October 10. 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



491 



in the associsition of the univer.sitie.s with a 

 central department. I could imagine that 

 Liverpool or Glasgow might take a special 

 interest iu the meteorology of the sea ; they 

 might even find the means of maintaining 

 a floating observatory ; and when I .say that 

 we know practically nothing of the distri- 

 bution of rainfall over the sea, and we want 

 to know everything about the air above the 

 sea, you will agree with me that there is 

 room for such an enterprise. Edinburgh 

 might, from its a.ssoeiation with Ben Nevis, 

 be desirous of developing the investigation 

 of the upper air over our land; in Cam- 

 bridge might be found the author of a book 

 on the principles of atmospheric physics, 

 worthy of its Latin predecessor; and for 

 London I can assign no limited possibilities. 



If such an a.ssociation were -established 

 I .should not need to reply to Professor 

 Schuster's suggestion for the suppression 

 of observations. The real requirement of 

 the time is not fewer observations, but more 

 men and women to interpret them. I have 

 no doubt that the tirst expression of such 

 an organization would be one of recogni- 

 tion and acknowledgment of the patience, 

 the care, the skill and the public spirit- 

 all of them sound scientific characteristics 

 — which furnish at their own expense those 

 nniltitudes of observations. The accimiu- 

 lated readings appal by their volume, it is 

 true, but they are. and must be, the founda- 

 tion upon which the scientific structure 

 will be built. 



So far as this eoinitry is concerned, when 

 one puts what is in comparison with what 

 might be it must always be acknowledged 

 that the tendency to pessimistic complai- 

 sance is verj' strong. Yet I ought not to 

 allow the reflections to which my prede- 

 cessor's address natin-ally gave rise to be 

 too depressing. I should remember that; as 

 Dr. Hellmann said some years ago, meteor- 

 ology has no frontiers, and each step in 



its pnigre.ss is the result of efforts of vari- 

 ous kinds in many countries, our own not 

 excluded. In the presence of our guests 

 to-day, .some of whom know by practical 

 experience the advantages of the associa- 

 tion of academic liberty with official rou- 

 tine, remembering the recent conspicuous 

 successes in the investigation of the upper 

 air in France, Germany. Austria and the 

 United States, and the prospect of fruitful 

 cooperation of meteorology with other 

 branches of eo.smical physics, I may well 

 recall the words of dough : 



Say not, the struggle nought availeth • • • 

 And as things have been, things remain. 



If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; 



It may be, in yon smoke concealed 

 Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers. 



And, but for you, possess the field. 



For while the tired waves, vainly breaking. 

 Seem here no painful inch to gain, 



Far back, through creeks and inlets making. 

 Comes silent, flooding in, the main. 



And not by eastern windows only. 



When daylight comes, comes in the light; 



In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 

 B<it westward, look, the land is bright. 



Official meteorologists are not wanting in 

 scientific ambitions and achievements. It 

 is true that Professor Ilann, whose presence 

 here w'ould have been so cordially wel- 

 comed, left the public service of Austria 

 to continue his services to the world of 

 science by the compilation of his great 

 handbook, and Snellen is leaving the direc- 

 tion of the \veather service of the Nether- 

 lands for the more exclusively scientific 

 work of directing an observatory of terres- 

 trial physics; but I am reminded by the 

 presence of Professor Ma.scart of thosf 

 services to meteorological optics and ter- 

 restrial magnetism that make his place as 

 president of the international conunittci' 

 so natural and fitting; and of the solid 



