REVIEWS 
71 
THE ELEMENTS.* 
M ETEOROLOGY gives promise of being as popular a pursuit as either 
Natural History or Astronomy. Everybody nowadays is more or less a 
meteorologist. Wherever we go we find that people begin to understand the 
advantage of systematic and daily observation of the barometer and thermo- 
meter, and those who appreciate the employment of the hydrometer and 
ozone-test are by no means few in number. Indeed, meterology is fast be- 
coming a science, and if the progress made in observation and induction 
during the next ten years be equal to that which the past ten years has 
brought forth, it will be a science of no mean degree of exactness. Our 
readers must not, however, conclude from what we have stated that there 
is much of perfection in meteorology as we yet know it. There has been 
too great a tendency on the part of the general public to overrate the im- 
portance of the late Admiral Fitzroy’s weather-forecasts, and to place an 
implicit reliance upon all the predictions of the Meteorological Department 
of the Board of Trade. This has been a serious error, for it has in some 
measure prevented the degree of careful research which is the result 
of an uncertainty concerning the nature of phenomena. Is it not likely 
that many people gifted with scientific tastes would have selected the 
pursuit of meteorological knowledge had they known how impossible it was 
to frame definite predictions concerning the weather ? The real facts of the 
case are : (1) that at the present moment weather-forecasts are almost an 
impossibility ; and (2) that this inability to predict arises from the absence 
of a sufficient number of established facts on which to frame exact gene- 
ralisations. In this condition of meteorological science, we therefore look 
anxiously for any work which promises to throw light on such serious 
problems as those of oceanic and atmospheric currents. Not unfrequently 
are we disappointed, and we are sorry to say that in the treatise before us 
we have met with nothing likely to add to the facts or the inductions which 
meteorologists are already familiar with. Mr. Jordan presents us with one, 
amply illustrated, and, were it not for a little indulgence in the grandilo- 
quent and teleological claptrap so much admired by inexperienced authors, 
a really well-written volume. It, however, contains little of any practical 
value. The author denies the ordinary theories of the tides, and maintains 
that the centripetal force of Newton is attraction proceeding from solar 
gravitation, and that the centrifugal force of the same philosopher is simply 
attraction proceeding from astral gravitation. Mr. Jordan considers that 
evaporation has much to do with the production of oceanic currents, but he 
regards the tides as being dependent upon a larger and more complex series 
of conditions. It is a matter of some difficulty to grasp the author’s views 
and arguments with much clearness ; but so far as those concerning the 
tides have been tabulated by him, they are as follows : — (1) The great un- 
changing force which holds the water down on the earth’s surface is the 
* u The Elements : an Investigation of the Forces which determine 
the Position and Movements of the Ocean and Atmosphere.” By W. L. 
Jordan. Yol. I. London : Longmans and Co. 1866. 
