National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-12-31
THE WEATHER MAPS,
Prophets and Their PrOphec clos FaIs
otions-SOnicthinu Tangible at Last.


Notions-sonicthinE rnngibIe at Laat.
To the Editor Of rtTE REPuRLtcAS;
The cycle and mathematical notions In regard
TO me weather are very generally held, and that
100 by men eminent In science. Before the nd-
vent ot The weather map this was no more sur
prising than that before the age Of geography men
should have had the queer notions they did OF the
grouping OF the land ana water Of the globe. One
oil The best representations oithese notions recently
9ppeared in an evening paper here. The author,
Mr. Thornc, therein strongly advocates
itself in cycles Of nIe nineteen Years years,
for the reason that the GARTH the sun, and the
nearly oycry nineteen years, aud ho attempts to
prove II by what The weather has In some respects
appeared 10 HIM Yet such important things as
drOuthH seem to he an CxceptiOnl But as In all
such Ingenious and uniounded theories, the ndyo-
cate thereof has n ready excuse for exceptions. In
this case y 4. the disturbing element Of the SUM-
IT WOULD SEEM PROM MS IDEAS
and Others OF his class that if we only had our
mathematics perfected or understood better how
to apply them to this subject, we might make
Mr. Thornes open sentence, which, by the way,
contains the germ Of his theory, II is evident that
he Is lnboring under false premises. lie says
III the sun and moon cause ever varying tidal
waves IN the great ocean Of waters they must pro-
duce similar but far greater and more striking re-
suits on the still water aud more flexible ocean of
The carth's atmosphere. Nor can Il be reasonably
doubted that the attracting power of the larger
planets must exert sensible effect on the great
entirely unHpprcciable on the watery one" This
may appear like good reasoning to people not
familiar with The subject for through the influence
Of Old.limc notions and old nlmanacs, they have
grown upwlh the idea of" cycles in the weathc or,
and tue influence Of the moon aud the planets,
and that by the aid Of some mysterious mnthcmn.
tics these cycles and influences could be deter.
mined quite accurately, aud that complete &C.
Curacy could he arrived at when the higher
mathematical key was found; and through
mathematics they have believed that the world
would become profoundly wcathcr.wise.
BEFORE THE ERA or THE WEATHER MAP,
which daily reproduces the geography Of the at
mosphere these notions could not have well been
Contradetcd even by the wisest. They may not
which to disproye them. The weather. map re.
veals TO us the impossibilty OF the weather re-
peating itself, and that the changes which nature
can produce are infinite, and that there are no
mathematics by which they can DO determined (;
indeed, IL Is not within the province OF mathe-
determine what our life will be on the morrow.
OF what will be the character of the next person
whom we Will meet OH the street, The weather
map also
REVEALS TO Us THE FACT
that the sun through his enormous heating power,
Is the cause and the only cause of our daily changes
rs well as being our great agent of light and heat
These changes come, and can only come, through
heat. AS for the moon, her heat aud therefore her
influence, is too contemplate TO speak OF. As for
the planets. they have about as much influence on
the weather as u diamond in n lady's finger. ring.
Now that we have something tangible, reliable,
and instructive in the weather map--somelhing
mon sense bids us to direct our intelligence to IL,
and TO waste no time on mathematics" and
cycles or even on weather prophets" for they
are Of no value. /. r. MOVES.