February 22, 1912] 



NATURE 



54: 



"he Transvaal meteorolog^ical service. In no part of 

 In world have the last few years seen a greater 

 ichance than in the Antarctic. In the second edition 

 \\(i pages sufficed to summarise our knowledge of its 

 limate. In the present one twenty-two pages are 

 is-i<Tned to it, in which we find, perhaps for the first 

 iiiic, a summary of all the data collected between 

 ! ■ Ross expeditions of 1840 and Shackleton's dash 

 the pole. 



)t the least valuable part of the book is provided 

 he very complete references to the sources from 

 uiiicli information is taken or to works in which 

 further details may be found. Many of these are to 

 i;uch recent publications that they can only have been 

 hdded as the proof-sheets' were going through the 

 <. In such a complete work it seems almost un- 

 > ful to ask for more, but we should have liked 

 e more maps included in the book. Ten diagrams 

 1 a sniall allowance for 700 pages of letterpress 

 subject which depends so largely on geographical 

 I.- ribution as climatology does. An atlas should 

 ilw riys be at hand when the book is being consulted. 

 (j) It is instructive to turn from a book like the 

 liandbuch," which deals in the comparatively small 

 space of 700 pages with the climate of the temperate 

 ind polar regions, to a work like that recently issued 

 jnder the joint authorship of Maurer, R. Billwiller, 

 'un., and C. Hess, on the climate of Switzerland, 

 quarto volumes, together running to more than 

 pages, devoted to the climate of some 15,000 

 lie miles of the earth's surface! We find our- 

 ■ !\is asking what space would be required to deal 

 qually fully with the whole area discussed by Hann. 

 The authors have, however, had in view a totally 

 Jifferent object. They have set themselves the task 

 bf summarising the observations which are available 

 for their country in the year-books of the Swiss 

 Meteorological Institute. They have followed to some 

 extent the plan adopted in the somewhat similar 

 publications for the provinces of Austria to which 

 eference has been made above. Tables comprise a 

 arge part of the work. One sot gives the average 

 v'alues for the meteorological elements usually 

 observed at stations of the second order for ninety- 

 live stations, based wherever possible on observations 

 for the period 1864, the year of establishment of the 

 on federate meteorological service, to 1900. In the 

 :ase of mean temperature normal values for the period 

 1864-1900 have been computed by e.xtra-polation when- 

 the observations extended over a sufficiently long 

 (1 to justify doing so. Another set of tables gives 

 Mionthly means for the principal elements for each 

 of the period for those stations which have been 

 M operation throughout. There is thus plenty of 

 in rial for the study of meteorological problems from 

 historical point of view. Average hourly values 

 also given for a few places for the most important 

 It mints. The whole forms a most valuable body 

 A statistics. 



The first volume of 300 pages is devoted to the 



;iiscussion of the data. The plan adopted is a com- 



ination of that followed in France and Italy, where 



:he distribution of one element over the whole count r\ 



Forms the subject of elaborate works, such as Angof- 



NO. 2208, VOL. 88] 



temperature tables, or Eredia's rainfall tables, and the 

 Austrian method of considering the climate of each 

 region as a whole. We have first a few chapters 

 devoted to the consideration of the distribution of each 

 element, and then a detailed discussion by regions. 

 In the section on temperature, considerable space is 

 devoted to the interdiurnal variability of temperature 

 and to the frequency of changes of given magnitude. 

 As at other places in Central Europe, the variability 

 is smallest in September for most stations, but the 

 mountain stations show a distinct minimum in .\pril. 

 The greatest variability occurs at moderate aUitude^s 

 on the southern slopes of the .Alps. In the section on 

 rainfall we have a new map of the distribution of 

 annual rainfall, based on observations at 400 stations, 

 reduced to the forty-year period 1864-1903. The 

 highest value is 25 14 cm. on the Santis, at an altitude 

 of 2500 m., the lowest 528 cm. at Griichen, in the 

 Upper Rhone valley, at an altitude of 1629 m. We 

 should have expected rather more information re- 

 garding the average depth of snow, but systematic 

 observations thereon are of comparatively recent date. 

 For a number of places it is possible to give the 

 average earliest and latest dates on which snow 

 remains lying. At stations at 1000 m. there are on 

 the average 140 to 150 days in the year with snow 

 lying, and during the winter months almost all days 

 come into this category. Figures are also given for 

 a selection of stations of the percentage of the total 

 precipitation which falls as snow. The increase with 

 height is approximately linear, being at ilii uto of 

 I per cent, per 100 feet. Very interesting results are 

 giv'en for the records of bright sunshine on the moun- 

 tain stations, for which the percentage of the possible 

 shows a distinct maximum in winter. The Santis 

 records 493 per cent, of the possible during Novem- 

 ber, and 47'5 per cent, for December, the correspond- 

 ing figure for June being 3 12 per cent. For Ben 

 Xevis the percentages for these months are : — Novem- 

 ber, 11; December, 9; and June, 22. In an appendix 

 Dr. Hess discusses the statistics of thunder and hail- 

 storms, which have been collected systematically dur- 

 ing the past twenty years. 



We congratulate the authors and tlir Swiss Criitial 

 Meteorological Institute on the completion of this most 

 important contribution to the climatology of their 

 countrv. 



THE LAST VOLUME Ol- LORD KKL\ l\S 

 PAPEI^S. 

 Mathematical and Physical Papers. Vol vi.. 

 Voltaic Theory, Radio-activity, Electrons, Naviga- 

 tion and Tides, Miscellaneous. By the Right Hon. 

 Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin, O.M., P.C., 

 (i.C'.V.O. .Arranged and revised, with brief anno- 

 tations, bv Sir Joseph Larmor. Sec.R.S. Pp. viii + 

 378. (Cambridge: University Pivss. i,,ii^ Price 



I05. 



Al'!:\\ months ago we reviewed the fourth and 

 tlfth volumes of Lord Kelvin's "Mathematical 

 and Piiv-iial Pa|>ers," and now wr hav- tli. -.iMl. 

 .nid ...neluding volume. Sir jos.ph l.arm-M i- lo be 

 (,,n i.iulated on the conclusion of 1 t i-l< wluch, 



