Meteorology, Practical and Applied

Abstract

DURING the last fifteen years much progress has been made in the study of meteorologv, as a comparison between the first and second editions of Sir John Moore's treatise amply demonstrates. Expansion in some directions necessitating curtailment in others has changed and improved the work. As an example of addition we may instance the account of the investi-ation of the upper atmosphere with the information acquired of the isothermal layer and the behaviour of air currents. This inquiry, practically limited to the nterval between the appearance of the two editions, ias reacted, in various ways, traces of which will be:ound in the book. It has given a strong impulse to the work of designing accurate self-recording instruments, necessitating a considerable increase in the chapters devoted to the methods of measurement and oegistration of climatic factors. Through the increased attention attracted to meteorology and the firmer scientific foundation thus acquired, there has arisen the necessity for a broader, more general view of the factors of operation, in which world-wide areas and cosmical influences are substituted for limited districts and local circumstances. This more philosophic view the author has not discussed with the fulness its importance deserves. Perhaps, it hardly comes within the scheme, but the omission indicates the position the book occupies among treatises on meteorology. It deals with the mechanical processes employed in observation and the discussion of the results obtained, rather than with the problems of general circulation affecting the atmosphere as a whole. It is an admirable treatise on the methods of observation, it demonstrates very satisfactorily what can be accomplished by instrumental means, and what are the objects and advantages to be gained by the systematic collection of details. The principles underlying this aspect of practical meteorology are well illustrated by the description of the official weather service at home, in the United Slates, and in Canada. This information is thoroughly modern, trustworthy, and interesting. One section is devoted to the consideration of climate as deduced from the records supplied by instrumental means and one to the influence of season and of weather on disease. Perhaps the last is a larger subject than can be discussed adequately in the space allotted to it, but it is a subject on which the writer is an authority, and constitutes an important branch of meteorological science.

Meteorology, Practical and Applied.

By Sir John Moore. Second revised and enlarged edition. Pp. xxvii + 492. (London: Rebman, Ltd., 1910.) Price 10s. 6d. net.