410 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
in this direction. Still the hook is a most valuable one, and must be 
carefully read by all -who are interested in the questions, How does cholera 
come in the first instance ? and how is it passed from human being to human 
being in the second ? 
THE BOOK OF WEATHER SCIENCE.* 
W E doubt whether Messrs. King could have chosen a better subject for 
a scientific book, and we are sure that, having made the selection, 
they could not have hit upon one who is not only one of our best meteo- 
rologists, but who is in addition a clear and concise writer, more success- 
sully than they have done in the case of this volume, called u Weather 
Charts and Storm Warnings.” Mr. Scott has here given us an insight into 
the working of the Meteorological Office, and the production of those maps 
which everyone now sees in the daily papers, but which few, we fear, 
understand. However, it will be discreditable now not to comprehend 
clearly the tracings that are every day published in the press. The author 
has had a double difficulty to deal with in the production of the present 
volume, for he has had to bear the brunt of issuing the first work that 
has ever appeared on the subject; and, in addition, he has had to prepare a 
series of statements on some points that are, as he is obliged to confess, as 
yet hardly satisfactorily understood. Still, he has laid the question on 
which he has written clearly and without prejudice before the reader, 
while at the same time he writes as a true scientific worker, who is pre- 
pared to see many of the theories now adopted completely annihilated in 
course of time. He says that he aims at discussing the present condition of 
“ weather knowledge, as distinguished from the science of meteorology itself. 
... In treating of a science now in process of rapid development, it can only 
be expected that every year will add to our knowledge, and that many of 
the principles stated in these pages will be extended or modified by the 
results of subsequent experience.” 
The book is divided into eight chapters, which cover about 150 pages. 
These deal with the following questions : — The materials available for 
weather study ; the wind ; the barometer ; gradients ; cyclones and anti- 
cyclones; the motion of storms and the agencies which appear to affect it; 
the use of weather charts; and, lastly, storm-warnings. Then follow a 
series of appendices, A, B, C, and D, which refer to certain remarkable 
weather reports taken by automatic instruments in Valencia, Aberdeen, and 
Falmouth. Of course the author has not much to say on the first subject 
in the above list. The materials are almost as well known as the weather- 
glass itself. Still, some of Mr. Scott’s remarks must strike the general 
reader as of importance. For example, in telling us that the chance of rain 
depends to a great extent on the degree of humidity of the air, and that “ if 
* 11 Weather Charts and Storm Warnings.” By Robert H. Scott, M.A., 
F.R.S. With numerous illustrations. London : Henry S. King & Co. 
1876. 
