124 



POPULAR SCIEN'CE NEWS. 



[August, 18S9. 



was, perhaps, onl_y too iiiotlcst when sajitig Ihat'the 

 honor done to him was intended for Charles Dar- 

 win's son. M. F"rancis Darwin has made a name 

 for himself — a very difficult process for a man in his 

 case. Apropos of Charles Darwin, I would call 

 attention to a little work, entitled Charles Darwin, 

 by M. Henry De Varigny. It is an unpretending 

 book, in which the author only gives an account of 

 the great naturalist's life, after the documents fur- 

 nished by M. F. Darwin, and a resume of his 

 works, especially botanical, geological, and zoologi- 

 cal, less attention being paid to speculative science, 

 in order to show that Darwin was not only a specu- 

 lative man, but also one who had much investigated 

 facts. 



The Revue Scientijique has been publishing, for 

 some time past, interesting documents concerning 

 the hereditary transmission of physical and psychi- 

 cal characters. They are all original documents, 

 contributed by different observers. The inquest 

 was started by the Societe de Psychologic Physiolo- 

 gique. Speaking of societies, reminds me that I 

 want to inform our readers of the fact that no less 

 than seventy different scientific meetings are to be 

 held in Paris during the months of June, July, 

 August, September, and October. These seventy 

 meetings will discuss de omni re scihili et quibus dam 

 aliis. A great inany foreign delegates have arrived, 

 and many of the meetings promise to prove very 

 interesting. Some German scientists have declared 

 they will have nothing to do with these congres, but 

 this is of little account; Germans have not got the 

 monopoly of science, and their abstention will 

 clearly show that France is able to do a good deal 

 by itself. II. 



Paris, June 25, 1889. 



[Errata. — The word Trocadero in last month's 

 letter was misprinted Trocaders, and Fontainebleau, 

 Toubainebleau. ] 



[Specially Observed for The Popular Science yeius.] 

 METEOROLOGY FOR JUNE, 1889. 



The lowest point reached by the mercury the last 

 month was 53°, on the evening of the iSth, and this 

 was also the coolest day, with an average of 57.66" ; 

 the 19th was 2° warmer. The highest point reached 

 was 84°, on the 15th and 30th, and the last day of 

 the month was the warmest, with a mean of 77.33°. 

 The last four days were remarkable for high and 

 nearly uniform temperature, having an average of 

 75.83° — a range from 71° to 84°. Four other days 

 (13th to i6th) were also very warm, averaging 

 73.66°, and a range from 63° to 84°. The entire 

 month was nearly 2° above the average of the last 

 nineteen Junes, and the warmest, with only two ex- 

 ceptions ('76 and '83), during this period. The 

 entire season, indeed, continues at a remarkably 

 high temperature, averaging, since January ist, 

 45.92°, while the same six months in nineteen years 

 have averaged only 41.97°, being nearly 4° warmer 

 than usual. February is the only month, thus far, 

 below the average; but January was nearly 10° 

 abave. Thus we have an excess of 715° of heat 

 above the ordinary, with its influence on the vege- 

 table world, keeping the season in advance. 



The face of the sky, in 90 observations, gave 38 

 fair, 23 cloudy, 23 overcast, and 6 rainy, — a percent- 

 age of 42.2 fair. This average the last nineteen 

 Junes has been 58.5, with extremes of 40.1 in 1874, 

 and 75.5 in 1871. The extreme in 1874 is the only 

 instance of greater cloudiness in June than the 

 present. But fevv days were noted as specially 

 "fine." So great cloudiness, in connection with 

 unusual heat, produced much inuggy and sultry 

 weather, quite unlike ''lovely June." 



PRECIPITATION. 



The amount of rainfall the past month was 2.71 

 inches, a near average of the last twenty-one Junes, 

 which is 2.74, with extremes of o in 1873, and 5.30 

 in 1875. The first half of the month the rains were 

 frequent and abundant, but none fell after the 17th, 

 leaving the end of the month quite dry and dusty. 

 Thunder and lightning occurred on the 5th, loth, 

 15th, and 2Sth, attended with light rains, except the 

 last. That on the 5th was quite heavy, between 11 

 and 12 A. M., toward my south-east. The amount 

 of precipitation since January ist has been 26.54 

 inches, while the average for these six months the 

 last twenty-one years has been only 24.68, showing 

 a surplus thus far of nearly two inches. 



PRESSURE. 



The average barometric pressure the past month 

 was 29.990 inches, with extremes of 29.55 on the 5th, 

 and 30.35 on the 24th and 25th, — a range of .80 

 inch. The average for the last sixteen Junes has 

 been 29.935, with extremes of 29.S45 in 1882, 

 and 30.056 in 1884, — a range of .211 inch. 

 The sum of the daily variations was 3.30 

 inches, giving an average daily movement of .110 

 inch. This average in the last sixteen Junes has 

 been .118, with extremes of .058 and .218. The 

 largest movements were .30 on the 23d, .28 on the 

 4th, and .27 on the 20th. The barometer remained 

 stationary at 30.10 during those last four hot days, 

 and stood above 30 inches on eighteen mornings, 

 chiefly in two nearly equal periods. The chief de- 

 pression was during the first week, and the chief 

 elevation during the last week. The third week was 

 more irregular, with a generally lower depression. 



