October 16, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



487 



gave a unity to our conceptions of the func- 

 tion of nutrition which they previously 

 lacked. The law of isodynamie replace- 

 ment is but a single phase of the question. 

 The fundamental idea is that the vital ac- 

 tivities are manifestations of the same 

 euerfry which is seen in operation through- 

 out the univei-se, are subject to the same 

 laws and may be studied by similar 

 methods. It is his firm grasp of this broad 

 conception, and not the exact scope or ac- 

 curacy of a single expression of it, which 

 has given Rubuer's investigations their 

 preeminent value. 



H. P. Armsby. 



yETUODS OF METEOROLOGICAL lyVESTI- 



G.vrioy.* 

 In opening the proceedings of the sub- 

 section devoted to cosmical physics, which 

 we may take to be the application of the 

 methods and results of mathematics and 

 physics to problems suggested by observa- 

 tions of the earth, the air or the sky, I de- 

 sire permission to call your attention to 

 some points of general interest in connec- 

 tion with that depai'tment which deals with 

 the air. My justification for doing so is 

 that this is the first occasion upon which a 

 position in any way similar to that which 

 I am now called upon to fill has been occu- 

 pied by one whose primary obligations are 

 meteorological. That honor I may with 

 confidence attribute to the desire of the 

 council of the association to recognize the 

 subject so admirably represented by the 

 distinguished men of science who have 

 come across the seas to deliberate upon those 

 meteorological questions which are the com- 

 mon concern of all nations, and whom we 

 are specially glad to welcome as members 

 of this subsection. Their presence and 

 their scientific work are proof, if proof 



* Addies.s before the Subsection of Astronomy 

 and Metcorologj', British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. Opening address by the 

 chairman, Southport meeting, 1903. 



is required, that meteorologists can not re- 

 gard meteorological problems as di.s.sociable 

 from Section A; that the prosecution of 

 meteorological research is by the study of 

 the kinematics, the mechanics, the physics 

 or the mathematics of the data compiled 

 by laborious observation of the earth's at- 

 mo.sphere. 



But this is not the first occasion upon 

 which the address from the chair of the 

 subsection has been devoted to meteorology. 

 Many of you will recollect the trenchant 

 manner in which a university profassor, 

 himself a meteorologist, an astronomer, a 

 phy.sicist and a mathematician, dealt can- 

 didly with the present position of raeteor- 

 ologj-. After that address I am conscious 

 that I have no claim to be called a meteor- 

 ologist according to the scientific .standard 

 of Section A. Profes.sor Schuster ha.s ex- 

 plained — and I can not deny it— that the 

 responsible duty of an office from which 

 I can not dissociate myself is signing 

 weather reports ; and I could wish that the 

 duty of making the next address had been 

 intrusted to one of my colleagues from 

 across the sea. But as Professor Schuster 

 has set forth the aspect of official meteor- 

 ology as .seen from the academic .standpoint 

 with a frankness and candor which I think 

 worthy of imitation, I shall endeavor to 

 put before you the aspect which the rela- 

 tion between meteorologj- and academic 

 science wears from the point of view of an 

 official meteorologist whose experience is 

 not long enough to have hardened into 

 that most comfortable of all states of mind, 

 a pessimistic contentment. 



Meteorology occupies a peculiar position 

 in this country. From the point of view of 

 mathematics and physics, the problems 

 which the subject presents are not devoid 

 of interest, nor are they free from that diffi- 

 culty which should stimulate scientific 

 effort in academic minds. They afford a 



