OCTOBIU! IG, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



489 



dreams of avarice was reeo^ized as a 

 veritable Isaac, and the science wherein the 

 fruits of discovery must be free for all the 

 world, and in which there is not even the 

 most distant prospect of making a for- 

 tune—that science was ejected as an Ish- 

 mael. Electrical engineering has an abun- 

 dance of academic representatives ; brewing 

 has its professorship and its corps of stu- 

 dents, but the specialized physics of the 

 atmosphere has ceased to share the academic 

 hospitality. So far as I know, the British 

 universities are unanimous in dissembling 

 their love for meteorology as a science, and 

 if they do not actually kick it down stair.s 

 they are at least content that it has no en- 

 couragement to go up. In none is there a 

 professorship, a lectureship or even a schol- 

 arship to help to form the nucleus of that 

 corps of students which may be regarded 

 as the primary condition of scientific de- 

 velopment. 



Having cut the knot of their difficulties 

 in this very human but not very humane 

 method, the universities are, I think, dis- 

 po.sed to adopt a method of justification 

 which is not unusual in such cases ; indica- 

 tions are not wanting which disclose an 

 opinion that meteorology is, after all, not u 

 science. There are, I am aware, some 

 notable exceptions; but do I exaggerate 

 if 1 say that when university professors are 

 kind enough to take an interest in the labors 

 of meteorologists, who are doing their best 

 amid many discouragements, it is generally 

 to point out that their work is on the wrong 

 lines; that they had better give it up and 

 do something else? And the interest which 

 the universities display in a general way 

 is a good-humored jest about the futility 

 of weather prophecy, and the kindly sug- 

 gestion that the improvement in the pre- 

 diction of the next twenty-four hours' 

 weather is a natural limit to the orbit of an 

 Ishmaelite's ambition. 



In these circumstances .such an address 

 as Professor Schuster's is very welcome; 

 it recognizes at least a scientific brother- 

 hood and points to the responsibility for a 

 scientific standard ; it even displays some of 

 the characteristics of the Good Samaritan, 

 for it offers his own beast on which to ride, 

 though it recommends the unfortunate 

 traveler to dispose of what little clothing 

 the stripping has left to provide the two 

 pence for the host. 



It is quite possible that the unformulated 

 opinion of the vast majority of people in 

 this country, who are only too familiar with 

 the meteorological vagaries of the British 

 Isles, is that the ^yeather does just as it 

 pleases ; that any day of the year may give 

 you an August storm or a January sum- 

 mer's day; that there are no laws to be 

 discovered, and that the further prosecu- 

 tion of so unsatisfactory a study is not 

 worth the time and money already spent 

 upon it. They forget that there are coun- 

 tries where, to judge by their languages, 

 the weather has so nearly the regularity of 

 'old time' that one word is sufficient to do 

 duty for both ideas. They forget that 

 our interests extend to many climates, and 

 that the characteristics of the eastern 

 shores of the North Atlantic are not appro- 

 priate to, say, western tropical Africa. 

 That may be a sufficient explanation of tin 

 attitude of the man in the street, but as 

 regards the British universities dare I offer 

 the difficulty of the subject as a reason for 

 any want of encouragement? Or shall I 

 say that the general ignorance on the part 

 of the public of the scientific aspirations 

 and aims of meteorologists and of the re- 

 sults alreadj' obtained is a reason for the 

 universities to keep silence on the subject? 

 With all respect I may say that the aspect 

 which the matter presents to official meteor- 

 ologists is that the universities are some- 



