Modern Meteorology: an Outline of the Growth and Present Condition of Some of its Phases

Abstract

IF it be true that the condition of the weather forms a general and engrossing topic for conversation among Englishmen, books which treat of meteorology should attract the attention of many readers in this country, and Dr. Waldo be assured of many students. But in this particular work the author has not dwelt upon the more popular side of the subject, he has not exhibited the capacity for making weather forecasts, or discussed the success which has attended such predictions, or the future that lies before work of that description. He has had in view rather that smaller class of readers, with whom meteorology means something real and hopeful, and who by accurate and patient work are earnestly striving to make it rank among the exact sciences. Considering the very substantial progress that meteorology has made, the opinion is shared by many, possibly by the author of this work, that the day has already come when this science is entitled to rank among the older and more systematised branches of scientific inquiry. This is entirely to misconceive the situation. Just as incorrect and unfair would it be, to see in the widely scattered and ardent meteorological observers, a class, whose power and knowledge are limited to the acquisition of the readings of barometers and thermometers, Meteorology may not yet have produced its Kepler, certainly not its Newton, but working hypotheses, founded on rigorous dynamical principles are everywhere being tested, amended, harmonised with observed facts, showing that the days of simple accumulation of observations are giving place to a new and more hopeful era. It is with the earnest hope of encouraging and instructing this army of observers, that Dr. Waldo in this little book endeavours to place before them the most recent results, which the pioneers of meteorology are seeking to establish with a fair prospect of success.

Modern Meteorology: an Outline of the Growth and Present Condition of Some of its Phases.

By Frank Waldo, Member of the German and Austrian Meteorological Societies, late Junior Professor, Signal Service, U.S.A. (London: Walter Scott, 1893.)