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The sailor acquainted with the meaning of the signs will 
have to look at that instrument at the same time as the 
barometer. It is a new instrument that may be regarded as 
a differential barometer showing the state of the atmosphere 
in the surrounding countries. 
“For many years weather signals after my method have 
been exhibited every morning at nine o’clock at Utrecht ; 
the strength and direction of the wind are observed every 
hour and compared with the prognostics so that I could say 
how many times the rule has held good, and how many 
times it has failed. Why does not the British Government 
send a distinguished meteorologist to Utrecht in order to 
see what we have done ? I do not pretend to have found 
the whole truth, and acknowledge that the rule may admit 
of exceptions in other countries ; but in Holland we have 
had more experience of the prognostics of gales and storms 
than all other countries put together, for here all is reduced 
to measures and time; in England and France all is vague 
and in general expressions.” 
