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Say Oa 

| Suly 27, 1877] 
NATURE 
255 

central storm, to 7 and 6, at the outer edge of the bad weather, 
but which, instead of blowing in ever enlarging circles farther 
and farther out from one common centre, are always converging 
to that centre, and on all sides gradually increasing, until, at a 
certain distance from the central calm, they acquire the force of 
a hurricane (12), and thence inwards blow with great violence in 
what, in all probability, is as nearly as may be a circle. It is 
these converging lines of wind that are, I think, likely to lead 
men into error as to the position of the centre of the storm. 
In the remarks I make I shall, to prevent confusion, confine 
myself to cyclones south of the equator, every one acquainted 
with the cyclonic theory knowing that the inverse of rules for 
the guidance of seamen in the southern hemisphere will be the 
rules for their guidance in the northern hemisphere. Let us 
suppose that a ship bound to Europe arrives at the point marked 
* in the outer converging curve traced on my diagram, the wind 
being N.E. with force 7, that is, double reefs and jib—barometer 
falling, sky overcast, confused swell, and, in short, every appear- 
ance of bad weather—lat. 12° S., long. 70° E.—What ought 
her commander to do? ‘ Teave to on the port tack,’ says one, 
‘and wait for the weather to clear.’ ‘ Run to the S.W.,’ says 
another, ‘and make use of the storm.’ Being a pushing fellow, 
he makes up his mind to run, and, truth to say, there are as 
many reasons for approving that proceeding as for finding fault 
with it. If he succeeds in making use of the hurricane, he is 
considered a smart fellow ; if he runs into it, and is dismasted 
or worse, ‘rash,’ ‘headstrong,’ ‘ignorant,’ &c., are the best 
terms he can look for; and yet he might as easily have been 
wrong in heaving to as inrunning, The wind being N.E., he 
infers that the centre bears N.W. He considers that the baro- 
meter and weather indicate that he is on the S.E. edge of 
a cyclone—the N.E. wind upon which he is running forming 
part of a circular storm, and that necessarily the centre is 
N.W. of him. Considering, further, that in that lat. and 
long. the storm is probably travelling W.S.W., he thinks 
that if he runs S.W. he will be diverging from it, and, 
that by making use of the storm he will get fine runs per- 
haps for days tou come. But if the N.E. wind be only converg- 
ing towards the fearful storm raging near the centre, that centre, 
in the first place, bears W. by N. 4N., instead of N.W., so that 
the vessel, by steering S. W. is not diverging from the centre, as 
was supposed, but is really drawing nearer to it. In due time 
the weather gets worse from this very cause ; the wind veers 
more to the eastward, the barometer continues to fall, and the 
captain begins to doubt whether the storm may not after all be 
progressing more to the southward than he supposed ; whether, 
indeed, it may not, although so far to the eastward, be actually 
recurving, and he naturally becomes anxious and uncertain what 
todo. If he decides on running at all risks, he finds the wind 
still drawing at first more and more easterly, and then more and 
more southerly, always increasing in fury, and the sea becoming 
more and more heavy and tumultuous. But run he must now, 
and he must run dead before it, and being on what I have sup- 
posed a line of wind converging to a centre, he finishes by getting 
into the real hurricane, and loss and disaster are imminent. He 
may, however, if his ship be tight and staunch and runs well, 
get round to the N.W. side of the storm, and so get clear, 
probably with loss of spars and sail ; but he has clearly run into 
what he was running to avoid, because he was under the im- 
pression that winds within the influence of a cyclone, although 
far from its centre, blew in circles round that centre, the wind 
everywhere clearly indicating the exact, ornearly exact, position 
of that centre. 
dence for the consideration of seamen and cyclonists, I am not 
These opinions I submit with very great diffi-- 
going to attempt the setting up of any dogmatic theory of my | 
own, but I am inclined to think this theory of converging winds 
will probably account for the manner in which many vessels 
have become entangled in hurricanes when seeking toavoid them 
according to cyclonic rules. Like all other theories on this very 
important subject, it requires very careful consideration ; but 
there can be no possible risk in deducing from it the rule that 
vessels on approaching what the barometer, the state of the | 
weather, and the force of the wind, clearly indicate as the 
dangerous side of a cyclone, should, in seeking to avoid it, keep 
the wind quite four points on the port quarter. With the wind thus 
free, a fast ship would run with great rapidity through the water, 
and, unless the storm were advancing on her in a direct line, 
would be always increasing her distance from its centre, and 
getting into finer weather, and, in any case, would have a very 
good chance of running across its track and thus avoiding it. 

