418 SHORT MEMOIRS OX METEOROLOGICAL SUBJECTS. 



the temperature of the upper strata must for the present be suppressed until the be- 

 havior of gases under very low pressure has been sufficiently studied. 



Moreover, in any case, we must introduce into tho above-mentioned formula the 

 correction for variation of gravity, if we would extend its application to great dis- 

 tances from the earth's surface. We thus find a rate of diminution of temperature 

 outward continually slower and slower, which, like the attraction of the earth, 

 approaches the limiting value zero. 



No. 8, p. 36. I have observed, in the case of the thunderstorms approaching Krems- 

 miinster from the west, that their violence was almost always less ; indeed, they gen- 

 erally did not come to a discharge [of lightning ?] if the storm began before the cloud 

 was near the zenith. 



No. y, p. 36. We do not here consider the descending winds in valleys between 

 mountains, which, indeed, owe their origin to great differences of temperature. 



No. 10, p. 37. Petermann's Geog. Mitth., 1866, p. 220. 



No. 11, p. 39. To avoid the mistake that we have previously shown to be very 

 widespread, we should not say " the condensation warms the air," but " it diminishes 

 the cooling." The latent heat will not be liberated without a cooling takes place ; 

 nor can it ever be sufficient to even compensate for the cooling [much less to over- 

 compensate and warm up the air] to a sensibly higher temperature. 



No. 12, p. 40. Also what Jahncke says upon the weather preceding the West India 

 hurricanes agrees therewith. (Quarterly Journal of the Met. Soc, vol. ii, p. 89.) 



No. 13, p. 40. Also the summer season has extended precipitations of similar great 

 intensity. I recall, for instance, the uninterruptedly rainy period of August 15 to 19 

 of this year (1374), whose extent and intensity caused the extraordinary floods in all 

 the rivers of Central Europe. A barometric minimum preceded this. During the rain 

 the pressure rose. 



E. 



THE LAW OF THE VARIATION OF TEMPERATURE IN 

 ASCENDING MOIST CURRENTS OF AIR. 



Letter of Prof. Dr. L. Sohncke, of Carlnruhe. 

 [Translated by Cleveland Abbe from the Zeitschrift fiir Met., 1875, x, pp. 56-5S.] 



By yonr memoir on ascendiug currents of air, &c., published in the 

 Zeitschrift for last October and November, you have, as it seems to 

 me, rendered a great service to the friends of a genuine scientific 

 meteorology. Sir Wm. Thomson's and Peslin's labors on this subject 

 appear to have been known to a very limited extent. They were 

 unknown to me, and are not even accessible to me here in Carlsruhe. 

 Especially important is your development of Peslin's formula for the 

 diminution of temperature in the ascent of a saturated current of air, 

 for the table, page 29, has a fundamental importance in all questions 

 bearing on this i>oint. Under these circumstances, it seems proper that 

 I should call your attention to a mistake which has slipped into the 

 computation of the table, affecting the last decimal of many of the num- 



bers therein. On page 28 you say, let ^ be a constant, since jo=I> 4-, 



I 



