January 12, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



69 



accompany the exercises tend rather to the 

 rational end of illustrating the laws of meteor- 

 ology and the method of meteorological study. 

 The well-considered suggestions to teachers 

 propose that in primary schools the attention of 

 pupils be called on occasion to the more obvi- 

 ous relations of the various weather elements 

 to one another and to us. This as a preparation 

 for the exercises of this volume. 



Parts I. and II. suggest observations, instru- 

 mental and uninstrumental, to be made by one 

 and another member of the class from day to 

 day and liept in a permanent record through- 

 out grammar and high school years. Mr. Ward 

 has prepared numerous questions designed to 

 bring out the simpler relations of the various 

 elements. 



Part III. — Exercises in the construction of 

 weather maps — is presumably to be used in 

 high school years. A table of meteorological 

 data for six consecutive days at all weather 

 bureau stations throughout the country is 

 printed at the end of chapter III. ( not chapter 

 VIII., as stands printed always in the text). 

 Prom this pupils are to construct on blank 

 weather maps the isotherms and isobars for 

 each day and the corresponding temperature 

 and pressure gradients. Other blank maps are 

 to be filled out with wind arrows for each day, 

 and still others with the signs for clear and 

 cloudy sky, etc. Besides these construction 

 exercises others are based on the comparative 

 study of the maps thus drawn. 



Part IV. contains Correlations of the Weather 

 Elements and Weather Forecasting. These 

 exercises follow naturally on the preceding, 

 going to published weather maps for their data 

 and tending to illustrate the cyclonic and anti- 

 cyclonic groups of phenomena and their rela- 

 tionships. 



These are very valuable exercises from the 

 nature of the results sought and from the fact 

 that they have that definite character which 

 the young student demands. Generalities are 

 his abhorrence, and while all his studies are in 

 the direction of training to generalize from 

 sufBcient data he must be allowed a firm footing 

 on particulars at the outset. The demand that 

 he formulate a general rule (p. 117) is one that 

 would leave many a high school pupil bewil- 



dered. Perhaps he could do it if told in other 

 words. 



Some of the problems in Part V. will be be- 

 yond the range of many pupils for this reason 

 of their general character. Moreover, as they 

 seek valid results on questions of importance, 

 such as the relation of relative humidity to 

 the direction of the wind, some use should be 

 made of more extended collections of data, 

 made more carefully than is practicable for 

 school classes. It is a pity to base inductions 

 on any but the best of data. I presume all who 

 are teaching young people to make observa- 

 tions are agreed that the immediate object is 

 to train their faculties and show them the 

 scientific method rather than to acquire results. 

 Indeed, it seems to me important that pupils 

 should be led to recognize clearly the rude 

 character of their work as compared with good 

 standards. For this reason it is especially de- 

 sirable to avoid drudging at observational and 

 mechanical work. Only so much observation 

 is desirable as will help the pupil to understand 

 the process. When it comes to induction he 

 should use the best results specialists have been 

 able to produce. For similar reasons in some, 

 of the weather map exercises in Part III. use 

 might be made of the government maps rather 

 than of those produced by the pupil himself, as 

 some of these will be too bad to use and most 

 of them less easily read than the printed maps. 

 I find classes of 13 and 14 years require three 

 fifty-minute periods for the first satisfactory 

 production of one day's isotherms. To repro- 

 duce six such days and then six more for 

 isobars and yet more for other elements is to 

 impose task-work. Most teachers will be con- 

 tent with fewer such tasks and as soon as the 

 principle is grasped pass on to use the printed 

 maps. 



Mr. Ward has not claimed, however, to give 

 us exercises in shape for immediate use, but 

 rather to offer material from which we could 

 select according to our needs. The materials 

 he offers are abundant and available. 



The descriptions of instruments are very 

 clear and simple, and the historic notes and the 

 comments on phenomena and relations between 

 man and the weather very interesting. 



Among the instruments one is rather sur- 



