clx 



tion in the rapidity of the Earth's revolution. Certain apparent inequali- 

 ties of the Moon's motions led him to suspect that the siderial da}' is not 

 of uniform length. His conclusion is that the Earth rotated more slowly 

 than the average rate for ten or twenty years previous to 1S60, and that 

 about 1S60 this motion was accelerated, so there has been a gain of at least 

 a second per year till about 1S72. This startling theory has since been 

 proved by an independent investigation, conducted on the satellites of 

 Jupiter; and, in addition, the researches of Mr. Glasenapp, the Russian 

 astronomer at Pulkova, sustain Prof. Newcomb's hypothesis. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Astronomy has, of late, become closely connected with meteorology. 

 The meteoric showers in the high regions of the atmosphere must have a 

 close relation to storms. Still more intimately is the electric and magnetic 

 condition of the air connected with the great solar process which produces 

 spots and protuberances. Hence the labors of the various astronomical 

 observatories are supplemented by the Signal Service Bureau, and both 

 conspire to force from Nature the secret of the climate and the key to the 

 control of the weather. A prediction for several months in advance is 

 equivalent to a direct control of the weather, for it is possible for man to 

 adapt himself to any contingencies which he can sufficiently anticipate. 

 The international congress which met recently at Vienna to discuss me- 

 teorological affairs, and settle upon a system of international signals by 

 which each national bureau is to hear daily by telegraph what the weather 

 "probabilities" are, was a first great step. Holland, Spain, Portugal, the 

 Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and China, there entered into agreement 

 with England, Russia, Turkey, and the United States, for a uniform sys- 

 tem of observations, to be made throughout the northern hemisphere at 

 12 m. London time, or 7 135 a.m. Washington time. By this system a 

 storm may be traced from its first vortical whirl to its last stages, and after 

 a few years it will be possible to foretell the weather for a whole season in 

 advance, by combining solar observations with known cyclical movements 

 on the earth. 



Professor Loomis, last July, read before the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences a paper on the movements of storms, in which he gave careful esti- 

 mates of the velocity of storm-centres for 314 days, as deduced from the 

 data of the maps of the Weather Bureau. The average velocity he finds 

 to be 26.6 miles per hour; the average direction of the storm-paths for two 

 years was S° north of east. It seems, moreover, that the area of rain-fall 

 extends further on the eastern than it does on the western side of a storm- 

 centre. 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



It is perhaps not a very abrupt transition to pass from meteorological 

 storms to the devastating locust storms which have proved so disastrous 

 to our western neighbors the past year, and this more especially if it is 

 found, as suggested by distinguished authorities, that these swarms of 



