Nov. lo, 1887] 



NA TURE 



39 



August 17. The greatest rainfall on this occasion was 2'oS 

 inches at Wimbledon, and the least at Hackney, 0-27 inch. In 

 connection with the climatology of the British Empire, it may 

 not be generally known that the Annual Reports of the Army 

 Medical Department contain meteorological summaries for a 

 number of stations mostly in the northern hemisphere, e.g. the 

 Mediterranean, Africa (including Egypt), and the East and West 

 Indies. The last Report published is for the year 1885, and 

 contains the results of observations and the extremes from 

 nineteen stations. 



It is stated in the Aleteorologische Zeitschrift for October that 

 a new edition of Prof. II. Mohn's " Grundziige der Meteoro- 

 logie " has just been published by Reimer and Co., of Berlin. 

 The fact that the work has reached a fourth edition in twelve 

 years shows the favour with which it has been generally received. 

 The plan remains the same as before, but both the text and the 

 plates have been corrected to correspond to the recent progress 

 of the science. 



Mr. H. Allen Hazen has contributed an article to the 

 Avierican Journal of Sciejue for October on the relation between 

 wind-velocity and pressure, giving a summary of the better class 

 of experiments, the methods employed, and the results arrived 

 at, from those of Borda, in 1763, to the present time. The 

 methods of investigation generally adopted are (i) carrying a 

 plate either in a straight line or in a circle ; and (2) allowing a 

 current of air to impinge normally upon the plate. The results 

 of Borda's observations are expressed in the formula — 



/ = ('0031 + •oooT,t,c)sv'-, 



in which / = pressure in pounds ; c — contour of plate in feet ; 

 s — surface in square feet ; and v = velocity in miles par hour. 

 In some careful experiments made at Washington in 1866, the 

 formula obtained, viz. 



p = ('0032 + •ooo34<r)j&'^, 



shows a remarkable and unexpected coincidence with Borda's 

 results, with an entirely different apparatus. By far the most 

 careful experiments with a whirling machine were those of 

 Hagen, in 1873, with plates varying in size from 4 to 40 square 

 inches in area. His formula is — 



/ = ('0029 + •000141; )j-z/- ; 



and these results have been used by Prof. W. Ferrel in his 

 recent discussion of this question. Various other experiments 

 are discussed, including those lately made in France on a train 

 running at increasing velocities, which give the formula — 



The author expresses the opinion that further experiments are 

 much needed, with larger plates than 2 feel square, and with 

 high velocities with a straight-line motion. In connection with 

 this subject it may be mentioned that the Royal Meteorological 

 Society have appointed a Wind-Force Committee to consider the 

 relation existing between velocity and pressure, together with 

 other anemometrical questions, and a preliminary report was 

 read in the spring of this year. 



The publications of the Swedish Meteorological Office are 

 somewhat in arrear, the volume recently published being for the 

 year 1882. It contains observations /« extetiso from eighteen 

 stations of the second order, and monthly and yearly results of 

 117 stations, among which are seventy-nine for tempera- 

 ture only and several that have been established in the 

 interest of forestry. The Central Office has no station of 

 the first order, but publishes the observations of the Upsala 

 Observatory, which is an independent institution. From this 

 Observatory we have very complete observations from 1855 

 to 1886, in addition to very valuable works on the classification 

 of clouds and the movements of cirrus cloud<, by Dr. Hilde- 

 brandsson. The Central Office publishes, however, a monthly 

 weather report, in the service of agriculture, which is brought 

 out to date. The Swedish network of stations was established 

 in 1856, by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Stockholm, and 

 in 1873 the present Office was founded, with Dr. R. Rubenson 

 •as Director. The Office for Marine Meteorology, established in 

 1877, is also an independent institution ; the logs used are those 

 of the English Meteorological Office, with the addition of the 

 headings in Swedish. By mutual agreement, Sweden deals 

 f^pecially with the Baltic, while Norway takes the North Sea, 

 the data collected being exchanged by the respective countries. 



