October 4, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



433 



Creator calling to each atom and to each 

 cell of protoplasm to fall into its ordained 

 position, each, as it were, a musical note in 

 the harmonioiis symphony which we call 

 the universe. 



At the first meeting, in 1831, Prof. James 

 D. Forbes was requested to draw up a re- 

 port on the State of Meteorological Science, 

 on the ground that this science is more in 

 want than any other of that systematic 

 direction which it is one great object of the 

 Association to give. Prof. Forbes made his 

 first report in 1832, and a subsequent report 

 in 1840. The systematic records now kept in 

 various parts of the world of barometric pres- 

 sure, of solar heat, of the temperature and 

 physical 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 eluci- 

 dation 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 conditions, but upon 

 health and vitality, are gradually approxi- 

 mating meteorology to the position of an 

 exact science. 



England took the lead in rainfall obser- 

 vations. Mr. Gr. J. Symons organized the 

 British Eainfall System in 1860 with 178 

 observers, a system which until 1876 re- 

 ceived the help of the British Association. 

 ISTow Mr. Symons himself conducts it, as- 

 sisted by more than 3000 observers, and 

 these volunteers not only make the obser- 

 vations, but defray the expense of their re- 

 duction and publication. In foreign coun- 

 tries this work is done by government 

 of&cers 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 more than 3000, and 

 India and the United States have nearly as 

 many; France and Germany ai"e not far 

 behind; Australia probably has more — in- 



deed, one colony alone, Kew South "Wales, 

 has more than 1100. 



The storm warnings now issued under 

 the excellent systematic organization 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. Le- 

 verrier traced the progress of that storm, 

 and seeing how its path could have been 

 reported in advance by the electric tele- 

 graph, 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 authorized Admiral Fitz Eoy 

 to make tentative arrangements in this 

 country. The idea was also adopted on 

 the continent, and now there are few civil- 

 ized countries north or south of the equator 

 without a system of storm warning.* 

 {To he concluded.') 



ELECTRIFICATION AND. DISELECTBIFICA- 

 TION OF AIB AND OTSER GASES.-f 



§ 1. Experiments were made for the 

 purpose of finding an approximation to the 

 amount of electx-ification commvinicated to 

 air by one or more electrified needle points. 

 The apparatus consisted of a metalhc can 

 48 cms. high and 21 cms. in diameter, sup- 

 ported by parafi&ne blocks, and connected 

 to one pair of quadrants of a quadrant 

 electrometer. It had a hole at the top to 

 admit the electrifying wire, which was 5.31 

 metres long, hanging vertically within a 



* 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 Companj' 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. E. S., at that time Superintend- 

 ent of the Meteorological Department at Greenwich. 

 tAbstract of a paper by Lord Kelvin, Magnus Mac- 

 lean and Alexander Gait, read before the British As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science. 



