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HOW TO STUDY METEOKOLOGrY. 
Br O. F. CHAMBEKS, F.E.A.S. 
T HE present paper is designed to meet such remarks as the 
following : “ I am rather interested in Meteorology. I have 
got plenty of time on my hands. If I knew what to do, and 
how to do it, I would try and make myself useful to the cause 
of science.” It is believed that the number of persons who de- 
vote their energies to the study of Meteorology would be much 
increased if there were a clear appreciation in the public mind 
of the fact that a moderate amount of labour, directed into 
proper channels, would produce results which are as much 
useful as curious. I lay stress on the word “ useful.” I wish 
strenuously to insist, that Meteorology is not a science of mere 
curiosity, but that on its cultivation depend great questions con- 
nected with the public health, agriculture, and navigation. 
Meteorology may be sufficiently defined as the study of the 
weather ; practical Meteorology, as a subdivision in which we 
consider what we are to observe, and how we are to observe, 
including, of course, the use of instruments. Meteorology differs 
from most other sciences cultivated in the present day in this 
respect, that although naturally having different branches, the 
respective branches can be studied separately and independently, 
to a greater or less extent, without incongruity. One man, 
for example, may busy himself with the rainfall of a country ; 
another with its winds, and so on. 
I shall avail myself of this circumstance to divide my re- 
marks into sections, not only because that will be, on general 
grounds, convenient, but also because it will permit the reader, 
intending to become a working observer, to pick out with fa- 
cility the particular subject to which he prefers confining his 
attention. 
■ Kainfall. — On the whole, this may be pronounced the most 
important of all meteorological topics. On an excess or a defect 
in the rainfall of a place depend a variety of things intimately 
associated with the well-being of the community resident there. 
Neither is it a trifling matter, that pluviometrical observations 
require no experience or scientific training; nothing, in fact, 
