148 ANNUAL KECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



vesications on the distribution of moisture in the atmos- 

 phere,the influence of rainfall upon the barometer, the laws 

 of the variation of temperature in ascending currents of air, 

 and the relation between barometric changes and the veloci- 

 ty of the wind. On this latter subject he also appends the 

 views of Coldino- and Peslin. 



APPARATUS AND METHODS. 



In a paper on the Application of Harmonic Analysis to the 

 Reduction of Meteorological Observations, the Hon. Ralph 

 Abercromby traces the physical and geometrical meaning 

 of every step from the barographic record, until the tabu- 

 lated results are exhibited in harmonic series; and in consid- 

 eration of the failure of this series to give any clue to the 

 physical cause of the barometric variations, and the failure 

 in general of statistical methods to raise meteorology to the 

 rank of an exact science, he concludes that it will be abso- 

 lutely necessary to construct synoptic weather-charts for 

 the whole northern and southern hemispheres. 



In the statistical methods, phenomena are classed together 

 that really have, perhaps, only one common property. He 

 concludes with the sentence, "Averages, though so useful, 

 can never make meteorology a science." In a subsequent 

 note, he explains the method of averaging used by Bloxam 

 in reducing his sixteen years' observations at Newport. 

 This method, however, is not a new one, as many illustra- 

 tions. of its use, by Schott and others, have been published. 



Angot gives in La Nature (p. 372) a full description of Mas- 

 cart's inoenious self- recording electrometer for continuous 

 observation of atmospheric electricity. This is essentially a 

 Thomson collector and electrometer, combined with Mascart's 

 self-recording apparatus. The instrument has performed sat- 

 isfactorily during the Exposition at Paris, and it is under- 

 stood that a number of them will be established in France, 

 whereby the first step will be taken in the proper study of 

 atmospheric electricity. Mascart's recording apparatus can 

 be also applied to the registration of magnets or vibrating 

 needles (the pendulum?), etc., and will, doubtless, find fur- 

 ther uses. 



In connection with the observation of atmospheric electric- 

 ity, we notice in Nature the description of a very efficient and 





