Abstract
METEOROLOGY as a science is young, but as a branch of knowledge very old, perhaps as old as mankind. Indeed, the beginnings of meteorology are to be found with the origin of human civilisation. In those remote times, man living as hunter or agriculturist mostly in the open air was more influenced by, and more depending on, the weather than we are ourselves at present, and he was therefore forced to watch atmospheric phenomena. He did so, of course, not in order to study the atmosphere;u d to discover its laws, but to derive immediate advantages for himself. He was anxious to learn how to protect his house against the inclemency of the weather, how to foresee the best atmospheric conditions for his undertakings, or how to find out the most favourable climatic situations for his fields.
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The Dawn of Meteorology 1 . Nature 79, 173–176 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/079173a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079173a0