468 



NATURE 



[August 9, 191 7 



by the progressive cooling of the air, since the 

 mass of water that re^ilts from the cooHng- of, 

 say, a kilogram of saturated air from 15° C. to 

 o" C. is constant (rather more than 5 gr.), 

 whether or not supersaturation may have existed 

 at the inception of the temperature-reduction^ 



Having thus pronounced upon the theories which 

 have been advanced to account for the alleged 

 connection, M. Angot goes on to consider whether 

 in reality anything has occurred that needs 

 accounting for — whether the rainfall since the out- 

 break of hostilities has been less inclined to observe 

 the rules by which we endeavour to forecast its 

 occurrence than before. Careful comparison 

 between the daily weather-maps and the observed 

 rainfall figures has convinced him that it is not. 

 He points out, very rightly, that we have been 

 passing through a series of wet years since 1909- — 

 a period that balances the run of dry years 1898- 

 1904 (1903 and 191 1 were both exceptions to their 

 groups and may be said to balance one another) — 

 and that excess of rain in 1915 and 1916 might 

 reasonably have been expected ; that 1909 was 

 wetter (in France) than 1915, 1910 than i'9i6; 

 furthermore, that during December, 191 5, an un- 

 precedentedly wet month, relative calm prevailed 

 over the whole front, and that in the second 

 ten-day period of the very wet February of 

 1916 considerably more rain fell (40 mm. 

 as against 28 mm.) than in the last 

 ten-day period, which witnessed the develop- 

 ment of the giant German bid for Verdun. 

 Similar conclusions will be reached if frequency of 

 rain instead of amount be considered : 1910 had 

 more rain-days than 1916; 1912 and 1913 bpth 

 more than 191 5, when the number in France was 

 eleven below the average. The author has found 

 nothing 'exceptional in the local distribution of 

 rainfall : proximity to the firing-zone has not 

 resulted in relatively greater totals or frequencies, 

 while the great spring oflfensive of 1917 failed to 

 interrupt the long spell of brilliant weather which 

 accompanied it. 



An examination was made some months ago at 

 the British Meteorological Office into the local 

 distribution of rainfall over England during the 

 first twenty-two months of the war, the results of 

 which afford corroborative evidence for M. Angot *s 

 last-mentioned point. ' It was found that the 

 greatest excess of rain over the normal figure was 

 one of 59 per cent, on the South Yorkshire coast ; 

 that three areas in Lincolnshire and on the Norfolk 

 and Suffolk coasts respectively had rather more 

 than 40 per cent, excess ; but that round the North 

 Foreland there was a slight deficit. No trace 

 whatever of a distribution having reference to a 

 centre over northern France was discoverable. 



M. Angot concludes with the reflection that it may 

 be with rainfall and gunfire as it is with weather 

 changes and the phases of the moon, that "sous 

 la suggestion d'une croyance instinctive on est 

 conduit involontairement h ne remarquer qne les 

 coincidences favorables et k s'aflfermir ainsi de plus 

 en plus dans cette croyance." For those, indeed, 

 who are cognisant of the relationship between the 

 weather and modern warfare it is not difficult to 

 NO. 2493, VOL. 99] 



see the possibility of the connection, but it is a 

 connection in which the amount of gunfire varies 

 inversely as the amount of rain thai is falling 

 rather than one which makes the rainfall in any 

 way dependent upon the gunfire. 



E. L. H.AWKE. 



NOTES. 



M. P.AUL OiLETj.who is director of the International 

 Institute of Bibliography at Brussels, has published a 

 long and interesting memoir in the May-June number 

 of the Bulletin de la Societe d' Encouragement pour 

 I'lndustrie Rationale on the question of the establish- 

 ment, in Paris, of a Central Information and Records 

 Oflice for Industry. There are already in existence a 

 certain number of enterprises of the kind, such as the 

 Mots Scientifique et Industriel in France, the Engineer- 

 ing Index in England, and the Repertorium der tech- 

 nischen Wissenschaften in Germany, but their scope is 

 limited. According to M. Otlet, the scheme should assume 

 an international character, and its functions should be 

 the collection, classification, and dissemination of all 

 information available, both French and foreign, which 

 will tend to facilitate and develop industry. A mere 

 catalogue of works on particular subjects is not alone 

 sufficient; a bibliography should be included in the 

 scheme, so as to afford more detailed information on 

 any desired subject. Books of all kinds, pamphlets, 

 catalogues, descriptions of processes, journals, standard 

 reference books of all countries, plans of machinery 

 and plant, where available, a complete set of patent 

 specificatfons. prospectuses of educational establish- 

 ments, etc. — all would be collected and classified in 

 accordance with a plan definitely laid down before- 

 hand. Extensive card 01 similar indexes would be 

 compiled for reference, and a complete catalogue on 

 the decimal system, together with a bibliography, would 

 be published at definite intervals. All these works would 

 be available for free consultation by interested parties. 

 Authors and publishers would be invited to co-operate 

 in order to ensure the success of the enterprise. Exist- 

 ing publications, e.g. the International Catalogue of 

 Scientific Literature, would be used as the nucleus of 

 the work. It is to what the author calls the science 

 of "documentation" that the Germans owe to a great 

 extent the place they have attained in the industrial 

 and military world, although they have often employed 

 unscrupulous means to reach their end. He suggests 

 that every industrial concern should have its own in- 

 formation and records department, which should be 

 planned on the same lines as the national establish- 

 ment, with which it should keep in touch. In connec- 

 tion with the question of patents, it was suggested at 

 the Conference of Allies held at Paris last year that 

 an international patent ofiice be formed after the war, 

 to save the time and expense now required for taking 

 out patents in various countries. An undertaking of 

 this nature would greatly increase the necessity for a 

 more elaborate — practically an international— Record 

 and Information Office to enable all questions of 

 priority and infringement to be dealt with efficiently. 

 Everv phase of an important subject is reviewed in 

 this memoir of thirty pages. 



With a view to the just apportionment of pensions 

 due to soldiers for injuries received in the present 

 war, the French Government has established at ^ 

 Paris, at the instigation of Dr. Camus, a well-known 1 

 military surgeon, a special centre for determining | 

 scientifically the extent of incapacitation. This estal>- j 

 lishment will ser^e both as a research laborato'ry and | 

 for the additional treatment of those who have already | 

 undergone the usual hospital treatment. Hero special « 



