122 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



tions of Breitenlohner, it is evident that there is no such 

 thing as the warm rain that is frequently spoken of rains, 

 that is to say, whose temperatures are materially different 

 from that of the air. The correctness, however, of the ob- 

 servation that an increase of temperature does follow rain- 

 fall still remains, only, as is too frequently the case, the cause 

 is confounded with the effect. Vierteljahres- Revue der JVa- 

 turioissenschaften, II., n., 90. 



THE PHYSICAL THEORY OF UNDER-CURRENTS. 



Dr. Carpenter, in illustration of the physical theory of un- 

 der-currents, exhibited before the British Association a sec- 

 tional map of the sea between Nova Scotia and the Bermudas, 

 and including the isothermal lines. These lines were tilted 

 up at the western end, indicating the existence of a cold cur- 

 rent between the American coast and the Gulf Stream. This 

 fact was interpreted by Dr. Carpenter as due to the rotation 

 of the earth, combined with the fact that this cold water is 

 flowing from north to south. A similar phenomenon is met 

 with on the east coast of Japan, where there is a cold band 

 between the Japan current and the land, and also in the 

 North Sea, where there is glacial water within one hundred 

 miles of the north coast of Scotland. 



The existence of this cold current on the east coast of 

 North America, extending down even off the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts and beyond, is well known to American marine 

 zoologists, the parties working in connection with the United 

 States Fish Commission, in 1872 and 1873, having obtained 

 at various localities, at depths of seventy-five to one hundred 

 and twenty fathoms, temperatures as low as 35 Fahr. 15 A, 

 September 5, 1874, 317. 



mallet's theory of volcanic energy. 



The important memoir of Robert Mallet, which was an- 

 nounced nearly two years ago as presented to the Royal 

 Society, the main points of which have already been pub- 

 lished, has but recently been received in this country, and 

 justifies the expectations concerning it, as being, evidently, 

 one of the most valuable contributions to the science of 

 seismology that has been made since the publication, in 1857, 

 of the first principles of seismology by the same author. 



