Abstract
BEFORE publishing in NATURE of Jan. 8 the article by Capt. C. J. P. Cave on “Popular Long-Range Weather Forecasts,” we sent an advance proof to Lord Dunboyne, whose fifty-day forecasts are published in the Daily Mail and formerly appeared in the Field. Lord Dunboyne desired to reply to the article but found himself unable to do so, and he therefore entrusted his case to his brother, Capt. the Hon. R. P. Butler, whose article appears elsewhere in this issue, together with Capt. Cave's comments upon it. Having now devoted a fair amount of our congested space to the subject we think no more can reasonably be expected, and our readers may safely be left to form their own conclusions upon the evidence which has been placed before them. We are, of course, glad to give Lord Dunboyne credit for a desire to discover principles by which long-range weather forecasts may be secured, and we should be sorry to discourage him or any one else working to achieve this aim. We must point out, however, that the appropriate place to present such principles is a scientific society, like the Royal Meteorological Society, where they would be discussed by people best able to express a judgment upon them. It is of no use to say, as Sir Theodore Cook, the editor of the Field, does, in a letter to us, that while Lord Dunboyne contributed the forecasts to the columns of that journal he received “the most satisfactory letters from farmers and correspondents of every kind in all parts of England.“Science is not concerned with belief when processes of Nature are involved, but with evidence; and no principle or theory ought to be recognised in scientific fields unless it can survive critical discussion. When Lord Dun. boyne's methods and results are submitted to such a bar of competent opinion, we shall be glad to render a further account of them.
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[News and Views]. Nature 119, 168–173 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119168c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119168c0