:208 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
METEOROLOGY: 
TORNADOES. 
ISAAC P. NOYES, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
By the study of details we learn principles, and only by a proper study of | 
‘details can we comprehend principles. Principles, however, once grasped and | 
understood, minute details, though still of as much importance in themselves, | 
become a secondary matter to him who has mastered the principles that form the | 
‘sum total of those details. We have the alphabet, then words, clauses, senten- | 
ces, etc. The child learns the alphabet, then to form words, and finally ad-| 
vances to sentences and from sentences to composition in general. He who has 
made himself master of composition, although he heeds the correct juxtaposition 
of the minor details of letters and words, in one sense ignores them, or better per- 
haps, let them take care of themselves. 
When we advance to science he who thoroughly understands the principles 
of his department can the better comprehend and explain all its little variations and 
is not all the while at a loss to explain trifling details or troubled with them as one | 
who has not yet mastered these details. | 
How difficult it is to understand the situation of objects when viewed from a 
wrong point, and how easy to comprehend them when the right point of view is | 
obtained. How difficult to understand the interpretations of nature through some 
wrong theory or false hypothesis, but how plain they become when viewed with 
the full knowledge of the natural laws that govern them. As for example, how 
difficult centuries ago to understand and to be able satisfactorily to explain the | 
physical condition of the planets of the universe before the Copernican theory 
became an established fact, or to explain the properties and full purpose of the 
blood before the circulation of the blood was established as a fact; surely it has al- | 
ways been a fact, but like many other scientific facts it was for ages unknown to 
man. Only within the past few years, as has heretofore been stated, have we | 
had sufficient data in the department of the weather whereby we may satisfacto- 
rily explain its ever varied changes. The daily weather map has become the in- 
strument whereby we may understand these changes and readily comprehend the | 
principles that govern all our weather, from the warm, quiet, sunny days that 
predominate in mid-summer to the cold tempestuous weather of winter and spring. 
Before we had these data we were greatly in the dark on this subject as a_ 
whole. Certainly we understood certain minor details, but we were at the foot of 
the mountain. Through the weather map we ascend to the very highest peak and 
with a bird’s eye view survey the whole broad landscape. We are lifted above 
