40 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCJEACE. 



strength and directions at their impact, of the original winds to which the tornado 

 owes its genesis, and which path it pursues until the equilibrium of the atmos- 

 phere is restored. 



St. Louis, Mo., April 12, 1884. 



METEOROLOGY REVOLUTIONIZED BY THE WEATHER-MAP. 



ISAAC P. NOYES. 



No department of Science was ever revolutionized to a greater extent, by 

 any one step, than was meteorology by the Weather-Map. 



Prior to the discovery of the Western Hemisphere the world knew little 

 about the geography of the globe. Till science had advanced and given us the 

 telegraph and all the details necessary for the complete Weather-Map we knew 

 comparatively little about meteorology. 



At first it may seem strange that such should be the case, yet the intelligent 

 world will admit that we cannot know much about any subject until we have full 

 and complete facts, and that meteorology is no exception to the rule. 



The Weather-Map opened a new field, replete with facts, which all these 

 years were unknown to us. 



In order to have a Weather-Map of any value, we must not only have an 

 extended territory, but that territory must be under the jurisdiction of one central 

 head. In this respect the United States is particularly fortunate. Three times 

 daily, at 7 A. M. and 3 and 11 P. M., the reports are sent in from all parts of 

 our extended country to the central office at Washington. From data thus col- 

 lected, the daily Weather-Map is created and the "indications," daily, morning 

 and evening, telegraphed to the press of our cities and towns. 



Prior to the advent of this Map we were dependent upon the branch of 

 science known as "physical geography" for our knowledge of meteorology; now 

 the fact is revealed to us that the old system could give us but little practical 

 information. We will not however complain of this old system, or its teachings, 

 prior, say to 1875, <^r before the Map had become the perfect thing that it is 

 to-day j but from 1875 on, to date, it is surprising that the new system has been 

 so much neglected. 



Although the Map, in the United States, was established about 1870, its first 

 editions were quite crude and it necessarily took a number of years to arrive at 

 the perfect work of to day. Some may think the progress slow, but when we 

 conif^ to consider the difficulties in the way, the little moral support this institu- 

 tion has received from the public and the general lack of interest whereby gen- 

 erous appropriations become practical and available, the wonder is that the sub- 

 ject has been advanced even to its present condition. 



In the old system there was necessarily too much dependence upon the 

 deductive principle ; in the new we have a fine illustration of the inductive prin- 



