The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-10-09
Meteorological Education.


study, and has found fitting expression for
itself In those celebrated words of Ezra
Cornell, 81 would found an institution where
any person can find instruction in any study"
The muniicent endowment Of Cornell Uni
versity by the author of this sentiment suffi-
GENTLY attcsts his sincerity, as the success Of
the enterprise fully sanctions his wisdom.
A late eminent writer Of Scotland, comment
Ing upon the Importance of extending popular
instruction to the study of meteorology, or
weather science, seeks to provoke bis English
countrymen to emulation by the statement
that sin the schools of the United States Of
America meteorological observations and the
keeping Of meteorological registers form part
Of the common education of the people.
II is, indeed, pity that. such commenda-
ton is misplaced and cannot be honestly
appropriated by our educators. Indeed, we
are moi much, in this respect, before foreign
nations. We venture to assert that few of our
first graduates or university A. Ms could
give clear explanation Of the trade winds or
monsoons. If Mr.. Buchan, the distinguished
Secretary Of the Scottish Meteorological So
ciety (the writer to whom we have alluded),
would visit some Of our more pretentious col
leges he would find applicable here what he
has said Of his own countrymen-that few
even Of the 'sliberally educated classes in EGG
land are able to read from vernier or give an
Ineligible Interpretation to the fluctuations Of
the barometer as indicative Of coming
changes of weather."
We have carefully examined host of col
lege, university and school catalogues and,
with the exception Of Yale, and perhaps two
others. they do not even pretend to afford
even elementary instruction in studies of
climato!ogy, entomology, &c. AS to instru-
mental science, we are but just waking up to
our ignorance, and we find in an English
scientific periodical of recent date the short
but significant paragraph :--"Here Is trans
atlantic hint to our scientific colleges and
schools Mr.. has been appointed
instructor in the use Of the microscope at
Harvard University"
Now, the American people are an eminently
practical and experimental people, and the
time has arrived in their intellectual develop
ment when they mean to throw off the venera-
BILE coils Of scholasticsm and grapple with the
great problems of nature. This is seen in the
intense and sustained interest that has been
manifested all over the land in the achieve
ments and successes Of the national system for
forecasting and preann ouncing the storms and
cyclones which have heretofore dafied the
power of science to predict them.
In making the assertion that practically the
science Of meteorology, on which this system
depends, is not popularity taught, we Of
course do not forget the meagre summary Of
meteorology usually bound up in the works
and text books Of physics and natural philoso-
ply now in general use. But no scholar hav-
Ing any adequate acquaintance with the strides
that have been made within few years by
such laborers as Leverrier, Fitzroy, Buchan,
Buys-Ballot and other meteorologic investi-
gators will pretend that the science they have
elaborated is taught in any text book now in
use in any one of our highest institutions of
learning
It is Suggestive Of grave deficiencies when,
as we have satisfied ourselves by actual in
quiry, the fact creeps out that even in the
agricultural departments of the higher colleges
no cognizance whatever is taken Of the science
Of the weather-the science which, of all
others, most concerns the farmer and planter
In lieu of instruction on this subject, 1t is to be
regretted, the time and attention of the young
student is absorbed by agricultural chemistry.
Certainly any agricultural school which fails
;oco 10, ~
sadically weak and defective.
The reason 80 little is done, perhaps, in
this branch Of knowledge is the prevailing in
attention to it by educated men and yet no
intelligent mind can contemplate it without
feeling desire to pursue it. The marvellous
yet ofttimes simple machinery Of the atmos-
phere is as much within the grasp Of youth
full scholar as the diagram of steam engine
or the model of any instrument he is made
acquainted with in his course Of natural
philosophy. We spend much labor and money
on peerng into the secrets of the as
Of the schoolboy to photograph to
itself the intricate workings OF stellar
and planetary economics. Costly expeditions
are sent out (and wisely sent ouD to observe
eclipscs and study the spots and atmosphere
of the sun, and all these things have their
dignifed place in our school and college cur
riculum. Why should no effort be put forth
in our high schools, and even common schools,
to introduce the philosophy Of the aerial world,
the laws OF storms ana the behavior of those
physical agents in our atmosphere upon the
human health and happiness depends9
Surely the American mind Is not of too low
an order, as some of our teachers virtually
assume, to comprehend this science. With
but the feeblest aid from premonitions afforded