100 Kansas Academy of Science. 



Temperatures between 104° and 108° F. produced ninety per cent ab- 

 normal embryos. Forty-six per cent of these were in the head, and fifty- 

 four per cent were in the neural tube. 



I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Mary T. 

 Harman, of the Kansas State Agricultural College, for her aid and 

 criticism of the work c'one in this paper. 



The Origin of Cyclones. 



A. A. Graham, Topeka. 



I have long been endeavoring to coU'ect facts applicable to a theory 

 I have had about storms, popularly called cyclones, but technically tor- 

 nadoes, such as passed northwest of Topeka, Tuesday evening, June 5, 

 1917; and, I believe what I then observed is in confirmation of this 

 theory. 



Take a stream at flood, where the rapidly-moving main current is 

 passing a body of comparatively still water in a pocket in the bank, 

 and where the side of this current is in contact with the pocket, a series 

 of rapidly-moving whirlpools is formed, moving from left to right at 

 the right bank of the stream, and from right to left at the left, bank of 

 the stream. 



Precisely the same is constantly in progress, but less violently in the 

 normal current of streams, and are there called eddies, and might well 

 be compared with the little harmless whirlwinds most frequently occur- 

 ring in autumn. 



Apply to this known fact the principle that liquids, vapors and gasses 

 are similarly subject to much the same laws of motion, and you see I 

 have a deduction rather than a theory; but, as exact science altogethter 

 rejects theories and very cautiously accepts deductions, we must find 

 instances in proof. 



Now, take the storm referred to. A heavy local rain passed due north 

 over Topeka, accompanied with a gale at the time this damage was 

 done, the rain ceasing about 5:40 p. m., and the sky clearing quickly 

 showed another rain cloud at close range northwest of Topeka, moving 

 apparently in a northeasterly direction, accompanied with vivid lightning 

 and heavy thunder. 



The two storms, or currents, had evidently come in contact, and the 

 pressure thus created constituted sufficient resistance to make "whirl- 

 pools" between the surfaces of contact. 



The velocity and volume of the air current, and whether passing 

 through comparatively still atmosphere or encountering another current 

 and its direction, volume and velocity will determine whether there will 

 be "eddies" or "whirlpools" or cyclones. 



The following facts may be offered in further proof: 



1. The progressive direction of a cyclone is comparable with the edge 

 of the storm cloud. 



2. The direction of rotation of the "twister" conforms with the direc- 

 tion of the whirlpools at the edges of the current of a stream. 



i 



