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METEMPSYCHOSIS. were not uninfluenced by it, just as the Jewish rabbis adopted it in holding that Adam was reincarnated as David. It has been held by Christian sects at various times since the Neo-Platonists' doctrine was received by the Gnostics, but always in the form of a belief that a man's soul has preëxisted in the soul of some previous man; seldom in the form of Hindu belief, that an animal as well as a man may receive the soul of a man that has just died. Consult: Hopkins, Religions of India (Boston, 1895); Wiedermann, The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul (London, 1895); Zeller, Grundriss der Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie (4th ed., Leipzig, 1893); Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion (London, 1890).  METEORIC STONE. See.  METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY,. A learned association established in 1850 and incorporated in 1866. The society has its headquarters in London. The objects are the promotion of meteorology in all its branches, and the record of data and theories relating to the subject. Its membership consists of fellows and honorary members, the latter being foreigners of distinction. The two quarterly publications of the society are the Quarterly Journal and the Meteorological Record.  METEOROL′OGY (Gk., meteōrologia, treatise on celestial phenomena, from , meteōrologos, discussing celestial phenomena, from , meteōron, meteor + , legein, to say). The study of the atmosphere and its phenomena. Efforts are being made by every civilized nation to apply to the benefit of mankind the knowledge we possess of meteorology, especially to foretell the winds and weather from day to day and the general character of the seasons from season to season. About fifty official governmental weather bureaus receive reports from their stations by

telegraph daily, compile weather maps, issue forecasts, and publish weekly, monthly, or annual climatological summaries, together with frequent special meteorological memoirs. Among the most prominent of these, on account of the extent of their territory and the value of their publications, are those of Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, Argentine Republic, Canada, and the United States. The total annual expenditure by all Government services on meteorological work is not less than three million dollars, to which should be added an equal sum to represent the great amount of work that is done without pay by voluntary observers. Several private meteorological establishments are maintained by wealthy lovers of science, most prominent among which are those of Vallot, on Mont Blanc; A. Lawrence Rotch at Blue Hill, near Boston; L. Teisserenc de Bort at Trappes, near Paris. There are also numerous municipal observatories, prominent among which are that of the New York City Central Park. Dr. Daniel Draper, director, and those of Montsouris and the Tour Saint Jacques in Paris, of which Dr. J. Joubert is director. Observatories are also maintained by special associations, such as those on the Santis, Austria, the Jesuit observatories of Saint Hélier, Havana, Zikawei, Manila, and the one recently destroyed at Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Special mention should be made of Symons's British Rainfall System, to the development of which his life was devoted and the perpetuity of which is now assured by the terms of his will. Over three thousand stations are maintained in the British Isles. Organized systems of rainfall stations have also been maintained in Mauritius, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, and Saint Kitts.

In addition to its material progress in observers and apparatus, theoretical meteorology has especially profited by the labors of eminent