398 Correspondence. 
of. weather in the British Isles than we now possess. . . . 
Considering that there is as yet no scientific basis for the 
daily forecasts, that they are not shown to be generally 
correct in point of fact, and that there is no evidence of 
their utility, we see no good reasons why a Government 
Department should continue to undertake the responsi- 
bility of issuing them. In this conclusion we believe we 
are borne out by the best practical meteorologists. M. Le 
Verrier, who for some time attempted a practice of the. 
same kind, has given it up. Maury is opposed to it. M. 
Dove, of Berlin, is confining himself to a system of storm 
warnings, and appears to find some difficulty even in this. 
M. Matteucci, of Turin, was obviously in difficulty, even as 
regards the storm warnings. And we may add, that we 
can find no evidence that any competent meteorologist 
believes the science to be at present in such a state as to 
enable an observer to indicate day by day the weather to 
be experienced for the next forty-eight hours throughout 
a wide region of the earth’s surface.” 
The Committee have made some excellent suggestions 
as to the method of conducting and recording future 
meteorological observations; but although they say they 
found “no evidence that the various attempts of other 
meteorologists to give precision to the science have been 
utilized” at the Meteorological Department, the Committee 
do not recommend any system of weather-prediction for 
investigation and trial. . 
La Place, in his “Essai sur les Probabilities,’ says: 
“We are so far from knowing all the agents of nature, 
and their different modes of action, that it would be un- 
philosophical to deny the existence of phenomena because 
they are zwextlicable in the present state of human know- 
ledge.’ 
The facts being established, their raison d’étre becomes 
a subordinate question. What Napoleon III. calls /a 
logique des faits, is the very best logic applicable to this 
question. 
I do not yet understand the modus operandi. The late 
Admiral believed that “the Moon is a great disturber by 
gravitation ; while the Sun isso chiefly by heat.” I believe 
that the apparent influence of the planets on the atmo- 
sphere arises from the “ght reflected by them into the 
atmosphere, which light acts chemically or electrically 
according to its nature. The statement that, out of an 
equal quantity of light incident upon the two bodies, — 
