2 SO 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



national scientific service contemplates the 

 appointment of commissioners by the civil 

 governments of the world. The delibera- 

 tions of this body " would be the wisdom of 

 the age ; its recommendations would be re- 

 spected by the legislative powers of the 

 consenting and represented nations. Under 

 its auspices all extra-limital astronomical, 

 geological, and biological expenditures would 

 be fitted out, and directed to those places 

 which would be most fruitful for any par- 

 ticular purpose. The difference in the men- 

 tal faculties between different nations would 

 prevent the loss in such a body of any pos- 

 sible suggestion which the human mind 

 could offer." 



At the same meeting a paper was read 

 by Profs. Grote and Pitt on new fossils in 

 the collection of the Buffalo Society of Nat- 

 ural Sciences, from the water-line group. 

 The free ramus of the chelate appendage of 

 Pterygotus Cummingsi (G. and P.) was de- 

 scribed by the aid of drawings. The crab- 

 like animal was over five feet in length, and 

 lived in the shallow waters of the Silurian 

 sea where Buffalo now stands. Its remains 

 were deposited in the sedimentary lime-beds 

 which are now being worked for manufact- 

 uring purposes. 



Prof. Loomis on Rain -Areas. The 



American Journal of Science for July con- 

 tains the seventh paper of a series by Prof. 

 Loomis, in which he investigates the phe- 

 nomena of storms, their origin, develop- 

 ment, and movements. It was shown in a 

 previous paper that the form of a rain-area, 

 that is, of a storm moving over the country, 

 is usually elliptical : this elongated form is 

 more obvious in storms which move along 

 the coast than in those which move farther 

 inland. The area of low barometer in a 

 storm is not at the centre of greatest rainfall. 

 Sometimes the rain centre is northward, or 

 southward, or eastward, or westward, of the 

 area of low barometer. North of latitude 

 36 the distance of the area of greatest 

 rainfall from the centre of low pressure is 

 in a majority of cases less than 250 miles, 

 but in some instances three times that dis- 

 tance, the average being 300 miles. When 

 extensive rainfalls occur there is a marked 

 tendency to the formation of several cen- 

 tres of precipitation, and heavy rains may 



occur at various localities in a storm-area. 

 This fact suggests that during the progress 

 of a storm there occur local causes of great 

 precipitation. 



The tables show that heavy rainfalls 

 are not of long duration over extended 

 areas, and the conclusion from this fact is, 

 that the causes which produce rain do not 

 increase in force from the rainfall, but di- 

 minish and become exhausted. This re- 

 sult cannot be attributed to a want of sup- 

 ply of vapor, as the inflowing winds contin- 

 ually carry vapor into the storm-area, and 

 this is especially true in the case of storms 

 moving along the Atlantic border. What 

 seems to be implied is, that an exhaustion 

 occurs of the forces which impart that move- 

 ment to the air requisite to precipitation. 



The centre of great rain-areas occurs 

 along the Atlantic border four times more 

 frequently than inland, nor is this general 

 fact changed in the region of the Great 

 Lakes. Very extensive rainfalls are most 

 frequent in autumn and winter, and occur 

 most frequently in mornings and afternoons, 

 and are least frequent during evenings, the 

 difference in this respect being very marked. 

 It is observed, too, that the " heaviest rain- 

 falls are seldom accompanied by very high 

 winds." 



"There seems," says Prof. Loomis, "no 

 room to doubt that areas of low barometer 

 occur during periods of twenty-four hours 

 with little or no rain, and travel nearly 

 eastward with an average velocity of about 

 twenty miles an hour." From this fact it 

 is concluded that rainfall is not essential 

 to the formation of areas of low barometer, 

 and is not the principal cause of their for- 

 mation nor of their progressive motion. 

 The barometer is frequently low during the 

 hazy weather of October, when the Indian 

 summer prevails, a period usually of little 

 rainfall. 



Taste-Perceptions. An interesting in- 

 quiry has been made by Vintschgau and 

 Hoingschmied to determine how much time 

 is requisite to perceive different taste-sen- 

 sations. We have already, in No. 39 of 

 the Monthly, given the results obtained 

 by these investigators in their earlier re- 

 searches ; but since then they have studied 

 the subject more thoroughly, attacking 



