58
OBITUARY NOTICES.
years he was an assistant in the Meteorological Department of the Board of
Trade under the late Admiral Fitz Roy, who was then organizing his system
of storm-warnings.
In addition to his official duties, and possibly in collision with them, Mr.
Symons was already collecting records of the fall of rain, a pursuit the value
of which Admiral FitzRoy failed to appreciate very highly, and being com-
pelled to make choice between the one branch of work and the other, Mr.
Symons adhered to his own course. He foresaw the importance of a study
of the rainfall in view of the increasing demand upon the water resources of
the kingdom, necessitated by the growth of population, improved and more
systematic sanitation, and the additional demands of growing industries. In
1860 he published his first annual volume of the British Rainfall, which con-
tained records from 168 stations—namely, 163 in England and five in Wales,
there being none for Scotland or Ireland. With persistent energy he con-
tinued for 40 years to develop this unique organization of voluntary observers,
His last published British Rainfall for 1898, contained records from 2,545
stations in England, 237 in Wales, 436 in Scotland and 186 in Ireland—a total
of 3,404 stations. It is claimed for him that at the time of his death he was
the head of one of the largest purely volunteer organizations in existence,
having over 3,000 observers in all parts of the kingdom. His annual digest of
their records is a standard work in which not only meteorologists but civil
engineers, sanitary experts, and others, place unquestioning confidence.
A determining factor which encouraged Mr. Symons to persevere with
studies which were then imperfectly understood and little appreciated was the
recurrence of the terrible outbreaks of cholera which afflicted England and
Europe throughout the middle part of the century. He was among the first
to perceive in this connection the necessity of determining the amount and
distribution of the water supply. His first step was to ascertain what records
of rainfall were already in existence. These he found to be very much
scattered. While some parts of the country were more or less covered, other
very large districts were entirely without them, and such records as there
were related to varying periods of time, and could not be correlated. This
was the cause of his setting to work to organize a band of observers who
would undertake to observe the amount of the rainfall each day, using tested
gauges satisfactorily exposed and capable of giving accurate results. The
need of precautions to ensure these conditions was apparent to all as soon as
they were put into practice, for the data already in existence were proved to
be frequently valueless. One gauge was discovered which had been orna-
mented with a small roof to protect it from the rain, which it was its purpose
to measure. Others were placed where water could drip into them from
over-hanging trees, and so forth. Mr. Symons visited personally and tested
every gauge. The proper distribution of the gauges over the kingdom was
also a part of his task. Private individuals were induced to take up the
work, procure gauges at their own cost, and make the observations methodi-
cally from no motive but the public good. The result of these labours has
been the accumulation of a mass of data such as exists in no other country,
and which is now available for use in connexion with a variety of questions
relating to the sanitary and hygienic needs of the country. Mr. Symons told
of one case in which a municipality was put to the expense of many thousands