Abstract
WE class these two books together as new editions of standard treatises in their respective departments of science that are among the best that can be used by students or teachers. The term “Meteorology,” which has entirely lost its etymological meaning, is defined by Sir John Herschel as “the description and explanation of those phenomena which group themselves under the head of the weather, of the seasons, and of the climate,” a branch of natural science of the laws regulating which we are at present almost entirely ignorant, as Dr. Balfour Stewart has shown in these pages. Writers on physical geography content themselves at present with a description of the physical contour of the globe, with some slight reference to its climatology, and the distribution of its animal and vegetable life, Mrs. Somerville's handbook being, as far as we know, the most complete in this respect. The better and more logical mode would seem to us to be, first of all to treat of the earth as a member of the solar system, and thence to deduce the laws which govern its natural phenomena; we believe that in this way such phenomena as those of ocean currents and trade winds, and the variations of climate, would be rendered far more quickly intelligible to the learner than is now the case. From his stand-point, Dr. Page's “Introductory Text-book” discusses the subject in his usual clear, concise, and systematic manner.
Meteorology.
By Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart. From the Encyclopædia Britannica. Second Edition. (Edinburgh: A. & C. Black.)
Introductory Text-book of Physical Geography.
By D. Page. Fourth Edition. (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Meteorology Introductory Text-book of Physical Geography. Nature 2, 140 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/002140a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/002140a0