Sunshine and Showers. A Compendium of Popular Meteorology. By Andrew
Steinmetz. (Reeve and Co.)—The weather is certainly the most popular of all subjects, but the general conversation upon it is not of a scientific character. Mr. Steinmetz has done his best to suit his book both to those who want to talk and those who want to learn, writing in an easy and attractive style for the former, and giving copious tables of figures for the latter. We find him decidedly sanguine on the score of weather forecasts, but his reasoning, though specious, is not conclusive. Surely, if we are to make meteorology into a fixed science, we must have fixed rules to go by, and the intuition by which animals and sailors prognosticate the weather will not be sufficient for a meteo- rological department. Mr. Steinmetz forgets that the great objection made to Admiral Fitzroy's forecasts by the Committee which reported last year, was that a right scientific method had not been followed, and that no trustworthy data bad been collected. We do not think such a report at all entitles Mr. Steinmetz to sneer at "this precious Com- mittee," which is quite as anxious as he is to arrive at a certain ground whereon the laws of weather science may be based.
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