|.\M ARV l6, 1919] 



NATURE 



383 



"Weymouth Pine at Bournemouth" is also mis- 

 leading. There arc ver) few We) mouth- pines 

 IPinus strobus) at Bournemouth, and those on the 

 spot illustrated are almost exclusively Pinus 

 pinaster, with a few Scotch pines mixed among 

 them. W. J. B. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 

 British Rainfall, 1917: (>n the Distribution of 



h'(ii)i in Space and Time over the British Isles 

 during the Year 1917. By Dr. H. R. Mill and 

 C. Salter. Pp. 240. (London: Edward Stanford, 



Ltd., 1918.) Price 105. 

 This is the 6fty-seventh annual volume of "British 

 Rainfall," and it is an exceedingly creditable 

 piece of work for a private organisation, entirely 

 without State aid. Records are given for up- 

 wards of 5000 stations, and every care has been 

 1 to render the monthly and annual maps 

 and tables complete, the curtailment due to the 

 exigencies of the times being in the letterpress. 



\ small area near the estuary of the Thames had 

 fewer than 150 rain days during the year, while 

 over a large part of Scotland and Ireland, as well 

 as in parts of South Wales and Lancashire, the 

 rain days exceeded 200. Rain spells are given, 

 or periods of more than fourteen consecutive days, 

 every one of which is a rain day, and there is 

 also a summary of droughts. The general rain- 

 fall tables afford most valuable information, and, 

 fortunately, the war has caused no break in the 

 publication of the data which have been accumu- 

 lated now for so many years. 



\ special article is given on the unprecedented 

 rainfall in the south-west of England on June 28, 

 when 9-56 in. during the twenty-four hours were 

 measured al BrutOn, in Somerset. The snowfall 

 of [917 is dealt with. 



The diminution of rainfall with elevation above 

 the ground at Greenwich Observatory is discussed 

 bv Mr. W. R. Mash, whose long service at the 

 Royal Observatory adds much to the value of the 

 results. The monthly and yearly values for the 

 several heights carry with them a high degree of 

 exactness. Approximately at 10 ft. above the 

 ground there is a diminution of about 3 per cent., 

 at 22 ft. a diminution of 10 per cent., at 38 ft. a 

 diminution of 20 per rent., and at 50 ft. a diminu- 

 tion of 35 per cent, of the ground rainfall. These 

 results arc rather suggestive for aircraft. 



C. H. 



The Scientists' Reference-Book and Diary , 1919. 



Pp. 147 Diary. (Manchester: Jas. Woolley, 



Sons, and Co., Ltd.) Price 3s. 6d. 

 I in physical and chemical constants, together 

 with the scientific and general information con- 

 tained in the reference-book, will prove of real 

 assistance to the worker in science. The con- 

 venient manner in which the data are arranged 

 will make reference easy, and the fact that the 

 book and diary are hound together in a case of 

 a size suitable for the pocket should continue to 

 give the pocket-book a wide popularity. 



NO. 2568, VOL. 1 02] 



LETTERS TO lilt: EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not Iwld himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 ton lie undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Climograph Charts. 

 My attention has been directed to a note in Nature 



oi Octobei 17, 1918 ip. ij-!,), on the origin of the chart 

 called a climograph, which gives a graphic representa- 

 tion of the climatic conditions of a locality in the 

 course of the year in respect of warmth and moisture. 

 The paragraph states that the method is due to Dr. 

 Griffith Taylor, of the Meteorological Bureau, Mel- 

 bourne. I think it should be noted that diagrams of 

 a similar character with the dry bulb, instead of the 

 wet bulb, combined with the relative humidity, were 

 described and illustrated by Dr. John Ball, of the 

 Egyptian Survey Department, eight years ago in the 

 November issue of the Cano Scientific Journal, 

 vol. 1., No. 4. We discussed the diagrams at the 

 Mi teorological Office early in 1911, when the late Mr. 

 W. Marriott, of the Royal Meteorological Society, pro- 

 duced a number of similar diagrams for English 

 stations, some of which were particularly intriguing, 

 because they failed to distinguish, as we thought they 

 might have done, between places which had the reputa- 

 tion of being bracing on one hand, and relaxing 

 on the other. 



The subject was further pursued in a paper by 

 Dr. Ball and Mr. J. I. Craig, read at the meeting of 

 the British Association at Portsmouth in 191 1. Mr. 

 Craig, in reading the paper, exhibited slides repre- 

 senting on that plan a variety of climates, such as 

 unhealthy climates, continental and marine climates, 

 London, the cotton lands, the monsoon, the influence 

 of altitude, dry health resorts as compared with 

 London, Toronto as compared with Davos, and 

 various climates of the United States. These graphs 

 differ from those afterwards prepared as climographs 

 by Dr. Griffith Taylor in having the dry bulb instead 

 of the wet bulb, and the alteration, for the most 

 part, makes little difference to the general appearance 

 of the diagram, though it alters its position on the 

 sheet. 



As a matter of fact, neither form of diagram seems 

 to lie completely satisfying as distinguishing between 

 the comfortable, the tolerable, and the unendurable in 

 climate. Some years ago Mr. W. F. Tyler, of the 

 ( 'hinese Customs Service, pointed out that between 

 limits of temperature, say 55 F. and 65 F., nobody 

 minded much what the humidity was; but outside 

 these limits of the "generally comfortable" there was 

 a range of temperatures of the " just tolerable " order 

 for damp air, which soon got to the "unendurable" on 

 the side of higher temperature. Beyond these, again, 

 is a range of temperatures under which life is possible 

 only in drv air. An effective climatic diagram would 

 in some way or other exhibit the relation of the 

 climate to the ranges compatible with comfort, life, 

 and death. Napier Shaw. 



Meteorological Office, South Kensington, 

 London, S.W.7, January I. 



A University Association. 

 Prof. Armstrong's letter in Nature of January 2 

 has just come to my notice, and as chairman of the 

 Conference of University Lecturers, to which reference 

 was made in these columns under the " University and 

 Educational Intelligence" of December 12, I hasten 



