APRIL 7, 1904 | 
NATURE 
537 
for the effect is not permanent unless the application 
is made for so long a time and so often as to run a 
risk of exciting a severe inflammation, with the possi- 
bility of causing greater disfigurement than the 
original hirsuties. Moreover, there are other more 
satisfactory means which are quite safe. 
Radium is the latest addition to the therapeutic 
armamentarium. The romance of its discovery, the 
mystery of its radiations and emanation, its relation 
to some important scientific theories, and, above 
all, the possibility of its being the long desired cure 
of cancer, have fixed upon M. and Madame Curie’s 
discovery the attention of the world. The element in 
the form of a bromide, and other compounds more or 
less pure, is now under trial in various diseases. 
Rodent ulcers and some superficial cancers react to it 
with very similar results to those obtained by the 
X-rays. There is no doubt that it is an agent of great 
value, but further observations are necessary to esti- 
mate its position. It can certainly be applied to 
disease in regions which it is now impossible to reach 
by the X-rays, but that its field in the treatment of 
cancer is limited is obvious. Its effect is local, so far 
as present observation has shown, and the remarks 
made above upon the influence of the X-rays in cancer 
apply equally here. Radium has to be used with great 
care, for it is powerful for evil as well as for good. 
If too long applied it causes destruction of tissue, and 
such destruction may take months to heal. 
It will be gathered that rapid strides have been made 
in this field, and it would appear that we are but on 
the threshold of further developments. The latest dis- 
covery, the mysterious n-rays which are said to be pro- 
duced by nervous and muscular action, does not appear 
to possess therapeutic importance, and whether it is 
likely to be of value in diagnosis is at present purely 
problematical. 
IMPERIAL METEOROLOGY. 
RONEN but still step by step, the science of 
meteorology progresses, and new visions are 
opened up which suggest bright prospects for future 
possibilities, but which also lay exposed the lost oppor- 
tunities of the past. Like every other science, the 
modern methods of observation, for at any rate the 
chief meteorological elements, are nearly all that can 
be desired, but when it is required to revert to observ- 
ations made more than thirty or forty years ago, how 
lamentably few are the records and how uncertain in 
many cases is their accuracy. Further, anyone who 
has had occasion to hunt up early series of observations 
of pressure, temperature, rainfall, &c., records will 
have been struck with the common occurrence of 
breaks extending here and there for one, two, three 
or more years. Nevertheless, it is little use crying over 
the past, but strenuous efforts should be made in the 
future to see that the needed observations should be 
secured. 
The more the variations of weather are studied the 
more is the idea strongly impressed on the investigator 
that these variations from year to year are not mere 
matters of chance, but are produced by a cause origin- 
ating outside the earth’s atmosphere, and with little 
doubt from the sun, naturally the prime factor 
and father of all the important weather changes. 
His daily apparent journey round the earth, caused 
by the latter’s rotation, is the origin of all the diurnal 
changes familiar to meteorologists. 
The earth’s journey round the centre of our solar 
system is again the origin of all the other meteor- 
ological variations which pass through their phases 
in a year. 
From year to year, however, these daily and yearly 
NO. 1797, VOL. 69] 
variations, although they preserve more or less their 
original variations as regards their lengths of period, 
change in amount sometimes to a very great degree, 
and cause one to speculate on the probable kind of 
weather for the following year. 
The view that these changes from year to year are 
due to the direct or indirect action of the sun has a 
very great degree of probability in its favour, since 
we know that this highly heated body is in an active 
state as deduced by the numerous and varied solar 
phenomena that have been observed. Further, the 
periodicities deduced from long series of solar observ- 
ations have added another link in the chain of evidence 
showing that the sun’s heat must be constantly vary- 
ing, a fact which it is necessary to prove before solar 
influence can be put forth as a possible source of the 
terrestrial changes. 
It is the work of the now numerous magnificent 
meteorological institutions spread over the globe 
for each to gather into its own particular net the 
meteorological changes that are occurring in its own 
area, and by means of these facts to forecast what 
kind of weather may be expected either on the follow- 
ing day, week or month, or as far ahead as possible. 
Many of these institutions for several years found 
that their own areas were too limited in extent to give 
them the necessary data for the work in hand, and so 
entered into a mutual compact with neighbouring 
countries for the exchange of certain pieces of meteor- 
ological information. : : are 
The present stage of meteorological investigation 
has in the last few years indicated that even this 
mutual help of the neighbouring countries, each work- 
ing for its own immediate ends, is not sufficient for a 
satisfactory solution of world meteorology. ; 
Sir John Eliot, who recently retired from the Indian 
Meteorological Department, one of the, if not the, finest 
meteorological service that exists, gives his views on 
this subject, which should be read by all those interested 
in the welfare of meteorological science (Broad Views, 
March). : 
Dealing with the Indian area during the period 1892 
to 1902, he points out how these eleven years were 
unique in the history of Indian meteorology, but this 
condition was unfortunately disastrous to India. 
Not only did that extensive country suffer more severely 
from droughts and famines than during any other 
similar period for a hundred years at least, but it 
was paralleled, ‘‘so far as we are aware, only by the 
seven years of famine in Egypt in Biblical history.” 
More interesting still is it to find that the drought of 
1895 to 1902 ‘‘ was a more or less general meteor- 
ological feature of the whole area, including Abyssinia, 
East and South Africa, Persia, Baluchistan, Afghan- 
istan, India, probably Tibet, and the greater part or 
whole of Australia.’? Such a statement will probably 
recall the attention of our readers to an article pub- 
lished in this Journal (vol. Ixvii. p. 225), in which it 
was stated :—‘‘ Commencing with Indian pressures 
(as represented by Bombay), the area was gradually 
extended to Ceylon (Colombo), Java (Batavia), 
Mauritius, and finally to Australia (Perth, Adelaide and 
Sydney). The striking similarity between these curves 
shows that over the whole of this area, which includes 
both north and south latitudes, the same kind of vari- 
ation is in action, and therefore the whole region is 
intimately connected meteorologically.”” Sir John 
Eliot’s remarks thus indicate the truth of this result. 
In the article from which the above quotation was 
taken it was shown that while one hemisphere of the 
earth, which included Europe, southern Asia, Africa, 
India, and Australia, was experiencing high atmo- 
spheric pressure on the average, the other hemisphere, 
which included North and South America and Siberia, 
