February 15, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



181 



officers of this corps devoted themselves en- 

 tirely to geodesy and topography. Thus 

 occupied they came to have a lively appre- 

 ciation of the relation between internal 

 -Structure and external form. Trulj', geologj' 

 was at that time but little advanced, but this 

 productive combination of two ordei-s of 

 studies must have been of mutual advan- 

 tage, had not an always regrettable decision 

 caused the suppression of the corps of geo- 

 graphical engineers, and the transfer of their 

 duties to the officers of the armj' stafi'. 

 Certainly there was no lack of capacitj' 

 among the latter, but it was nevertheless a 

 capital mistake to entrust a service essen- 

 tially civil, and even scientific, to military 

 officers who could not devote themselves ex- 

 clusively to it. Consequent! J', even though 

 the maps have been well made, there has 

 been a slow advance of what may be called 

 appreciation of topographique form (T intel- 

 ligence du terrain). Certain of the more 

 sagacious geologists in vain showed how the 

 meaning of topographic form is illuminated 

 when it is studied in relation to internal 

 structure ; the divorce of 1830 continued to 

 exercise its unlucky influence, and all the 

 more because other nations, following the 

 example of France, have for the most part 

 identified topographical work with that of 

 the national defense. But a reaction has 

 graduallj^ set in, and to this none have con- 

 tributed more eftectivelj' than the Ameri- 

 cans ; and here the author goes on to pay a 

 high tribute to the scientific results of our 

 western surveys. 



Accepting the correctness of the principles 

 stated by de Lapparent, it follows that our 

 topographere can succeed in their great work 

 only wlien imbued with a truly scientific 

 spirit. There is small likelihood of this 

 spirit being generally attained so long as 

 engineering schools give so little attention 

 as at present to the studj"^ of the great sub- 

 ject on which tlieir tojiographic art is to be 

 exercised. For this reason, such works 



as Gannett's ^lanual are particularly wel- 

 come. 



W. M. Davis. 

 Harvard Un-iversiiy. 



THE NEEDS OF METEOROLOGY. 



To state a problem clearly is to contri- 

 bute much towards its solution ; to realize 

 one's wants and make them known may 

 bring the needed help ; therefore I accept 

 with pleasure an invitation to speak of the 

 needs of meteorology. 



Considered as a source of climatological 

 statistics bearing on every branch of human 

 activity, on land and sea, meteorology has 

 been handsomi'ly supported for a century 

 by all governments and scientific organiza- 

 tions. This feature of our work is now 

 carried on bj' the U. S. Weather Bureau 

 and the State Weather Ser\-ices with in- 

 creasing thoroughness from year to year. 



Considered as a system for the prediction 

 of storms andweather for a day or two in ad- 

 vance, meteorologj- has received enthusias- 

 tic support by our own and all other nations. 

 "We are now doing about all that can be 

 done bj' the mere utilization of the tele- 

 graph and weather map and the cautious 

 application of general average rules, but 

 we are still powerless in the presence of 

 any unusual movement of the atmosphere. 

 Indeed, I do not see that even our West 

 Indian hurricanes are predicted anj^ better 

 to-day than they were in my ' Probabilities ' 

 of August, 1871. 



Meteorologists can never be satisfied 

 until they have a deeper insight into the 

 mechanics of the atmosphere. Something 

 more is needed than the most perfect 

 organization for ol)ser\'ing, reporting and 

 publishing the latest news from the 

 atmosphere. It is not enough to know 

 what the conditions have been and are, 

 but we must know what they will be, and 

 why 80. We must have a deductive treatise 

 on the laws governing the atmosphere as 



