188.5.] ■^^* [Chase. 



from on high," from temetztli, lead, and piloa, to fasten something 

 high up. Lead was not unknown to the Aztecs before the con- 

 quest. They collected it in the Provinces of Tlachco and Itzmi- 

 quilpan, but did not esteem it of much value, and their first 

 knowledge of it as a plummet must have been when they saw it 

 in the hands of the Spaniards. Hence their knowledge of the 

 instrument itself could not have been earlier. 



The conclusions to which the above facts tend are as follows : 



1. In the Maya system of lineal measures, foot, hand, and body 

 measui-es were nearly equally prominent, but the foot unit was 

 the customary standard. 



2. In the Cakchiquel system hand and body measures were 

 almost exclusively used, and of these, those of the hand pre- 

 vailed. 



3. In the Aztec sj'stem, body measurements were unimportant, 

 hand and arm measures held a secondar}^ position, Avhile the foot 

 measure was adopted as the official and obligatory standard both 

 in commerce and architecture. 



4. The Aztec terms for their lineal standard being apparently 

 of Ma^'a origin, suggest that their standard was deriA^ed from 

 that nation. 



5. Neither of the three nations was acquainted with a system of 

 estimation by weight, nor with the use of the plumb-line, nor 

 with an accurate measure of long distances. 



An Experiment in Weather Forecast. By Pliny Earle Chase, LL.D. 



{Bead before the American Philosophical Society, Jan. 16, 1SS5.) 



The class of '88, in Haverford College, have studied Chase's Elements 

 of Meteorology, with a special view to the formation of trained habits of 

 observation. They have acquired such skill in local weather forecast* 

 tliat they undertook, early in December, to predict the probable regions 

 of fair and stormy weather for all parts of the United States, on Christmas 

 and New Year's days. The predictions were forwarded to "Washington 

 and submitted, through the courtesy of Gen. W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal 



*The verifications, after two montlis' study, ranged between 7i and 90.3 per 

 cent, tlie general average being 81.5 per cent. 



