400 



NATURE 



[December io, 1914 



the oxidised products of decay being washed seaward 

 as an accumulation over the unaltered lavas. The 

 calcareous deposits added later to the platform go back 

 to Lower Oligocene times. The igneous rocks are 

 described in the same volume, p. 331, 



In the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society, vol. xii (1914), p. i, C. B. Travis provides 

 an interesting account of the plains of denudation of 

 various ages in Great Britain. Special attention is 

 given to the Cainozoic peneplains of south-west Eng- 

 land, and the author believes that the features that 

 have been ascribed in this district to marine erosion 

 result from submergence, subsequent to a general 

 planing down of the surface by subaerial agent3. The 

 references to literature are valuable. 



A SUMMARY of the weather has been given by the 

 Meteorological Office for the autumn season as com- 

 prised in the weekly weather reports for the period 

 of thirteen weeks ending November 28. The mean 

 temperature for the period was generally in excess of 

 the average, but the difference was not more than 08° 

 in any district of the United Kingdom, and there was 

 a very slight deficiency in the south-east and south- 

 west of England. The rainfall was deficient over 

 the entire kingdom, the greatest deficiency being 

 460 in. in the north of Scotland, and the least 0-67 in. 

 in the Channel Islands. The largest absolute 

 measurement was 1070 in. in the north of Scotland 

 and the least 5-42 in. in the east of England. In the 

 Channel Islands 93 per cent, of the average rain fell 

 and the next highest percentage was 85 in the north- 

 west of England and 82 in the midland counties, 

 which was followed by 81 in the south of Ireland and 

 80 per cent, in the south-east of England. The west 

 of Scotland had the lowest percentage of the average, 

 62, which was followed by 65 per cent, in the north 

 of Ireland and 67 per cent, in the north of Scotland. 

 The rainy days were everywhere below the normal, 

 the least number being forty in the midland counties, 

 and the greatest fifty-nine in the north of Scotland. 

 The duration of bright sunshine was mostly in excess 

 of the normal; the greatest excess occurred in the 

 south-east of England, where it amounted to about 

 one-fifth of the average. 



Under the title, "The Ice Storms of New England," 

 Mr. C. F. Brooks has contributed to the Annals of the 

 Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College (vol. 

 Ixxiii., 1914) a valuable paper on the theory and con- 

 ditions of occurrence of the phenomenon known as 

 "glazed frost," or coating of ice formed on trees and 

 other objects by rain congealing as it falls, or by other 

 causes. The data quoted refer more especially to 

 occurrences at the Blue Hill Observatory, Mass. 

 (formerly established by Prof. A. L. Rotch) during the 

 years 1886-1914, together with records from a valley 

 station at Readville and a few kite observations. The 

 conditions which may produce ice storms are arranged 

 in a tabular form; the combinations show that 

 theoretically such storms are possible with the surface 

 air temperature above 0° C, although no considerable 

 storm under that condition was noted at Blue Hill. 

 Several of the cases are carefully discussed, and the 

 NO. 2354, VOL. 94] 



author states that a study of some of the details shows 

 that storms may occur with a temperature as low 

 as — 13° C. ; that it may rain hard or lightly ; that the 

 wind may come from any direction ; and that the tem- 

 perature may rise, fall, or remain stationary. Ice 

 storms may be much more local than snowstorms, and 

 their prediction in New England is very uncertain, 

 and, at the same time, scarcely necessary. 



The latest volume of the Proceedings of the Edin- 

 burgh Mathematical Society (vol. xxxii., session 

 1913-14) contains a variety of interesting papers 

 (sixteen in all), among which may be noted one 

 on integral equations by M. Pierre Humbert; one on 

 attractions of spherical and ellipsoidal shells by Prof. 

 A. Gray; notes by Messrs. Taylor and Marr upon an 

 elegant geometrical theorem, apparently first discovered 

 by Prof. F. Morley; and papers by Prof. Whittaker 

 and Mr. A. W. Young on Mathieu's differential 

 equation. Prof. Gibson contributes an appreciative 

 notice of that brilliant geometrician, J. S. Mackay. 



In illustration of a paper on the uses of mathematics 

 by Dr. Samuel G. Barton, in Science for November 

 13, the author has worked through the eleventh edition 

 of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," and has compiled 

 a list of the subjects which have required the use of 

 the symbols of the infinitesimal calculus in their treat- 

 ment. The result of this inquiry is remarkable. The 

 list contains 104 headings, of which perhaps a quarter 

 refer to pure mathematics. The remainder deal with 

 almost every branch of physics, chemistry, engineer- 

 ing, and meteorology, and as the author remarks, the 

 appearance of "clock" and "sky" and many other 

 entries may surprise even mathematicians. The 

 author invites notice of omissions. Curiously none of 

 the entries quoted appear to cover the important 

 applications of the calculus to modern aeronautical 

 problems. Is this Dr. Barton's oversight, or is the 

 encyclopgedia itself defective? Had the author selected 

 a lower branch of mathematics than the calculus, such 

 as trigonometry, the list would have been far greater. 

 It would be, interesting to estimate the percentage 

 of articles containing some algebraic formula or 

 equation. 



Science for November 20 reproduces the address' 

 delivered by Prof. Carl Barus to the American Mathe- 

 matical Society on the occasion of the one hundred 

 and fiftieth anniversary of Brown University. Under 

 the title, "The Mathematician in Modern Physics," 

 it deals with the changes in the fundamental ideas of 

 physics which have taken place since the author's 

 student days, when Weber's theory of electromagnetic 

 action at a distance was still regarded as a wonderful 

 achievement, although Maxwell's ideas were slowly 

 displacing it. Attempts to extend Maxwell's equations 

 to moving electrical systems started a new epoch, and 

 Michelson's light observations led in turn to the 

 Lorentz-FitzGerald hypothesis of the contraction of 

 a body along its line of motion, and to Einstein's 

 theory of relativity, to which the late Minkowski 

 gave so elegant a mathematical form. In another 

 field Boltzmann shed new light by his definition of 

 entropy, Wien then discovered the "displacement 



