Year: 1872

EDUCATED OBSERVERS.


In n recent address, of which a synopsis was
furnished to our readers, Prof. Agassiz, IN
impressing upon a San Francisco audience the
value to their city of a college where science
should be specially cultivated, more partlcu-
larly emphasized the services of such an IN
stituhon in training corps of skilled sclen-
tifc observers. 1t is the history OF all modern
success in scientific inquiry, that 1t IS proper
toned to the accumulation of carefully ascer-
tained facts. The men Of extraordinary ca
pacty for generalization, who at occasional
intervals seize these facts, fuse them III
the fire of their genius, and present the
world with the refined truth OF great natural
laws. are born, not made. They come IN their
own GOOD time, and we cannot hasten their
advent. But we can prepare the material for
them and to do this, thousands of accurate,
patient painstaking men must test, observe,
record, the phenomena of nature. VI the
nicely of observation which science requires,
it is difficult to convey to the uninitlated any
idea. A man who has never before loOked
through q telescope would not probably be
able to see Bicla's comet, upon whose Vaga-
res hang so much speculation, II he gaZed
through any of the instruments by which the
observations on it have been obtained. The
best microscOpists, in approaching the more
difficult class of investigations, prepare their
physical systems by fasting and rest, so that
even their skilled eyesight may give purer
service. Already men are training themselves
in certain specalties Of observation, with rel
erence TO the few minutes of work they expect
TO perform, two years hence, at the transit OF
Venus.


Considering the absolute need and great
value to the country of skilled observers, 1t
is q cause for congratul4tion that the Signal
Service Bureau is engaged in training large
number of them at Fort Whipple. The pune
tilious exacttude of the art Of war gives q
stringency to the details Of duty required OF
the men who are there taught the use OF IN
struments and the accepted theories OF mete-
orology, so that when they have passed GER
tain severe examinations they become compe-
tent TO take charge of signal station and
attend to all its duties, including telegraphy.
IL is not many years since one who snould
make it a business to observe the weather.
especially to predict it-became the subject OF
gibes and ridicule. Now, the success of OBJ
servations and predictions which at least pre-
vent numerous shipwrecks is assured; for
since the Signal Service has been established,
no great storm has traversed the territory of
the United States or swept its lakes, gulf, or
sea-coasts without the signals of its approach
being exhibited at the ports whele danger to
shipping was probable. The extension of these
observations to Canada, it is hoped, is but the
first step toward an international Signal Ser
vice that will encircle the globe.


We think the day is coming when it will be
generally recognized that careful scientific
observation is the most valuable labor per-
formed in the world. The direct results of
this work in the Signal Office have impressed
the public as no scientific performance ever
has before; so that now when that Office pro-
poses to take observations upon the rise and
fall of rivers and changes in their beds, there
is o prompt offer of assistance and cooperation
from the communities residing near the rivers.
The wintry penance which Prof Huntingdon
did on the summit of Mount Washington Is
now estimated at something like its value as
a means Of research. But there is even q
wider field than earth and air offer, into which
Investigation is now extending. For many
wears careful observers have studied the sun
and noted the phenomena of its surface, re-
cording day by day and hour by hour the
changes taking place in that mighty caldrOn.
Meanwhile other observers had noted in long
series of records an evident connection on
earth between magnetic and atmospheric dis
turbances. And now another step bridges the
spaces of the solar system, and shows that the
magnetic storms of earth are coincident with
disturbances in the sun. 1t is not too much
to state as possibility, that solar observa-
tions may yet be required 10 furnish the data
for the probabilities of terrestrial weather.