290 



NATURE 



[July 29, 1897 



the whole book. We gather, too, that Faye himself has 

 never witnessed the destruction caused by the passage of 

 a severe tornado. He has to rely entirely on the accuracy 

 of eye-witnesses, to picture the scene as best he can, to 

 select his facts, and to supply the explanations that best 

 accord with his notions. This places him at a dis- 

 advantage when compared with some other of the 

 physicists named. M. Faye is of course obliged to 

 admit that heavy objects are sometimes carried to a 

 distance. He sees these objects practically whisked over 

 the surface by a succession of impulses, like a football 

 continually kicked in the same direction. That some of 

 these objects, transported possibly for miles, are often of 

 a frail nature, and would be broken by rude and frequent 

 contact with the surface, is not remembered. But if M. 

 Faye had actually witnessed these occurrences, he could 

 not have treated the evidence so lightly. 



Then the author avails himself of another mode of 

 escape. When the evidence in favour of an ascensional 

 current is too strong, then the phenomena of which it is 

 a characteristic is not that which is under consideration. 

 Consequently we have " fausses trombes " and " pre- 

 tendus cyclones" whose explanation, as generally given, 

 the author would accept but without admitting any 

 similarity with the more powerful manifestations. Some- 

 thing of disdain runs through the following passage : — 



" On cite meme des trombes de linge expos6 sur le sol 

 pour s^cher, ou Ton voit le linge, les mouchoirs, les 

 chemises, &c., s'elever dans les airs en tournoyant pour 

 retomber plus tard au loin sur le sol . . . ce sont de 

 fausses trombes dont on a fait la thdorie d'ailleurs 

 parfaitement correcte." 



As a general rule it is a matter of perfect indifference 

 to the ordinary purposes of life whether we hold a correct 

 or an incorrect theory in astronomy or meteorology. 

 Life and commerce and navigation would go on the 

 same whether we believed that the earth went round 

 the sun or the sun round the earth. But in this matter 

 of tempests and cyclones, trade and commerce can be 

 very adversely affected if we teach an incorrect theory of 

 their origin and motion. A captain can only hope to 

 escape from the danger with which they threaten him 

 by localising with some precision the situation of the 

 inner vortex. To do this he has but one guide, the 

 direction of the wind. The use he makes of this guide 

 in inferring the position of the ship with reference to that 

 of the storm centre will be materially affected by the 

 views he holds concerning the motion of the wind in a 

 cyclonic storm. A rule must be devised for his guidance 

 without ambiguity, and one that can be followed without 

 hesitation. Piddington and the older meteorologists 

 held that the movement of the wind in a cyclone was 

 circular. In this view they are followed by M. Faye. 

 The result of this belief was the enunciation of the rule 

 of eight points, expressed something in this way. With 

 the face turned to the wind extend the right arm. In 

 the northern hemisphere you will point in the direction 

 of the storm centre. This rule can be supported only by 

 ignoring a great mass of recent observations. The rule 

 asserts that the wind blows at right angles to the radius, 

 but it has been shown, over and over again, that in true 

 cyclones the winds are strongly inclined inwards ; not 

 NO. 1448, VOL. 56] 



directly to the centre, but approaching it by a spiral. A 

 more accurate rule has been deduced and is supported 

 by weighty authorities, but not by M. Faye. In the 

 northern hemisphere with face to the wind, the direction 

 of the centre is from ten to eleven points to the right- 

 hand side. To go back to the old rule of Piddington is 

 a retrograde step, but the mischief does not end there. 

 The distrust likely to be awakened in the mind of the 

 seaman by the spectacle of disaccord among scientific 

 authorities can have the most disastrous results. The 

 ordinary seaman asks for a clear and precise rule, on 

 which he can act without argument or question, while 

 his whole attention is directed to the preservation of his 

 ship. M. Faye is a great authority. His name is one to 

 conjure with, and it is not unlikely that the rules which 

 he quotes with approval will be copied into English 

 books by those who compile manuals of brief and ready 

 directions for navigation, and in this way perpetuate an 

 evil against which a mass of scientific evidence, collected 

 in less accessible quarters, is powerless. 



THE YEW. 

 The Yezv-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland. By 

 John Lowe, M.D., &c. Pp. xiv -h 270. (London: 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1897.) 



NOT far behind the oak stands the yew in popular 

 estimation. Its associations, its form, its distribu- 

 tion, its utility, account for this. We consider it an 

 aboriginal native, and so no doubt it is. From the Ter- 

 tiary epoch to "the present it has been in existence, and 

 now it extends over the whole of the northern hemi- 

 sphere from Norway to the Azores and Algeria, from 

 Ireland to the Amur. It abounds in certain parts of the 

 Himalayas, and we have it from the ruby mines of 

 Burmah. In Japan a yew exists which it is hard to dis- 

 tinguish from our European species. From Canada to 

 Virginia in Eastern America another species ranges, 

 whilst on the opposite side of the American continent 

 in California and some parts of the " Rockies " yet 

 another is found ; one, moreover, is chronicled from the 

 mountains of Mexico. According to circumstances, and 

 especially according to his proclivities, the botanist will 

 range all these as separate species (Parlatore enumerates 

 six), or as representatives of one and the same. The 

 Index Kewensis quotes no fewer than ninety synonyms 

 for these six species, a pretty good illustration of the 

 variation among botanists ! Those who visit an extensive 

 tree-nursery, and see the large number of forms known 

 to be seedling variations from the common yew, will be 

 inclined to favour the idea that there is but one species. 

 Those whose research is limited to herbaria may come to 

 the opposite conclusion. 



Naturally the yew is dioecious, the male flowers being 

 on one tree, the female on another ; but it not unfrequently 

 happens that flowers of both sexes may be met with on the 

 same branch. It seems natural to expect a greater amount 

 of variation among dioecious than among monoecious 

 trees ; but it is striking to see so much variation in trees 

 growing, as far as we can see, under the same natural 

 environment. There are yews with red fruits and yews 

 with yellow, golden variegations and silver-mottled 



