rRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 583 



concerned, such departments deal witli celestial physics in astronomy, with the 

 physics of the air in meteorology and atmospheric electricity, with the physics of 

 land and water in physical geography and geology, seismology and terrestrial 

 magnetism, oceanography and hydrography. It is for the practical applications 

 of these sciences to the service of the navigator, the fisherman, the husbandman, 

 the miner, the medical man, the engineer, and the general public that there is 

 an obvious public want. 



Let me carry you with me in regarding these departments, primarily, as 

 centres for establishing the growth of science by bringing it to bear upon the 

 practical business of life, by a process of regular plantation, and not the occasional 

 importation of an exotic scientific expert. I shall carry you with me also if I say 

 that the gravest danger to such scientific institutions is the tendency to waste, 

 I use the term 'waste' not in its narrowest but in its most liberal sense, to 

 include waste of mone}', waste of eflbrt, waste of scientific opportunity. I do 

 not regard it as a waste that such a department should bo unable to emulate 

 Timotheus' efforts. Any aspiration in that direction is, of course, worthy of every 

 encouragement, but the environment is not generally suitable for such achieve- 

 ments. I do, however, regard it as waste if the divine Cecilia is not properly 

 honoured, and if advantage is not taken of the fullest and freest use of the newest 

 and best scientific methods, and their application in the widest manner possible. 



I speak for the Office with which I am connected when I say its temptations 

 to waste are very numerous and very serious. It is wasteful to collect observa- 

 tions which will never be used ; it is equally wasteful to decline to collect observa- 

 tions which in the future may prove to be of vital importance. It is wasteful 

 to discuss observations that are made with inadequate appliances; it is equally 

 wasteful to allow observations to accumulate in useless heaps because you are not 

 sure that the instruments are good enough. It is wasteful to use antiquated 

 methods of computation or discussion ; it is equally wasteful to use all the time 

 in making trial of new methods. It is wasteful to make use of researches if they 

 are inaccurate ; it is equally wasteful to neglect the results of researches because 

 you have not made up your mind whether they are accurate or not. It is wasteful 

 to work with an inadequate system in such matters es synoptic meteorology; it 

 is equally wasteful to lose heart because you cannot get all the facilities which 

 you feel the occasion demands. 



It is the business of those responsible for the administration of such an office 

 to keep a nice balance of adjustment between the different sides of activity, so that 

 in the long run the waste is reduced to a minimum. There must in any case be 

 a good deal of routine work which is drudgery ; and if one is to look at all beyond 

 the public requirements and public appreciation of the immediate present, there must 

 be a certain amount of enterprise and consequently a certain amount ot speculation. 



Let me remark by the way that there is a tendency among some of my meteoro- 

 logical friends to consider that a meteorological establishment can be regarded as 

 alive, and even in good health, if it keeps up its regular output of observations in 

 proper order and up to date, and that initiative in discussing the observations is 

 exclusively the duty of a central office. That is a view that I should like to see 

 changed. I do not wish to sacrifice my own privilege of initiative in meteoro- 

 logical speculation, but I have no wish for a monopoly. To me, I confess, the 

 speculation which may be dignified by the name of meteorological research is the 

 part of the office work which makes the drudgery of routine tolerable. For my 

 part I should like every worker in the Office, no matter how humble his position 

 may be, somehow or other to have the opportunity of realising that he is taking 

 part in the unravelling of the mysteries of the weather ; and I do not think that 

 any establishment, or section of an establishmenc, that depends upon science can 

 be regarded as really alive unless it feels itself in active touch with that specu- 

 lation which results in the advancement of knowledge. I do not hesitate to apply 

 to other meteorological establishments, and indeed to all scientific institutions that 

 claim an interest in meteorology, the same criterion of life that I apply to my own 

 office. It is contained in the answer to the question. How do you show your 

 interest in the a<lvancement of our knowledge of the atmosphere? The replay that 



