448 



NATURE 



[August 7, 19 19 



sufficient to allow of profitable use of the soil for 

 farming or raising- stock. For this reason Dr. 

 Griffith Taylor, who is becoming well known for 

 his work on Australian meteorology, has recently 

 produced a volume devoted entirely to the rain- 

 fall of the continent and its control over vege- 

 tation. The subject is dealt with in a very 

 thorough manner, and it would be hard to over- 

 estimate the value of such a work in the case of 

 a young agricultural country looking to great 

 developments in the near future. To obtain a just 

 appreciation of the meteorological conditions 

 which govern the weather of the continent 

 it is necessary to remember that the 

 southern tropical high-pressure belt crosses 

 the southern part of the country, while the 

 equatorial low-pressure area lies off the northern 

 coast. These systems fluctuate north and 

 south with the sun, causing a very marked 

 annual period in the rainfall. Thus the northern 

 districts receive most of their rainfall in the 

 southern summer, when cyclones from the 

 northern low-pressure area strike the coast. On 

 the other hand, the southern districts at this time 

 of year lie under anticyclonic conditions and 

 receive little rain, but in the winter, when the 

 high-pressure belt has moved northward, the 

 westerly winds of the southern oceans reach this 

 region and the rainy season occurs. This move- 

 ment to the north and south of the pressure 

 systems and associated phenomena is well illus- 

 trated by an ingenious " Solar Control Model " 

 which forms the frontispiece of the present 

 volume. 



To the casual student who is acquainted with 

 the desert regions which cover a large part of 

 Western Australia and has been in the habit of 

 regarding the whole district as one of great 

 aridity it may come as a surprise to learn that 

 over a small coastal area running southwards 

 from Perth the annual rainfall amounts to more 

 than 30 in., a quantity which is equalled only in 

 narrow belts along the south-eastern, eastern, and 

 northern coasts. Furthermore, a map which Dr. 

 Taylor has prepared shows that the "rain relia- 

 bility " from year to year reaches a very high level 

 in this tract of Western Australia, so that the lot 

 of the farmer should be a happy one, at least so 

 far as rainfall is concerned. The most variable and 

 untrustworthy rains are found in the arid centre 

 of the continent, where the annual fall amounts 

 to about 6 in. only, and fluctuates widely from 

 year to year. The chart of " rain reliability " forms 

 a valuable feature of the book, as in regions 

 where the fall is barely sufficient for farming it 

 may make all the difference whether an almost 

 constant fall can be expected from year to year, or 

 whether periods of exceptional rain are likely to be 

 followed by spells of drought through which no 

 farming can be carried on. In a previous publi- 

 cation the author has made use of the "climo- 

 graph," or temperature-humidity curve, for 

 indicating graphically the suitability of a climate 

 for man. As regards suitability for plant life 

 rainfall is a more important element than 

 NO. 2597. VOL. 103] 



humidity, and the "hythergraph " is here intro- 

 duced to indicate changes of temperature and 

 rainfall throughout the year. Hythergraphs are 

 reproduced for typical extra-Australian wheat-, 

 rice-, and cotton-growing lands, and by comparison 

 with Austrahan curves indicate the possibilities of 

 the different parts of the country for these crops. 

 Tea and coffee growing is also considered in the 

 same way. 



For a detailed discussion the country is divided 

 into fifteen districts, for each of which the condi- 

 tions are considered very fully. An attempt is 

 made to ascertain the type of pressure distribution 

 which causes rain in the different regions, and each 

 fall in the course of the lustrum 1910-14 is 

 ascribed to one or other of certain pressure types. 

 It may be questioned whether the cause of rain- 

 fall suggested on p. 58, the chilling of an air mass 

 by contact with a colder body of air, is really 

 productive of appreciable rain. In most cases of 

 this kind an easier explanation seems to be found 

 in the convection effects which are likely to be 

 set up. The work is very fully illustrated, but 

 one misses a good map of Australia whereon the 

 different towns and districts mentioned could be 

 located without the trouble of turning up an atlas. 

 It is impossible to read a work of this kind 

 without regretting that meteorologists have 

 devoted so little attention in the past to measure- 

 ments of evaporation. There can be few districts 

 of the world for which any adequate evaporation 

 data are available, and yet in a country like 

 Australia the loss of water by this means must 

 be second only in importance to the supply by 

 rainfall. A very large amount of trouble must 

 have been involved in the preparation of such a 

 comprehensive work as that under notice, and 

 students of Australian meteorology, as well as 

 those responsible for the development of the 

 country, have reason to be grateful to Dr. Griffith 

 Taylor for the result of his labours. J. S. D. 



GUSTAV MAGNUS RETZIUS. 



PROF. GUSTAV RETZIUS, who died at 

 Stockholm on July 21, aged seventy-seven, 

 did more to enrich anatomical literature 

 than any other man of his time. By his death 

 there comes to an end a line of anatomists that 

 has made Sweden famous for a century and 

 more. Retzius's grandfather was professor of 

 natural history at Lund ; his father, Anders Ret- 

 zius, the intimate friend of Johannes Miiller, 

 held the chair of anatomy in the Caroline Medico- 

 Chirurgical Institute, Stockholm, in which he 

 was in due time followed by his son Gustav, 

 who devoted his life to working out, by im- 

 proved methods, lines of research commenced by 

 his father. In 1842, the year in which Gustav 

 was born, Anders Retzius recognised that the 

 form of the human head was an important mark 

 of race, and initiated the system of describing 

 the shape of heads and skulls by the proportion 

 which their breadth bears to their length. Like 

 his father, Gustav Retzius was an anthropologist 