The direction of the wind, in 90 observations, 

 gave 7 N., 2 S., 3 E., 36 W., 2 N. E., 6 N. W., 2 

 S. E., and 32 S. W. — an excess of 21 southerly and 

 67 westerly over the northerly and easterly, and in- 

 dicating the average direction to have been W. 17° 

 24' S. Two points, the W. and S. W. greatly pre- 

 vailed, giving 68 of the 90 observations, leaving only 

 22 for the other six points. The westerly winds 

 have uniformly prevailed over the easterly for' the 

 last twenty Junes, by an average of 32.80 observa- 

 tions, and the southerly over the northerly, with 

 fbur exceptions, by an average of 12.40, — indicating, 

 approximately, the general average direction for 

 June to have been W. 20° 43' S., and showing the 

 wind to have been 3° 19' less southerly the last 

 month than usual. The relative progressive dis- 

 tance travelled by the wind the past month was 

 70.21 units, and during the last twenty Junes 701.30 

 such units, an average of 35.06, showing far less 

 opposing winds the last month than usual. 



In review, briefly, it will be seen that the last 

 month was unusually warm and cloudy, muggy and 

 sultry; the rainfall, in this locality, a near average, 

 but unevenly distributed; the pressure high, and 

 the winds less opposing and less southerly than 

 usual for June. D. W. 



Natick, July 5, 1889. 



[Specially Computed for The J'opular Science A'fjw.s.l 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR 

 AUGUST, 1889. 

 Mercury passes superior conjunction with the 

 sun on August 7, and changes from a morning to 

 an evening star, but does not remain above the 

 horizon long enough after sunset to be easily seen. 

 Venus is still a morning star, rising about three 

 hours before the sun. Its apparent distance from, 

 the sun is gradually becoming smaller. Mars js 

 now a morning star, rising from an hour to an 

 hour and a half before the sun. It is not verv con- 

 spicuous, and will not be for some months. Jupiter 

 is in the constellation Sagittarius, and, until August 

 24, moves slowly westward (retrogrades.) After 

 that date it moves eastward. It is nearly as far 

 south as it will go during its present revolution 

 around the sun. It crosses the meridian on August 

 I at 9h. 13m. and at 7h. 12m. on August 31, and sets 

 about four and a half hours later. The following 

 eclipses of his satellites are visible at some point or 

 other in the United States. Both the disappear- 

 ances and reappearances of the two outer satellites 

 can be seen, but only the reappearances of the two 

 inner. All the phenomena take place near the 

 upper right-hand quadrant of the planet, as .seen in 

 an inverting telescope. The times given are East- 

 ern Standard. 



IV. D. August 2, 3h. 35m. A. M. 



I. R. August 4, 3h. 33m. A. M. 



I. R. August 5, loh. 2m. P. M. 



II. R. August iq, 9h. 44m. P. M. 



I. R. August 12, iih. 57m. P. M. 



II. R. August 18, I2h. 2im. A. M. 



IV. D. August 18, 9h. 31m. P. M. 



IV. R. August 18, iih. 37ni. P. M. 



I. R. August 20, ih. 52m. A. M. 



I. R. August 21, 8h. 2im. P. M. 



III. R. August 22, 7h. 38m. P. M. 



II. R. August 25, 2h. 159m. A. M. 



I. R. August 28, loh.' i6m. P. M. 



III. D. August 29, 8h. 44m. P. M. 



III. R.. August 29, iih. 39m. P. M. 



Saturn is too near the sun during the month to be 

 easily seen, at no time being more than 13" distant. 

 It passes conjimction on the morning of August 16, 

 and becomes a morning star, but will not be far 

 enough away from the sun to be easily seen for six 

 weeks or two months. Uranus is in the western 

 sky in the evening in the constellation Virgo, about 

 three degrees to the north and west of Spica (Alpha 

 Virginis.) It is moving slowly eastward. Neptune 

 is in the constellation Taurus, is a morning star, 

 and is in quadrature with the sun on August 27. 



The Constellations. — The positions given hold 

 good for latitudes differing not many degrees from 

 40° north, and for lo, 9, and 8 P. M. for the begin- 

 ning, middle, and end of the month, respectively. 

 Lyra is in the zenith, Aquila is coming to the merid- 

 ian at about 60° altitude, and Sagittarius is low 

 down on the south meridian. East of Sagittarius is 

 Capricornus, at about the same altitude, with Piscis 

 Australis just rising below it. Aquarius follows 

 Capricornus, and Pisces is just rising in the cast. 

 Above Pisces are Pegasus and Cygnus, the latter 

 near the zenith. Going from the eastern horizon 

 toward the pole star, we find first Andromeda, and 

 next Cassiopeia. Perseus is on the horizon below 

 Cassiopeia, and Cepheus is above. The head of 

 Draco is just west of the meridian, and a little north 

 of the zenith. Ursa Minor is mainly to the left and 

 above the pole, while Ursa Major is to the left 

 below. Hercules is to the west of the zenith, high 

 up, and below it are Corona Borealis and Bootes, 

 with Virgo just on the west horizon. Libra and 

 Scorpius follow Virgo, are are both low down in the 

 western sky. Ophiuchus is above Scorpius. 



M. 



Lake Forest, III., July 5, 1889. 



