578 



NATURE 



[Ju::e 29, 191 1 



{Gradient of temperature 05° C. per 100 m., and iso- 

 thermal atmosphere. Thus it is interesting to observe 

 that at 20,000 m,, for example, the pressures ex- 

 pressed in millibars are in the four cases o. 10. 42, 79 

 respectively. 



Chapter vi. is devoted to a consideration of the 

 problem of determining the heights at given pressures 

 or the pressures 'at given heights when the virtual 

 temperatures at given pressures or at given heights 

 are known. The method developed is applied to par- 

 ticular cases in which the observed quantities have 

 been found from the records obtained by means of 

 registering balloons. In calculating the height at 

 which a given isobaric surface is to be found, the 

 distances between consecutive isobaric surfaces are 

 taken directly from the tables, so that the single pro- 

 cess gives the entire representation of the field of 

 pressure and mass. The ease and simplicity of the 

 method suggest that meteorologists may find it pre- 

 ferable in their synchronous charts to represent the 

 heights at which a standard isobaric surface is to be 

 found instead of the pressures at a standard level. In 

 chapter vii. such charts are drawn for different isobaric 

 surfaces by using the results of the international 

 ascents of registering balloon^. Profile diagrams are 

 also drawn showing the section, by a vertical plane, of 

 the isobaric and isosteric (constant specific volume) 

 surfaces, and of the equipotential and isopycnic (con- 

 stant density) surfaces. In the equilibrium state no 

 two of these surfaces intersect, and the number of 

 tubes made by their intersections in actual cases is a 

 measure of the departure from the equilibrium condi- 

 tion. This method of viewing the distribution is very 

 suggestive, and deserves further development and 

 application. 



Chapters viii. and ix. are hydrographic counterparts 

 of chapters vi. and vii., and complete the formal 

 development presented in this volume, the remaining 

 eighty pages being devoted to the tables necessary for 

 the application of Bjerknes's methods. They will be 

 found of great use in the discussion of the atmosphere 

 as a fluid in three dimensions. They differ in some 

 respects from the tables constructed five years ago 

 by Sandstrom, and they cover a wider field. There 

 are slight differences in the values for the distance 

 between consecutive isobaric surfaces, which are no 

 doubt due to the revision of Sandstrom 's results. 



The impression produced by a study of Bjerknes's 

 book is that it does not contain new discoveries or 

 throw much fresh light on individual atmospheric 

 phenomena, but it presents what is fundamental in our 

 knowledge of the physics of the atmosphere in a new 

 way, and makes possible the application of methods 

 which have hitherto been disregarded, because of the 

 immense labour involved in dealing with even a single 

 case. The temptation to pad the work with examples 

 has been successfully resisted, and the cases discussed 

 are confined to what is strictly necessary in the scheme 

 of development. 



The observations in the upper air obtained by means 

 of kites and balloons have hitherto been little used 

 in the synoptic representation of atmospheric condi- 

 tions, and in the investigation of the dynamical 

 NO. 2174, VOL. 86] 



problems which a thre^-dimensional knowledge was 

 expected to elucidate. They have indeed achieved 

 much in giving us definite knowledge in place of 

 erroneous hypotheses, but ambitious minds naturally 

 wish to turn them to pmctical use in daily forecasting. 

 Laborious investigation is an essential preliminary to 

 such an application, and Bjerknes, with his large, 

 enthusiastic spirit, has taken up this work in a way 

 which ought to secure him the active support of pro- 

 fessional meteorologists. The book is excellently 

 printed, and its form and style produce a sense of 

 pleasure and satisfaction. There is an old rule about 

 leaving the preface of a book until the remainder is 

 completed. Apparently Bjerknes is taking this rule so 

 literally that he is reserving the introduction, as well 

 as the index, until the issue of the final volume. 



E. Goi.i). 



lllE JEWS. 

 The Jeivs: a Study of Race and Environmeni. By 

 M. Fishberg. Pp. xix + 598. (London and Felling- 

 on-Tyne : Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., loii.^ 

 Price 6^. 



IN order to elucidate the problem whether the jews 

 constitute a race or simply a nation, Mr. Fish- 

 berg discusses at considerable length certain physical 

 characters, with the following results. Stature is not 

 homogeneous among the Jews in every country, and its 

 limits of variation are almost as large as are observed 

 in European races generally ; further, where the indi- 

 genous population is tall the Jews are also tall, and 

 the reverse. It is also evident that the shortness of 

 their stature can be attributed only to a slight extent 

 to the influence of environment or to occupation. 

 Jewish skulls are extremely rare in museums; indeed, 

 there do not appear to be any data whatever for the 

 ancient Hebrews; the cranial index of five skulls of 

 the second century, found in Rome, varies from 75' i to 

 834; of twelve skulls found in Basel in a cemetery 

 dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 

 two were dolichocephalic, while the remainder were 

 brachycephalic, the total average being 84'6. The 

 same variability occurs in other finds, but the skulls 

 of most of the Sephardini— or Spanish and Portuguese 

 Jews — are dolichocephalic. 



Among the existing population it is found that in 

 countries where the indigenous population is narrow- 

 headed, as in Africa and Arabia, the Jews 

 are dolichocephalic, and where broad-headedness 

 prevails, as in Russia, Poland, and Hungary, 

 the Jews are brachycephalic. The ancient Hebrews 

 must have been either of the one type or th. 

 other, or a mixed race originally; the former alterna- 

 tive implies that for most of the Jews miscegenation 

 must have occurred in later times. Although pre- 

 dominantly dark, fair Jews are found ever\'where; 

 even among the Sephardim, it appears that the 

 blond type oscillates between 5 and 16 per cent., and 

 between 25 and 50 per cent, are of the mixed types 

 according to the country of birth. The suggestion 

 that the blondness is a product of climatic conditions 

 can be eliminated as worthless, as blond Jews occur 

 everywhere. The combination of tall stature, blond- 



