The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-22 00:00:00


Ely stourbrOge elmeriter.

S.kTURDAI, OCTOBER 22nd, 1881.

THE SCIENCE OF INIETEQROLOGY.

THE late disastrous hurricane has once more
drawn attention to the immense importance of
a science•which, notwithstanding the progress
made by man in other directions, is even yet iu
its infancy. Yet the science of Meteorology is,
to the mass of the people, of infinitely greater
consequence than a great proportion of the
studies now teught at our Universities, and for
which " chairs" were richly endowed centuries
ago. At our great national seats of learning
there are Professori of Arabic and Sanserit, of
Greek, and of Hebrew, but nowhere yet, in
either of the three kindom, is there a Professor
of Meteorology. Astronomy has been describei
as one of the noblest and most sublime sciences
which can engage the attention of the human
mind. Of that there can be not the slightest
doubt; and the way in which its devotees are
enabled to predict the re-appearance of comets
and the time and place of eclipses for centuries
to come, is marvellous in its exactitude. The
time of the rising and the setting of the sun for
every day in the year, the phases of the moon
and the number of days, hours, and minutes
when the luminary of the night will be above
the horizon are calculated with mathematical
precision. The countries affected by the eclipses,
and the time, to the second, when the shadow of
either sun or moon will pass over certain lands,
are described with unerring accuracy. The
nights on which the best-known planets and
coustellations will move across the pathway of
the skies, are faithfully set forth ; and those who
are iuterested in the movements of heavenly
bodies know precisely where to look for Jupiter
and for Mars and for Saturn, for the formidable
Orion, for the Great Bear, and for the little
group of stars known as the Pleiades, whose
" sweet influence" is described in the pages of
Old Testament story. _ _

All thf.se are of great interest, and the study
of such subjects is of r. character to purify the
wind and elevate the soul. But to the great
mass of the people, who toil, and spin, and
weave, Arabic and Sauscrit are as unknown as
Greek or Hebrew. Even a solar eclipse, albeit
an imposing phenonn_mon, is of interest chiefly
to astronowers, who tr:.vel long distances to
observe the corona, and to note the effects of
the temp::r .ry blotting out of the great orb of
day. Vast numbers of the population have
neither time nor inclination to watch the moVe-
ments of the planetary bodies ; and as to the
constellations, large numbers do not know the
felape or position of Orion, the course of Ursa
Major, or the direction of the Pleiades. Sirius
is to many totally unknown. They direct their
gaze heavenward when a comet is visible, for
tne appearance of s'ach an erratic visitor never
fails to command general interest. Or when
the shooing star season is in progress—from the
14th to the 16th November—the sky is scanned
with curiosity, and there is specula ion as to
what the destruction of these celestial bodies
may mean—whether they are merely uninhabited
bodies, or worlds like our own, which thus
suddenly disappear without a sound that can
reach earthly ears. But the work of life must
be attended to ; and the impression produced by
the spectacle soon passeth away and is gone.
Now, the weather in these islands is the
universal topic of remark, from the rising of
the sun even to the going down of the same,
and from the beginning of the year to its Cose.
A man salutes his neighbour with the intimation
that it is a fine morning, or that it is likely to
be wet ; and somehow or other the information
never becomes monotonous. It is as fresh in
the spring as in the autumn ; as interesting in
the long summer days as amid the cold blasts
of winter. Everybody understands it; whereas
a promiscuous salutation about the transit of
Venus or the relative value of the inductive and
deductive sciences would not be comprehended
by the ordinary wayfarer. It is doubtful whether
the time will ever come when the science of
meteorology will be brought to such a perfec-
tion as that of astronomy ; and when the weather
can be predicted for every day in the coming
year with the certainty of sunrise and sunset,
when ships from specified ports will regulate
their voyages according to the meteorological
inforrnati ALI at the disposal of their owners. In
the present state of our knowledge it would be
impossible to foretell the course of the wind
even for twenty-four hours, much less six
mouths hence. But this notwithstanding, there
can be no question that room exists for a con-
siderable advance upon our present position so
far as the science of meteorology is concerned.
It affects the tradesman in the town as well as
the farmer in the country, and would be of
enormous practif...al use to both. It can never be
that man will be enabled to control the winds ;
but by study he can obtain an extended know-
ledge of their cause and of the laws by which it
is regulated. As time goes on this will be done
to no increasing extent, and the result will be
of vast interest and importance to the great
mass of the body politic, whose comfort, con-
vi-nience, and even welfare are affected in many
ways by a sudden and unexpected change of
weather.