PHYSICS OF THE GLOBE. 147 



cated by the simultaneity of the phenomena in Europe and 

 America, since a study of the daily map for the whole northern 

 hemisphere renders it probable that such simultaneity is ul- 

 timately due to peculiarities in the distribution of land and 

 water on the earth's surface such, for instance, as the fact 

 that the west coast of America and the east coast of Asia, or 

 Japan, lie in one and the same great circle, on the south side 

 of which is the Pacific Ocean, and on the north side only land. 



Among the collections of memoirs published during the 

 past year, we note " Scientific Memoirs," by John W. Dra- 

 per, containing, among other things, full accounts of studies 

 into the radiation of heat, the refraction of light, and espe- 

 cially the absorption of light and heat by the atmosphere, as 

 shown by the spectroscope. 



A valuable volume of miscellaneous papers connected with 

 physical science is found in the collected memoirs of Hum- 

 phrey Lloyd, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Besides 

 his numerous papers on magnetism, optics, etc., we have here 

 a reprint of his classical Notes on the Meteorology of Ire- 

 land, which was read in December, 1853, and contains a de- 

 termination of the inclination of winds to isobars, and to the 

 bearing of storm-centres, which, in chronological order, is 

 second only to the paper of J. H. Coffin (Amer. Assoc, for the 

 Adv. of Sci. 1853). 



Another valuable volume of collected memoirs is the "Re- 

 cueil des Travaux Scientifiques," of Leon Foucault. 



Those who have been unable to obtain copies of Fourier's 

 "Analytical Theory of Heat" will perhaps be glad to have 

 their attention called to a translation of this work, by Mr. A. 

 Freeman, of Cambridge, England, although, judging from a re- 

 view by Maxwell, of Freeman's translation, we should think 

 that a second, corrected, edition w T ould be an improvement. 



The Royal Observatory at Brussels has published a cata- 

 logue of the works relating to astronomy and meteorology 

 that are to be found in the principal libraries of Belgium. 

 Such bibliographical works are of special value to those who 

 wade throuoh the increasing literature of meteorology. 



A collection of translations of memoirs on meteorological 

 subjects is published by the Smithsonian Institution in its 

 annual report for 1877. By this method, Mr. Abbe has sought 

 to introduce to American students the results of Hann's in- 



