One kind of business wholly dependent upon the weather, which we have not yet mentioned, is weather insurance. There are several kinds, but hail insurance and tornado insurance are those extensively practiced; the former much more widely and systematically in the Old World than in the New, while the latter is confined to America. Insurance against frost is said to have been practiced in Germany, and there appears to be an excellent field for it in the United States. The insurance of outdoor events, such as games, shows, and _al fresco_ parties, against rain has been carried on for a good many years by speculative underwriters at Lloyd’s, in England, and has more recently been undertaken in this country. Of course the weather element enters to a considerable degree into other kinds of insurance. Ordinary marine insurance is, to a large extent, insurance against storms; fire insurance is partly insurance against lightning; window and plate glass insurance involves the risk of breakage by wind and hail; and even life insurance is greatly concerned with the effects of weather and climate. CHAPTER XVII MARINE METEOROLOGY That it behooves a sailor to be weather-wise has always been admitted, but there was a time, almost within the memory of men now living, when neither seamen nor landsmen had the remotest conception of the benefits that a systematic study of the meteorology of the sea was capable of conferring upon the maritime world. The man who first grasped the importance of such a study and translated his ideas into facts was the American naval officer, Lieutenant Matthew Fontaine Maury. During his brief career at sea Maury became impressed with the meagerness of the information then available concerning the winds and currents that aid or hinder the voyages of sailing ships. When, in consequence of an accident that incapacitated him for shipboard duties, he was assigned to service in Washington, he began to explore the old logs of naval vessels, filed in the Navy Department, for notes on meteorological conditions, and eventually developed a plan of securing regular observations from both the Navy and the merchant marine. The result of this undertaking was the publication of the famous Wind and Current Charts, which revolutionized navigation throughout the world.