Meteorology abounds in ancient rivalries. Did Coriolis steal his Coriolis Force from William Ferrel? And do we really have Lewis Richardson to thank for being able to predict the weather with computers? Or was it Villem Bjerknes who showed how it was done a dozen years before?
The most controversial riddle in the sands of meteorology, however, concerns the authorship of a very famous rhyme on weather lore.
You know the one, of course. There are few unable to recall a knowledgeable granny who would sniff the air and say:
Hark how the chairs and tables crack!
Old Betty's joints are on the rack;
and then go on with minimal encouragement to quote at length:
Her corns and shooting pains torment her,
And to her bed untimely send her.
The hollow wind begins to blow,
The clouds look black, the grass is low;
The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
And spiders from their cobwebs creep.
All these, allegedly, are Nature's signs that rain is on the way. We know it was a doctor who put them all together in this catchy verse, but opinions differ as to exactly who he was.
Some say it was Edward Jenner, the discoverer of smallpox vaccine, who died in 1823. Others maintain that it was penned by Dr Erasmus Darwin, Jenner's contemporary, grandfather of the famous Charles, and a distinguished physician in his own right.
But does it really matter who compiled the litany? The fact remains that the verse encapsulates virtually every traditional sign of rain that you might wish to know:
Loud quacks the duck, the peacocks cry,
The distant hills are seeming nigh.
How restless are the snorting swine;
The busy flies disturb the kine.
Puss on the hearth with velvet paws
Sits wiping o'er her whiskered jaws.
Through the clear stream the fishes rise,
And nimbly catch incautious flies.
The whirring wind the dust obeys
And in the rapid eddy plays;
The dog, so altered in his taste,
Quits mutton bones, on grass to feast.
And see yon rooks, how odd their flight;
They imitate the gliding kite,
And seem precipitate to fall,
As if they felt the piercing ball.
If any or all of these appear, the doctor (whichever one it was) declares:
`Twill surely rain; I see with sorrow
Our jaunt must be put off tomorrow.