicitude to the meteorologist? Vet such is not the case. Ob- 

 vious as are the facts I have briefly indicated, they have led to 

 no such result. The reports and volumes of observations ema- 

 nating from bodies and institutions charged with meteorological 

 researches often do not contain even the name of the sun, and it 

 may be broadly stated that the great central source of heat, and 

 therefore of all meteorological activity, receives little or no atten 

 tion in that capacity. I do not prefer this as an indictment 

 against those to wliom I refer. Many reasons may be assigned 

 for their total neglect of the sun. Perhaps amongst the most 

 valid is the fact that instrumental appliances fitted lor the pur- 

 pose have not, until within a comparatively recent period, existed. 



