18 REPORT — 1895. 



Jleteorology. 



At the first meeting, in 1831, Professor James D. Forbes was requested 

 to draw up a report on the State of IMeteorological Science, on the ground 

 that this science is more in want than any other of that systematic direc- 

 tion which it is one great object of tlie Association to give. 



Professor Forbes made his first report in 1832, and a subsequent 

 report in 1840. The systematic records now kept in various pai'ts of the 

 world of barometric pressure, of solar heat, of the temperature and pliysi- 

 cal conditions of the atmosphere at various altitudes, of the heat of the 

 ground at various depths, of the rainfall, of the prevalence of winds, and 

 the gradual elucidation not only of the laws which regulate the movements 

 of cyclones and storms, but of the influences which are exercised by the 

 sun and by electricity and magnetism, not only upon atmospheric condi- 

 tions, but upon health and vitality, are gradually approximating meteor- 

 ology to the position of an exact science. 



England took the lead in rainfall observations. Mr. G. J. Symons 

 organised the British Rainfall System in 1860 with 178 observers, a 

 system which until 1876 received the help of the British Association. 

 Now Mr. Symons himself conducts it, assisted by more than 3,000 observers, 

 and these volunteers not only make the oljservations, but defray the ex- 

 pense of their reduction and publication. In foreign countries this work 

 is done by Government officers at the public cost. 



At the present time a very large number of rain gauges are in daily 

 use throughout the world. The British Islands have moi-e than 3,000, 

 and India and the United States have nearly as many ; France and 

 Germany are not far behind ; Australia probably has more — indeed, one 

 colony alone, New South Wales, has more than 1,100. 



The storm warnings now issued under the excellent systematic organi- 

 sation of the Meteorological Committee may be said to have had their 

 origin in the terrible storm which broke over the Black Sea during the 

 Crimean War, on November 27, 1855. Leverrier traced the progress of 

 -that storm, and seeing how its path could have been reported in advance 

 by the electric telegraph, he proposed to establish observing .stations which 

 should report to the coasts the probability of the occurrence of a storm. 

 Leverrier communicated with Airy, and the Government authorised Ad- 

 miral FitzHoy to make tentative arrangements in this country. The idea 

 was also adopted on the Continent, and now there are few civilised coun- 

 ti'ies north or south of the equator without a system of storm warning.' 



' It has often been supposed that Leverrier was also the first to issue a daily 

 weather map, but that was not the case, for in the Great Exhibition of 1851 the 

 Electric Telegraph Company sold daily weather maps, copies of which are still in 

 existence, and the data for them were, it is believed, obtained by Mr, James 

 Glaisher, F.R.S., at that time Superintendent of the Meteorological Department at 

 Greenwich. 



