DECEMBER 24, 1903] 
NATURE 
179 
twenty or thirty selected stations is desired to 
corroborate these facts and conclusions. 
The amount of cirrus cloud is small during the rainy 
season in Upper India, and increases rapidly south- 
wards, reaching a maximum in southern India. 
The amount or frequency of cirro-stratus cloud is 
large in the dry season in northern India, and de- 
creases rapidly southwards to southern India, where 
it is very small, as indicated by the Madras and 
Vizagapatam observations. 
The amount of cirro-stratus is much smaller in the 
wet than in the dry season in Upper India. It is very 
small in the peninsula, almost as small as in the dry 
season. It is, on the other hand, of frequent occur- 
rence over the area represented by Jaipur and 
Allahabad, and more especially in Allahabad. 
Alto-cumulus cloud is a cloud of frequent occurrence | 
in northern India throughout the whole year. It is 
of rare occurrence in the peninsula from November to 
May, and of occasional occurrence from June to 
October at Madras. 
Cumulus and cumulo-nimbus are of frequent occur- 
rence in the dry season at Simla, Jaipur, Vizaga- 
patam and Madras, more especially at the two last- 
named coast stations, and are, in fact, the most 
characteristic clouds of the Indian area. They are of 
frequent occurrence in the wet season, more especially 
at the peninsular coast stations and at Jaipur and 
Allahabad. 
It is noteworthy that cumulus and cumulo-nimbus 
are of much less frequent occurrence in the wet than 
in the dry season at Vizagapatam and Madras. The 
former type of cloud is also comparatively rare at 
Allahabad and the latter type of cloud at Jaipur in 
the dry season. 
_With regard to the directions of movements of the 
different types of clouds at the different.seasons of the 
year, the maps in the volume illustrate the results 
most clearly. Reference may here, perhaps, be made 
only to the directions of the cirrus and cirro-stratus 
‘during the wet and dry seasons, and the following 
table sums up the information for the six stations. 
Mean direction of movement in 
oe ee ! FT 
Station Dry Season Wet Season 
Cirrus Cirro-stratus Cirrus Cirro-stratus 
Simla S. 80 W.| S. 82 W.| S. 85 W.| S. 69 W. 
Lahore Ne S. 86 W. | S. 86 W.| S. 48 W.| N. 81 W. 
Jaipur N. 86 W. | N. 87 W. | N. 78 W. | N. 80 W. 
Allahabad S. 82 W. | S. 83 W. | N..83 W. |S. 65 W.. 
Vizagapatam...| S. 4 W.| S. 27 W.| N.72E. | N. 65 E. 
Madras ... S. 13 W. | S. 86 W. | S. 82 E. | N. 87 E. 
It will be seen that the movements of the two kinds 
of clouds in both seasons are practically the same in 
Upper or north-west India, but differ very considerably 
when the stations are more south. 
It may further be noted that in the more northern 
stations the air movement as observed by the upper 
clouds is very steady in the direction from almost due 
west to east, and this is more especially so during the 
dry season from November to May. 
During this small number of years of observation it 
was detected that the mean direction of the cirrus move- 
ment varied slightly in the same months or seasons of 
different years. This variation, as Sir John Eliot 
states, is almost certainly real, and represents a phase | 
in the upper air movement over a considerable area. 
Previous to these cloud observations it had been 
estimated on theoretical grounds that the south-west 
NO. 1782, VOL. 69] 
monsoon currents reach up to an average elevation of 
10,000 to 15,000 feet, no actual measurements having 
been made. Sir John Eliot here points out that the 
most remarkable feature of the present cloud observ- 
ations is the great variability or unsteadiness of the 
cloud movement during this period up to the elevation 
of the highest cirrus at Allahabad, in the centre or 
axis of ‘the trough of low pressure. From cloud 
measurements made by photogrammeters at Allahabad 
during the wet seasons (June to September) of the 
years 1898 to 1900, it was deduced that the variable 
or unsteady movement in the monsoon trough ex- 
tended “‘ to a probable elevation of 30,000 feet at least, 
and perhaps even to 40,000 feet, and that the regular 
movement in the higher atmosphere from west to east 
is either suspended or occurs at a much greater 
elevation than in the dry season.”’ 
The important results obtained by determining the 
movements of the air currents at different heights by 
means of the observations of clouds indicate that the 
use of kites and unmanned balloons will perhaps 
prove a valuable auxiliary. 
The appearance of these two important memoirs so 
| recently after the one to which reference has already 
been made will give the reader some notion of the 
activity displayed by the Indian Meteorological De- 
partment under the distinguished direction of Sir John 
Eliot, and of the valuable researches which it con- 
tributes to meteorological science. 
Wie Mesa le 
THE, FOOD AND DRUGS ACTS.* 
“THE two Parliamentary papers mentioned below, 
although widely different in character, are, at 
bottom, intimately connected with a common question, 
namely, the effective administration of the enactments 
dealing with the adulteration of food and drink. 
The Food and Drugs Acts are now upwards of a 
third of a century old. They have been considered and 
reconsidered by Parliament at various times even 
down to the year 1899, and in the consideration have 
had to run the gauntlet of much deliberate obstruction 
from faddists, federations, and that class of free- 
fooders which regards any legislative interference with 
the buying and selling of anything of the nature of 
food, however bad, as noxious economic heresy, and 
a restriction of the free play of competition. That 
the Acts contain compromises, inconsistencies, and 
anomalies is well known to those who have anything 
to do with their administration. Nor has the judge- 
made law by which these anomalies have been inter- 
preted tended to their smoother working; indeed, it 
has caused them to be absolutely inoperative in certain 
directions. How imperfect the Acts are is strikingly 
exemplified in the two papers before us. 
The first, and in a sense the most important, of 
these is the final report of the Royal Commission 
appointed to inquire into arsenical poisoning from the 
consumption of beer and other articles of food or drink. 
It will be remembered that in the latter part of 1900 
there occurred a serious epidemic of poisoning which 
was traced to arsenical contamination of beer at 
numerous breweries through the use of brewing 
sugars manufactured by a single firm in the neigh- 
bourhood of Liverpool. The arsenic was introduced 
into these sugars by way of a highly arsenical sulphuric 
acid supplied by a firm of chemical manufacturers in 
1 Final Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into 
Arsenical Poisoning from the Consumption of Beer and other Articles of 
Food or Drink. Parliamentary Paper. Cd. 1848. 1903. 
Final Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board 
of Agriculture and Department of Agriculture and other Industries and 
Technical Instruction for Ireland to inquire and report upon the desira- 
bility of Regulations under Section 4 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 
1899 for Butter. Parliamentary Paper. Cd. 1749. 1903. 
