A Popular Treatise on the Winds

Abstract

NUMEROUS as are the popular treatises on various branches of phenomenal meteorology that have appeared during the last quarter of a century, English literature has hitherto been singularly deficient in elementary works treating of the physical and mechanical processes of the atmosphere from a theoretical point of view, and suited to the capacity of the average student. Those versed in the higher mathematics may indeed find all they require in such modern works as Sprung's “Lehrbuch der Meteorologie,”and Ferrel's “Recent Advances in Meteorology,” the high merit and originality of which last are somewhat veiled under its more obtrusive title—“Part 2 of the Report of the Chief Signal Officer of the [U.S.] Army for 1885.” But these works are hardly suited for popular instruction; and for that large class of students whose mathematical acquirements are more limited, but who nevertheless desire to understand the movements and internal changes of the atmosphere, and to interpret them rationally in accordance with mechanical and physical laws, there has hitherto been little guidance, save such as they may obtain from casual references to them in works devoted to the general teaching of these sciences. It is perhaps in consequence of this divorce of the deductive from the inductive treatment of meteorological subjects that the contributions of English observers to the science of meteorology bear but an insignificant proportion to the labour expended on observational work, and that so much of this work is abortive, and practically of little value, owing to the absence of guiding and suggestive theoretical knowledge.

A Popular Treatise on the Winds.

Comprising the General Motions of the Atmosphere, Monsoons, Cyclones, Tornadoes, Waterspouts, Hailstorms, &c. By William Ferrel., &c. (New York: John Wiley and Sons. London: Macmillan and Co. 1889.)