124 
POPULAR SCIEKCE NEWS. 
[August, 1890. 
quote only French names, — have also done good 
work in their line; but they have been enabled to 
do so through Lavoisier's great achievements. 
The proceedings of the numerous scientific meet- 
ings held in Paris last year are being slowly pub- 
lished. The two last ones I have seen are those 
of the Congres de Psychologic Physiologiqiie and 
of the Congres d( Climatologie. The latter is good, 
but in the first too much space has been given 
to discussions and theories, while many facts which 
had been communicated by members at the meeting 
have not even l)een mentioned. 
Here is our old friend cholera again ; it is in 
Spain at present — perhaps in Italy. Will it come to 
France.' Who can tell.' At .all events, when it 
came some three years ago, it did but little harm. 
Many in Paris would feel inclined to try Ferran's 
inoculations or vaccinations ; the point is well worth 
investigating. Cornil and Babes's third edition 
of their excellent work, Les Bacleries, which is just 
out, greatly enlarged and bettered, shows the pres- 
ent state of the question in a capital manner, and 
truly that is the matter which must be studied. 
Now is an opportunity. 
To those who have visited the Paris exhibition 
and are interested in scientific matters, I would 
recommend Les Sciences Biolngiqucs en 1SS9, a book 
written by numerous competent writers, published 
in monthly parts, well illustrated, and published by 
the Socieie d' Editions Scientijiques, a society of men 
who are inaugurating a new method of publishing; 
they want the author to get half of the net profits, 
apibus restituo fructum suum, they say. The plan is 
a good one, but it will not be easy to become one 
of the privileged authors, as they will, of course, 
undertake to publish only books which seem certain 
to secure a large sale. 
I wish to signal to geologists and paleontologists 
a posthumous work of Frederic Troyon, L' I/omme 
Fossite. Although written many years ago, it is 
interesting in the manner in which the author tries 
to reconcile science and theology — those two old 
antagonists, real or feigned. It is published by 
Bridel, in Lausanne, Switzerland. H. 
Paris, June 23, 1890. 
[Specially Observed for Popular Science Xeivs.] 
METEOROLOGY FOR JUNE, 1890. 
TEMl'EHATURE. 
Average Tiiekmometek. 
Lowest. 
Highest. 
Range. 
At 7 A. M 
At 3 r. M 
At 9 r. M 
Whole Month .... 
Second Average . . . 
60.93- 
61.90- 
65-Jo- 
6?.45- 
S'" 
S4° 
52 
S'' 
S' 
1? 
85- 
21- 
3'! 
20- 
34° 
34' 
Last 20 Junes .... 
Second Aver.age . . . 
66.05- 
\ 61.67- 
jin iSSi. 
60.95- 
70x11° 
in 1S76. 
68.98° 
S.34° 
8.03- 
overcast, and 5 rainy observations, — a percentage 
of 57.8 fair. The average fair for the last twenty 
Junes has been 5S.4, with extremes of 40.1 in 1874, 
and 75.5 in 1S71. The average fair the last ten 
Junes has been five percent, less than the preceding 
ten. On the evenings of the 4th, 5th, and 6th were 
thunder-showers, as also on the afternoon of the 
mil and morning of the I3tli. The morning of the 
16th was foggy. We had quite a number of fine 
June days, but not as many as usual. 
PRECIPITATION. 
The am«unt of rainfall the past month was 1.52 
inches, while the mean for Jimc the last twenty-two 
years has been 2.69 inches, with extremes of zero in 
1873, and 5.30 in 1875. The showers of the 12th 
and 13th yielded 1.08 inches, after which not a trace 
fell to the end of the month, and vegetation began 
to suffer. The small remainder (.44 inch) fell 
during the showers on the 4th, 5th, and 6th. The 
amount since January i has been 25.91 inches, while 
the average for the first half of the year has been 
24.74 incheSj showing an excess this ^ear of 1.17 
inches. 
PRESSURE. 
The average pressure the past month \*as 29.949 
inches, with extremes of 29. 75 on the 26th, and 
30.20 on the i6th, — a range of .45 inch. The aver- 
age of the last seventeen Junes has been 29 936, 
with extremes of 29.845 in 1SS2, and 30.056 in 18S4, 
— a range of .211 inch. The sum of the daily vari- 
ations the last month was 3.24 inches, an average 
daily movement of .108 inch, while this average in 
seventeen Junes has been .118, with extremes of .058 
and .21S. The largest variations were .32 on the 
8th, and .26 on the nth and 15th, — showing a quiet 
state of atmospheric pressure during the month. 
