458 



NATURE 



[January i, 1920 



Kingdom, was the effort made, in camps both at 

 home and abroad, to continue, however imperfectly as 

 to means and methods, the education alreadv gained, 

 having regard to the fact that sooner or later large 

 numbers of men would return to civil occupations and 

 duties, and that it would be desirable, so far as time 

 and circumstances permitted, that military service 

 should offer opportunities of continued study. It is 

 gratifying to observe that the Army of Occupation on 

 the Rhine, which numbers 250,000 men, is animated 

 by the same spirit. The 222 nd number of the 

 Cologne Post, a daily paper printed and published 

 at Cologne in English for the Army of Occupation, 

 and the Christmas souvenir number of the same 

 journal (price qd., or 7 marks), both contain articles 

 urging the vital importance of education, not only in 

 Its general and scientific aspects, but also as applied 

 to the promotion of special phases of industry, of 

 commerce, and of agriculture, with the view of fitting 

 men for these several pursuits, and describes the means 

 taken at Cologne and other Rhine towns for effective 

 instruction and training in the various subjects by the 

 institution of laboratories, workshops, and field allot- 

 ments. -At Sieg'fried there was held recently an 

 exhibition in which was displayed a great deal of 

 good work, the results of training' men who had 

 previously learned no trade to become wage-earners 

 of the best possible tvpe. The courses of study in- 

 clude educational facilities extending from the abso- 

 lutely illiterate to the university graduate, but these 

 articles are also remarkable for the point of view they 

 express, namelv, that the soldiers are urged on 

 returning home to civilian life to insist that their 

 children shall receive their due, and be trained to 

 think and to appreciate the beauties of life. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Meteorological Society, December 17.— Sir 

 Napier Shaw, president, in the chair. — F. J. W. 

 Whipple : The laws of approach to the geostrophic 

 wind. The mode of transition from the winds near 

 the surface of the earth to the general current at 

 moderate heights has been discussed bv various 

 authors. In the present paper stress is laid on the 

 geometrical aspect of the question. The term "rela- 

 tive wind velocity " being used for the velocity which 

 must be combined with the geostrophic wind velocity 

 by vector addition to give the actual wind velocity at 

 any level, the laws of approach to the geostrophic 

 wind are : — (i) The relative wind turns uniformlv with 

 increasing, height ; (2) the relative wind decreases with 

 increasing height according to the exponential law ; 

 and (3) the actual wind at the surface and the relative 

 wind there are inclined at 135°. — G. M. B. Dobson : 

 Winds and temperature-gradients in the stratosphere. 

 From the results of temperature observations bv 

 hallon-sondes, it can be shown that the horizontal 

 pressure-gradient, and therefore the wind velocity, 

 should decrease rapidly on passing from the tropo- 

 sphere to the stratosphere. Previously there hfrt been 

 little confirmation of this by actual observations. 

 Seventy ascents recorded by the International Com- 

 mission gave data for temperature, wind velocity, and 

 wind direction to great heights. These showed that, 

 almost without exception, winds of moderate or great 

 velocity in the troposphere fall off very rapidlv on 

 entering the stratosphere, while the wind direction 

 remained constant. On days with small pressure- 

 gradients this effect was not usually found — a result 

 which was to be expected, since the slope of the tropo- 

 pause would then not necessarily be towards the low 

 pressure. Horizontal pressure and tcmperature- 



NO. 2618, VOL. 104] 



gradients calculated for the observed winds on tvpica! 

 days with moderate or large pressure-gradients show 

 that the pressure-gradient is suddenly reduced, and 

 the temperature-gradient suddenly reversed, on entering 

 the stratosphere. The temperature-gradients cal- 

 culated from the observed wind velocities are in good 

 agreement with those deduced by Mr. W. H. Dines 

 from temperature and pressure observations. — Capt. 

 C. J. P. Cave : Quotations from the Diary of Samuel 

 Pepys on the weather. In this the author has col- 

 lected together all references to the weather from 

 the "Diary," using for this purpose Wheatley's edi- 

 tion. These amount to as many as 557 entries, and 

 are arranged in chronological order. They form a 

 brief comment on the general weather conditions pre- 

 vailing from January, 1660, to May, 1669. In a pre- 

 liminary essay the author summarises the principal 

 weather events for each year. He points out that 

 Pepys cannot claim to be considered as a meteoro- 

 logist, and that his references to the weather are such 

 as anyone might make in writing a diary or in corre- 

 spondence. He also states that Pepvs's memory for 

 meteorological events was not always good, and his 

 remarks on the worst or best weather he remembers 

 must be taken with caution. 



Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, November 3.— Prof. F. O. Bower, 

 president, in the chair. — Capt. T. B. Franklin : The 

 cooling of the soil at night, with special reference to 

 late spring frosts. The aim of this investigation was 

 to obtain data on which predictions might be formed 

 as to the coming night temperature. Continuing a 

 course of investigation, the author gives a formula 

 whereby the minimum temperature on any calm, 

 clear night may be known by about 5 p.m. on the 

 previous afternoon. .\ comparison of his results with 

 the observed minimum soil temperatures on twenty 

 favourable nights between April and October, 1919, 

 shows an average error of 03° C. only; it would thus 

 appear that, under the weather conditions favourable 

 to spring frosts, it is possible to forecast the occurrence 

 of a frost with great exactness. — Sir Thomas Muir ; 

 Note on the determinant the matrix of which is the 

 sum of two circulant matrices. — G. F. Quilter : Note 

 on and exhibition of photographs of appearances of 

 mirage at Ingatestone. These photographs showed 

 apparent pools of water in the street in which pillars 

 appeared reflected at a distance of about a hundred 

 yards. The photographs were interesting as follow- 

 ing up a previous paper by Mr. .Mex. G. Ramage com- 

 municated to the society in 1918. 



December i. — Prof. F. O. Bower, president, in the 

 chair.— Dr. R. Kidston and Prof. W. H. Lang : Old 

 Red .Sandstone plants showing structure from the 

 Rhynie Chert bed, .\berdeenshire. Part iii. : Aster- 

 oxylon Mackiei, Kidston and Lang. The fourth 

 vascular Cryptogam found in the silicified peat-bed 

 at Rhvnie, the age of which is not younger than the 

 middle Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, was a larger 

 and more complex plant than Rhynia Gii'ynne- 

 Vaughani, R. major, and Hornea Lignieri. described 

 in the earlier papers of this series. It has been named 

 Asteroxylon Mackiei after Dr. Mackie, the original 

 discoverer of the chert-bed. The remains of .Aster- 

 oxylon are abundant, though fragmentary, and give, 

 with more or less certainty, a fairly complete know- 

 ledge of the plant. 



December 8 and g. — Prof. W. Peddle, vice-president, 

 in the chair.— Prof. R. .\. Sampson : (i) Newton's 

 views on gravitation and their subsequent history. (2) 

 The theory of Einstein and its observational tests. In 

 the second address, by the kindness of Sir Frank Dyson, 

 the GreenW'ich photographs taken at the expedition to 