The Report of the Meteorological Service of the Dominion 

 of Canada for the year 1884, just issued by Mr. Carpmael, shows 

 satisfactory progress in the various departments. Several new 

 stations have been added, and the number for which monthly 

 and yearly averages are given amounts to 136. Eighty-three per 

 cent, of the storm warnings issued during the year have been 

 verified ; weather predictions have also been disseminated through- 

 out portions of the country by means of large disks attached to 

 the railway cars. These disks have the image of the sun, repre- 

 senting fine weather, the crescent moon, for showery weather, and 

 a star, for wet weather, painted on them, in addition to words. 

 The percentage of verification of these predictions is also very 

 satisfactory. The climatological tables show that the highest 

 mean annual temperature was 47'''8i at Windsor (Ontario), and 

 the lowest at Fort Chipewan (North West Territory), 26°*65. 

 The records for Hudson's Bay Territory are not complete, but 

 would probably have shown a lower mean. The maximum shade 

 temperature was 100° at Chaplin (North- West Territory) in June, 

 and the lowest at St. Andrews (Manitoba), -53°'3, in January ; 

 with one slight exception this station had also the largest meai» 

 daily range, viz. 24°'75. Sunshine-recorders are erected in five 

 provinces only ; in these Winnipeg has the maximum sunshine, 

 45 per cent., and Pembroke (Ontario) the least, 30 per cent., of 

 the possible amount. The greatest mean rainfall in any whole 

 province was 48 '46 inches in Newfoundland, and the least, 9*90 

 inches, in North- West Territory on 48 "6 days. The greatest 

 avera;e of rainy days was 151 "5 in Prince Edward's Island. The 

 distribution of rainfall in Ontario is also represented by maps for 

 each quarter and for the year. With a view to enhancing the 

 value of the tables, we suggest the desirability of arranging 

 them according to the international scheme, instead of in the pre- 

 sent form ; or at least of printing the extreme values in thick type, 

 as is usually done in other countries. 



The chief feature of the United States Monthly Weather Remew 

 tor July last is the unusually high mean temperature over the 

 central and northern parts of the country ; in some portions 

 it averaged from 4° to 7° above the normal values, and was 

 the warmest that has occurred since the establishment of the 

 Signal Service stations. This fact is interesting in connection 

 with the weather experienced in some parts of this country, 

 where there was an excess of 2° to 5° in all districts. Descrij)- 

 tions of the storms which occurred over the North Atlantic 

 are given ; the average number of areas of low pressure 

 for July during the last fourteen years is nine, for July 1887 the 

 paths of seven such areas are traced, being two less than the 

 average. The storm of the 26th is the one in which the high 

 wave struck the s.s. Umbrii (see Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 508). 

 This depression was first charted in N. 55°, W. 25°, on the 25th, 

 and its presence was indicated northwards of the British Isles 

 during the 27th and 28th. The Kevieiv also contains a discussion 

 of the North Atlantic storms during 1885 ; of sixty storms 

 which advanced over the ocean from the American continent, 

 twenty-eight were traced to European waters. Fifty-nine 

 storms fir.-t appeared over the ocean, of which about 65 per cent, 

 were traced to the west coast of Europe. A table is given 

 showing the positions of centres of areas of mean high and low 

 barometer for each month, and explains why in March and 

 October the storm areas moved northward before reaching 

 European waters, and that in August the depressions did not move 

 eastward owing to unusually high pressure along the middle 

 latitudes. Attention is drawn to the fact that, as a rule, the 

 storms which do traverse the ocean leave the coast north of the 

 fortieth parallel ; only a very small number of the storms which 

 advance from southern latitudes cross to the northward of the 

 trans- Atlantic ship routes. 



A SERIES of very interesting articles, from the pen of Dr. Oscar 

 Doering, on the inter-diurnal variability of temperature at places 

 in the Argentine Republic and South America generally, are 

 being published in the Boletin de la Academia Nadonal de 

 Ciencias of Cordoba. Investigations of this kind have been 

 very seldom undertaken, although Dr. Hann and Dr. Supan have 

 pointed out that the variability of temperature is a factor of 

 eminent importance, affecting the habits and character of man- 

 kind, and also partially the distribution of plants. Dr. Hann, 

 in his elaborate paper upon this subject presented to the Vienna 

 Academy on April 15, 1875, and based upon such observa- 

 tions as were then available, defines the variability of temperature 

 as the differences of temperature of two immediately succeeding 

 intervals of time which do not belong to the daily and yearly 