The average direction of the wind the last month 
was W. 39"^ 10' N., or most nearly N. W. ; a north- 
erly extreme for June. The average direction the 
last twenty-one Junes has been W. 18° 19' S., or 
nearly W. S. W., with extremes of W. 76° o' S. in 
1876, and W. 39" lo' N. in 1890, — a range of nearly ten 
points of the compass. This large excess of north- 
erly winds has been one cause of the unusually cool 
June, and has united with the light rainfall in 
retarding the progress of the season a full week or 
more. 
COMPARATIVE METEOROLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND FOR 
MAY, 1890, WITH REVIEW OF THE SPRING ; 
gathered from the Bulletins of the New England 
Meteorological Society. 
The lowest point of the mercury, at the hours 
of observation, was 51°, on the 13th, and this was 
also the coolest day, with an average of 52.33°. 
The day preceding was but one degree warmer, with 
a range of only 2^. The highest point of the month 
was 85°, on the nth and 25th, and these were the 
warmest days, averaging 74.66" and 76'^ respec- 
tively. The first half of the month averaged 62.02", 
and the last half 68 sS". The entire month was 
nearly 2° below the average of the last twenty 
Junes. There have been but three Junes cooler 
than the present in twenty years, and these were in 
1 88 1, 1886, and 1S7S. A very sudden change 
of temperature occurred between the nth and 12th; 
— one of the coolest days followed one of the warm- 
est in the month, a fall of 31" in twenty-four hours. 
SKY. 
The face of the sky gave 52 fair, 11 cloudy, 22 
z 

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10 to 
22 
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25r 
s-^ 
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H 
Under "No." is given the number of reports 
from each State and from New England. The 
upper horizontal lines against each State give the 
figures for May; the lower lines, those for the last 
spring. Under "Max." and "Min." are given the 
average temperature, or amount of precipitation in 
inches, for the highest and lowest stations. Multi- 
ply the lower mean of precipitation by three, and 
we have the entire amount of tlie spring in each 
State. Thus Maine averaged 5 33x3=1599 inches; 
New Hampshire, 12.21 ; New England, 14 61, etc. 
The mean temperature of all New England for 
May, ascertained from numerous reports kept over 
a series of ten years, is 56.0", and the average spring 
43.8°, — showing the present May and spring to 
have been only a fraction below the average. The 
mean precipitation — obtained in like manner — for 
New England has been 3 64 inches for May, and 
1098 for the spring, — showing an excess of precipi- 
tation of 2.05 inches in May, and 3 63 in the spring 
of 1890, 
To obtain the figures condensed in the above 
table has required many thousands of careful obser- 
vations, by about a hundred and fifty observers well 
scattered over all New England, and the result must 
be a near approximate to the exact truth in regard 
to the most important branches of New England 
meteorology. D. W. 
Natick, July 5, 1S90. 
[Specially Computed for Popular Science News.] 
ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR 
AUGUST, 1S90. 
Mercury is not in good position for observation 
during the month. It is an evening star, and 
changes its distance from 11' east of the sun at the 
beginning of the month to 24" east at the end, but it 
is at that time too far south to be easily seen in 
northern latitudes. Venus is an evening star also, 
and is getting gradually brighter. It is coming 
toward eastern elongation, and at the middle of the 
month is about as far from the earth as the earth is 
from the sun. As seen in the telescope it would 
look like the moon a little more than half full. 
Mars is still quite prominent, but is falling oft" quite 
rapidly in light. On August i it is only half as 
bright as on June i, and on August 31 only about 
one-third. It will, at the latter tiine, be nearly twice 
as far away from us in miles as it was when at its 
nearest- distance. It is moving quite rapidly east- 
ward among the stars, — about 15° during the month, 
— and on the evening of August 14 is in conjunction 
with Antares (Alpha Scorpii), passing al)olit three 
diameters of the moon to the north of the star. It 
is on the meridian at a little after 7 P. M. on 
August I, and about an hour earlier at the end 
of the month. Jupiter is getting into better position 
for observation in the evening. It is on the merid- 
ian a little before midnight on August i, and at a 
little before 10 P. M. on August 31. It rises about 
four and a half hours earlier. Jt is retrograding 
somewhat rapidly, moving westward 3° or 4" during 
the month. It has passed its farthest soutliern 
point, and is now several degrees farther north than 
it was; but just now, during its retrograde motion, 
it is also moving slightly southward. It will turn 
northward again late in September. Saturn is too 
near the sun to be easily seen. At the beginning 
of the month it is about 25" east of the sun, but is 
also quite far to the south, and will be hard to see ; 
by the end of the month it comes to conjunction 
with the sun. Uranus is in the constellation Virgo, 
north of the first magnitude star Spica {Alpha 
Virginis.) It is in the western sky in the evening. 
Neptune is in the constellation Taurus, and rises- 
four to six hours before the sun. 
