402 



NATURE 



[December io, 1914 



in a series of conclusions, sums up the reasons why 

 the objects seen were nothing lilce telescopic meteors, 

 and these are as follows : — They require a longer 

 focus than the sun ; they did not move in parallel direc- 

 tions ; their general direction agreed with the direction 

 of the prevailing wind ; they were objects of irregular 

 shape and light filamentous material ; their vagaries 

 of motion while in sight were greatly dissimilar to 

 that of true telescopic meteors seen at night; and, 

 finally, on one occasion Mr. Denning followed them 

 on several successive days and a change occurred in 

 the directions. These showers, they state, are purely 

 local terrestrial events. In most cases they are seeds 

 or the down of various plants carried by the wind at 

 high elevations. In some cases snowfiakes are the 

 cause of the phenomenon, whilst insect-swarms, gossa- 

 mer-threads, etc., are sometimes observed. Prof. 

 Barnard states that at certain seasons of the year 

 they can be seen in abundance when the telescope 

 is pointed within a few degrees of the sun, giving 

 the greatest angle of reflection, and if moving slowly 

 appear like minute stars. 



Stars having Peculiar Spectra. — In Circular 

 No. 184 of the Harvard College Observatory Prof. 

 E. C. Pickering publishes an additional list of stars 

 having spectra with bright lines or other peculiarities 

 found by Miss Cannon since the publication of Circu- 

 lar 178, which contained a list of peculiar objects in 

 the course of the work on the new Draper Catalogue. 

 The first table in the new circular gives a list of 

 fourteen stars, six of which are described as new 

 variables. In Table II. a list of thirty-one stars 

 having composite spectra, including twenty-four new 

 double stars, is given, and this brings the number of 

 stars with composite spectra found on the Harvard 

 photographs up to loo. The stars in this table range 

 from magnitude 5-32 to 106, and the class of spectrum 

 of the brighter and fainter components, as they have 

 been determined from the general appearance of the 

 blended spectra, are given in each case. In both 

 tables the stars are arranged in order of Right 

 Ascension, with the corresponding Durchmusterung 

 numbers. 



EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON SCIENTIFIC 

 UNDERTAKINGS. 



SEVERAL international or otherwise co-operative 

 investigations of a scientific kind which were in 

 progress at the opening of the war have necessarily 

 been affected by the naval and military operations and 

 the limitation of usual channels of communication. 

 It is not opportune to state the position of some of 

 these undertakings at the present moment, but various 

 negotiations are proceeding, and it is hoped that a 

 means will be found of carrying on work already well 

 begun. The incalculable loss which scientific research 

 must bear in the suspension of the international fishery 

 investigations was referred to in an article in Nature 

 of October 22 (p. 201). Reference has also been made 

 (Nature, October 15, p. 183) to the need for a central 

 bureau for the distribution of astronomical telegrams, 

 as was done before the war by the Zentralstelle at 

 Kiel. A few weeks after that note appeared Prof. Elis 

 Stromgren, director of the University Observatory at 

 Copenhagen, announced that by an agreement 

 made between Prof. Kobold, of Kiel, as publisher 

 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, and himself, the 

 management of the Zentralstelle fiir astronomische 

 Telegramme during the present war has been passed 

 over to Prof. Stromgren. Consequently, all communi- 

 cations for the Zentralstelle should be addressed to him 

 until further notice at the Observatory, Copenhagen. 

 The work of the Tropical Diseases Bureau in 

 NO. 2354, VOL. 94] 



London has diminished since the outbreak of the war 

 owing to the non-receipt of French and German 

 journals ; for the bureau exists primarily for the collec- 

 tion of information, chiefly from medical journals, on 

 the diseases of tropical and subtropical climates, and 

 its collation and dissemination within the pages of a 

 journal, the Tropical Diseases Bulletin. There is little 

 doubt that such investigations are being hampered in 

 Africa by operations of war, and that they will be 

 seriously interfered with in the future owing to lack 

 of funds now derived both from the home Government 

 and the tropical dependencies of Great Britain. 



As to the future of the International Catalogue of 

 Scientific Literature, the report of the council of the 

 Royal Society states that the responsibilities of the 

 society in relation to this undertaking have been a 

 source of anxious consideration since the outbreak 

 of the war. Apart from the question of continuance, 

 the society is faced with serious liabilities in respect 

 of this undertaking as it stands at the present moment. 

 Should the annual amount of the subscriptions from 

 Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and Poland 

 not be available, as seems certain, at any rate until 

 after the close of the war, this would mean an annual 

 loss of about 1060Z. in income in respect of each issue, 

 or a total loss of about 4000Z. on the issues of 191 1, 

 1912, and 1913, after taking into account reduction of 

 expenditure and in sales of trade copies and back 

 numbers. This loss will fall, at any rate in the first 

 instance, on the Royal Society. 



Daily Weather Maps. — The Quarterly Journal of 

 the Royal Meteorological Society (October, 19 14) 

 prints the subjoined note on the effect of the war on 

 the issue of daily weather maps : — The sudden out- 

 break of war has a very marked effect upon the com- 

 pilation and publication of the various daily weather 

 maps. The Daily Weather Report issued by the 

 Meteorological Office contained the usual information 

 until July 31, but after that date some of the ob- 

 servations began to be missing, while from August 6 

 no data have been received from central Europe, and 

 the wireless reports from the Atlantic were altogether 

 discontinued. For several weeks the reports from 

 Scandinavia and Spitsbergen were missing, but these 

 were resumed in September, though reports from 

 Iceland are still absent. The difficulties of preparing 

 the usual forecasts and storm-warnings have con- 

 sequently been much increased. The publication of 

 the daily synoptic weather maps of Europe, the North 

 Atlantic, and a large portion of North America, which 

 has formed part of the Weekly Weather Report, has 

 been suspended from August 2, until the necessary 

 data have been received. 



It has been the practice of the Times newspaper 

 since 1876 to print each day the previous 6 p.m. 

 weather map. This was continued until August 4, but 

 after that date no further map appeared — no doubt 

 owing to all the available space in the newspaper 

 being urgently required for war information. For the 

 same reason the table of observations from health 

 resorts was discontinued from August 3. 



On August 6 the Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau 

 announced that "owing to the state of war involving 

 the great nations of Europe, the meteorological ob- 

 servations from regions in Europe and Asia, hereto- 

 fore employed by the Weather Bureau in the con- 

 struction of its weather map of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, are no longer received, and the issue of this 

 map will be suspended from this date until such time 

 as the reports can be resumed." 



Investigations of the Upper Air. — The effect of the 

 war upon investigations of the upper air so far has 

 only been indirect in the British Isles, but several 

 independent causes have led to the fact that the 

 present year has not been as fruitful of results as 