Ships running into cyclones on their equatorial sides are to a very 
great extent without excuse. There are, however, some ex- 
ceptional instances ;_ but they are very rare.” The chairman, in 
thanking Captain Wales for his interesting and valuable com- 
munication, expressed the hope that the important suggestions it 
contained would be taken advantage of by seamen, and prove to 
be serviceable to them in their attempts to avoid the dangerous 
parts of cyclones. The diagram prepared by Captain Wales 
fully explained how it might happen that a vessel, by seeking to 
keep away from the centre of what was considered a circular 
storm, would be actually running into it. The secretary was glad 
that the subject had been taken up by a sailor of long experience 
and of great practical knowledge and skill, and he had no doubt 
that Captain Wales’s remarks would receive the serious attention 
they merited. In various papers published during the last fifteen 
years, he (the secretary) had often called attention to the incury- 
ing of the wind in cyclones, and to the losses occasioned by 
acting upon the supposition that the bearing of the centre was 
at right angles to the direction of the wind; and he believed 
that it was now beginning to be admitted that the movement of 
the air in a cyclone was not at all represented by concentric 
circles, but by a figure similar to that sketched by Captain Wales, 
The description given by Captain Wales of the way in which 
vessels might get involved in a cyclone, whilst acting according 
to accepted rules, applied to many cases which actually occurred. 
Captain Wales had framed a practical rule based upon observed 
facts, and it was for seamen to test its value, 
PaRIs 
Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, July 14. 
Two seats of associés libres, vacant by the death of MM. 
Prosper Merimée and Deheque, have been filled at the recent 
sittings. M. Merimée’s seat was given to M. de Robert, and 
M. Deheque’s to M. Thomas Henry Martin, director of the 
Academy at Rennes. This gentleman has written many valuable 
volumes on interesting points of history ; among others, ‘‘On 
the Physical Opinions of the Greeks and Romans.” He was 
one of the few French savants opposed to M. Chasles’ famous 
letters of Newton, and has written a pamphlet on the subject. 
Academie des Scientes, July 17.—M. Faye in the chair. A 
committee was appointed to discuss the respective merits of 
several candidates for a free associate membership. The com- 
mittee was composed of MM. Combes and Bertrand for the sec- 
tion of mathematical sciences, MM. Chevreul and Boussingault 
for the section of physical sciences, MM. Raulin and Bussy for 
the free members, ‘The chairman of the committee is de jure 
M. Faye. When a report is to be drawnjon the respective merits 
of ordinary members, the committee is composed from the sec- 
tion to which the late member belonged in his lifetime. In the 
secret committee held after the public sitting, a discussion was 
raised as to several candidatures, and it was impossible to come 
to any definite conclusion.—M. Lacaze Duthiers, a professor at 
the museum, who claims a seat in the section of zoology, read a 
paper on a new organ of nervous power which he has discovered 
in certain gasteropods living in water. This organ is placed 
behind the cesophagus, and at all events its dimensions are very 
small indeed. The Academy has appointed a committee to report 
on the prize Bordin, which is to be awarded this year for the 
best paper on the function of the stomata in the leaves of plants. 
—On the 3rd of October, 1870, M. Egger proposed the transla- 
tion of the four books on Optics by Ptolemy, which were trans- 
lated from Arabic into Latin, and of which two copies exist 
amongst the MSS. in the National Library. This suggestion 
was not lost, as the Royal Academy of Turin passed a resolution 
to raise the funds required for its publication. Other copies of 
the same Latin translation are also to be found in the 
Ambrose Library at Milan, and will be usel for the pur- 
pose. The translation is very difficult, having been un- 
successfully attempted once in Italian, and once in 
French.—M. Leverrier presented a report on the observation 
of falling stars, for August 1869. The phenomenon was observed 
in twenty-seven different stations, viz. Agde, Barcelona, Bor- 
deaux, Chartres, Chebli (Algiers), Genoa, Grenoble, Le Guerche 
(Cher), Larenore (Basses Pyrenées), Le Mans, Lyons, Mar- 
seilles, Mer (Loire et Cher), Metz, Moncalieri, Montpelier, Nice, 
Orange, Perpignan, Rochefort, Sainte Honorine (Calvados), 
Toulon, Toulouse, Tremont, Turin, Valencia, Observations 
were made by competent observers with correct chronometers, 
and special maps prepared by the Association Scientifique de 

