210 Report of the Meteorological Committee. [Jan. 20, 



their remarks to extend beyond a review of the past in three parti- 

 culars. 



First. They look forward with great hope to the effect of increased 

 international cooperation on a large scale, towards which important 

 steps have already been taken at recent Meteorological Congresses. The 

 detached labours of numerous meteorological institutions will thereby be 

 presented in a strictly comparable form, and may readily be combined 

 in synoptic charts or in any other manner into a single whole. They 

 think it is impossible to overstate the importance of measures tending to 

 such a result. 



Secondly. They consider it to be a point of much importance that the 

 meteorological societies and independent observers of this country should 

 be more generally induced to work in unison with an Office maintained 

 by grants from Parliament, so far as their several efforts are directed to 

 the same field of inquiry. Administrative difficulties have hitherto pre- 

 vented the accomplishment of as much in this direction as could be de- 

 sired ; but the Committee fully recognize that it would be advisable to 

 utilize more completely than has yet been done the energy of independent 

 meteorological societies or individuals, and they believe that this admits 

 of being effected on conditions that would be suitable and acceptable to 

 them. 



Lastly. They feel it necessary to say that for the further advancement 

 of Meteorology greater attention to its more strictly scientific aspect 

 will in the future be essential. Merely empirical rules, however sound 

 be their foundation, can never become really trustworthy guides of action 

 until the principles that underlie them are established, and the circum- 

 stances are appreciated under which deviations from the ordinary eourse 

 of events arise. It can hardly be disputed that in the course of the past 

 nine years, since the appointment of the Committee, the general progress 

 of the science of Meteorology in this country and abroad has been such 

 that the application to it of exact principles seems to have become not 

 only possible but requisite ; without them the full practical advantage of 

 existing means of observation will not be secured, and it is only by aid 

 of scientific discussion of the facts that these principles are to be ascer- 

 tained. 



They would suggest, as a probable mode of attaining the object they 

 have in view, the application of a portion of any future grant to the pre- 

 paration of reports, or the carrying out of researches on special subjects 

 connected with meteorological science by qualified persons to be selected 

 from without and employed independently of the ordinary staff of officers 

 engaged on other duties. 



The Committee are only too well aware of the difficulties that are 

 likely to attend the progress of Meteorology as an exact science ; but 

 difficulties apparently as great have been overcome in other directions, 

 and perseverance and time will doubtless remove those now in question. 



