Twenty Years on Ben Nevis. By W. T. Kilgour. (A.
Gardner, Paisley. 2s. 6d. net.)—Doctors appear to differ about the value of the weather and temperature observations made during the twenty years' maintenance of the Ben Nevis station. Lord Kelvin, on the one hand, held them to be useful. Professor Schuster thought that all that could be learnt had been learnt from them, and that the work might be discontinued unless some definite problem was to be dealt with. Both authorities had their supporters. We venture to think that the two observed the matter from different points, Professor Schuster taking the scientific and Lord Kelvin the practical. Surely, if there was a chance that forecasts and warnings could be thus secured, it would have been worth spending £1,000 a year in this way. Meteorology is not so certain a science that we can afford to omit any means of improving it. And when one thinks of the 150,000,000 of annual expenditure, this economy is too ludicrous. We hope that Mr. Kilgour's book will do something to bring about a reversal of this foolish policy. It is a record of hard, and often dangerous, work done for a very inadequate remuneration. We should have willingly heard more about the observations, and less about the visitors. If it could have been prepared, a definite statement, illustrated with examples, of the benefits derived from the observations might have been advantageously given. It is not to every one that the " magnificent inutility " of science forcibly appeals. The appeal, too, as we understand it, rests mainly on the practical arguments.
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