SEPTEMBER, 1898.
-
Years of harvest. Total sugar crop.
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW.
R a i g h t p g
413
1888.. ........................................ 1 m .. ........................................ 1884.. ......................................... 1886. ....................................... 1881.. ......................................... 1899.. ........................................ 1889.. ........................................ 1887.. ......................................... 1894.. ......................................... 1890.. .......................................... 1 m ........................................... lesl .......................................... 1es.P ......................................... 1896. .......................................... 1889.. ...................................... 1682. ......................................... 1888 ...........................................
rainfall, as in the following table, we may perceive a clearer
connection between the rainfall and the sugar crop than was
shown in our previous article :
Kilograms. Inches. 102,376,271 57.25 119,711,492 68.39
117.sn9.610 78.68
124, y3.140 86.18
142,645,?22? 96.11
127, w, 339 15.55 115,299, a39 ‘7.13
139,751,810 80.39 120,396,858 %.OS
113, t93.319 m.11 130, E O , 273 88.94
113,813,075 96.61 6S,7lS, 573 98.78 152,677,973 108.54
124,564,951 108.71
116,719,997 118.37 132,172,968 125.40
Destructive hurricane.
By taking the means of these figures in groups we see that
there has been a steady increase in the sugar crop which
averaged 119 millions during the first four years and 137
millions during the last four years, which increase is nndoubt-
edly due to an increase of acreage. On the other hand, the
average for the four years of the least rainfall is 116 millions, and for the four years of greatest rainfall 131 millions. In
these latter averages the secular increase, due to acreage, has
little or ho influence, and the difference of 16 million kilo-
grams may be attributed to the increase of average rainfall
from 70 inches to 115 inches during the growing season, so
that an increase of three inches in the rainfall brings an
increase of 1 million kilograms in the crop.
-- CORRECTION.
It is said that the Editor seems to have been unnecessarily
severe in some remarks on page 316 of the MONTHLY WEATHER
REVIEW for July. He was trying to show how to define the
expression “ very violent thunderstorm,” so that the record
would show whether t,he violence referred to the thunder and
lightning, or the wind, or the rain or hail. He unintention-
ally misquoted the original report from Elgin, Ill. (where
the measured rainfall was 0.43 inch), but he did not intend to
say that a storm having so small a quantity as 0.043 inch
might not be a very violent storm. If the expression ‘‘ vio-
lent storm” is not misleading, it is, a t least, possible to re-
move its indefiniteness by stating wherein the storm was vio-
lent. The observer writes to say that 0.43 is the correct rain-
fall, “and the recollection of that stormy half-hour will
linger in the memory of thousands in. this city for a long
time, so, also, will its marks continue on our shade and for-
est trees.”
We infer that the measured rain fell within half an hour,
which brings it up nearly to the standard of excessive rain-
falls tabulated monthly by Mr. Henry in Table SI.
The Editor hopes that the observers will agree with him
that it is better for him to venture on an occasional critical
remark than not to remark a t all.
-0-
INSTRUCTION IN RESEARCH.
It will be recognized by those who carefully consider the
subject that progress in science consists not merely in the
diffusion of what is already known, but in the actual increase
of our knowledge. The grand structure called science has
been the growth of many thousands of years. It is said that
Pythagoras added to geometry his discovery of that impor-
tant theorem which is now BO familiar to every school boy, viz,
that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle
is equal to the sum of the square8 of the two sides. After
geometry and algebra and arithmetic had been studied for
two thousand years, the modern experimental sciences began
to develop more rapidly. Newton and Galileo discovered the
laws of forces and gave us the true basis for mechanics. New-
ton, also, made great strides in the study of the phenomena
of optics. During the past century the names of Liebig in
agricultural chemistry, Gauss in mathematics and magnetics,
Kelvin in electricity, Clausius in thermodynamics, and a host
of others each in his own sphere have become famous for the
energy with which they have pushed their inquiries forward
into the unexplored fields of nature. Our own land has had
her Espy and Ferrel, but still stands in need of the help of
many other equally sagacious investigators.
We hear much of the study of science in schools and col-
leges. and a t last meteorology is also beginning to be appre-
ciated as an important course of study; but can we be con-
tent to merely teach over and over again that which has
been accepted as true? We are everywhere confronted with
unexplained phenomena, with events that contradict all theo-
ries and hypotheses. We must hold ourselves open to con-
viction and ready to accept whatever new modification of old
views may result from better investigations. But how shall
we educate investigators?
A mistaken idea has widely prevailed that the investigator
is a genius, born and not made; sent to us by the Creator,
and not educated by human design. The history of German
science has, however, shown that environment and training
are as important as birth and inheritance. The whole system
of education in the German universities has for five genera-
tions been directed to the development of the investigator as
its highest product. Those who discover important new facts,
laws, or principles have been rewarded with the highest places
in the intellectual world of that nation. Those who feel that
they have a desire or calling for scientific research are encour-
aged to study for the degree of doctor of philosophy, a degree
that is only granted when the candidate has, by actual observa-
tion, experiment, or exploration, made some important contri-
bution to human knowledge. The professors under whom he
studies have, in their turn, made many similar contributions,
and are well prepared to judge of the value of his work. Of
course a considerable percentage of candidates fail to receive
the desired degree of. Ph. D., even after many years of perse-
vering work ; but still the German universities have, during
the past seventy years, published over fifty thousand so-called
‘‘ doctors’ dissertations,” embodying the results of the works
of fifty thousand candidates. The consequence is that to-day
Germany easily leads all the world in the amount and value
of her contributions to human knowledge and the energy with
which her students pursue the study of nature.
I n a recent address by Sir Norman Lockyer (see Nature for
October, 1898) he states that in 1845 in England there were no
laboratories in the universities, no science teaching in the
schools, no organization for training science teachers, and, he
might have added, still less organization for training scientific
investigators. The same was a t that time true, approximately,
of the Uiiited States, and in both countries the young men who
wished to devote themselves to science were accustomed to
resort to France or Germany to find the necessary educational
facilities, stimulus, and companionship. Since those days
both England and the United States have awakened to the
necessity of encouraging scientific investigation and the train-
ing of investigators.
A great stiniulus to the study of nature was given in
America by the influence of Agassiz, a t Cambridge, beginning
with 1846, and by the opening of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion in 1847. Almost simultaneously independent work be-