oot 
PROF. CLEVELAND ABBE. 
as death of Cleveland Abbe near Washing- 
ton, D.C., on October 28, in the seventy- 
eighth year of his age, makes a gap of a special 
character in the ranks of meteorologists, and par- 
ticularly among those who use the English lan- 
guage. From 1871 until August last, when he 
retired, Abbe was professor of meteorology in the 
United States Weather Bureau. That is the title 
which the bureau- gives to the professional 
meteorologists on its staff. Born and educated 
in New York, he had been a teacher of mathe- 
matics in New York and of engineering at the 
State University, Ann Arbor, Michigan. From 
there he went to Harvard University, 1860-64, 
being at the same time aid in the U.S. Coast 
Survey under B. A. Gould; thence to the Central 
Observatory of the Russian Meteorological Ser- 
vice at Petrograd for two years; aid in the U.S. 
Naval Observatory, 1867—68, and director of the 
Cincinnati Observatory, 1868-73. 
The work at the Weather Bureau for which he 
is best known is the editing of the Monthly 
Weather Review, which was in his charge from 
1893 until his retirement, with a break of a few 
years from 1go9, during which the Bulletin of 
Mount Weather Observatory took its place. Be- 
sides original papers, it includes the best monthly 
epitome of progress in meteorology in English, 
and ranks for that purpose with the Meteoro- 
logische Zeitschrift. This work gave Abbe an 
unrivalled knowledge of meteorological literature. 
He was a sort of college-tutor for the Weather 
Bureau, and with his encyclopedic knowledge he 
was to a large extent the force behind the organ- 
isation. He was a very keen advocate of the 
study of dynamical meteorology. Every student 
of the subject knows his collections of transla- 
tions into English of classical papers in French 
and German which are published by the Smith- 
sonian Institution. He founded a meteorological 
library at Johns Hopkins University and was pro- 
fessor of meteorology in the George Washington 
University of Washington. He was specially the 
promoter of meteorology. We owe to his instiga- 
tion the installation by the Meteorological Office 
of the station now in operation at St. Helena. 
He wrote a large volume on the Maryland 
Weather Service, with a discourse upon aims and 
methods. That represents his interest. In an 
article in the “Encyclopedia Britannica” it is 
the observation of clouds at sea that claims atten- 
tion. He took part in a number of scientific ex- 
peditions for eclipses and other purposes, and he 
started the reform in civil time, reckoning by 
even hours from the Greenwich meridian, a reform 
~ which in Europe has over-shot itself into ‘sum- 
mer-time.”’ 
Abbe’s services to meteorology were recognised 
by the Royal Meteorological Society by the award 
of the Symons Medal in 1912. He was a man of 
most genial. disposition. His wife, the daughter 
of W. G. H. Percival, of St. Kitts, whom he 
NO. 2461, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 
[DECEMBER 28, 1916 
married in 1rgog, survives him., One of the sons 
of his first marriage, Cleveland Abbe, junior, suc- 
ceeds him as editor at the Weather Bureau. 
i Napier SHAW. 
NOTES. 
OrriciAL information has been received from Paris 
that from January 1, 1917, the millibar (1000 C.G.S. 
units) will be used in the publications of the Bureau 
Central Météorologique for atmospheric pressure, in- 
stead of the millimetre of mercury. The same unit 
has been in use in the publications of the British 
Meteorological Office since the beginning of 1914; the 
Colonies of British Guiana and Mauritius have already 
adopted the unit, and it has also been used in some 
of the publications of the Weather Bureau of the 
United States, of Harvard University (Blue Hill Ob- 
servatory), and of Berkeley University, California. The 
question raised by Prof. McAdie, of Blue Hill, as to 
whether the proper name for the unit is not a ‘‘ kilobar”’ 
has still to be considered, on the ground that the name 
“bar was already appropriated by chemists to mean 
1 dyne per sq. cm. It is one of the questions which 
should have been discussed at an international meet- 
ing projected for September, 1914. 
AN interesting discussion took place in the House 
of Lords on Wednesday, December 20, on a motion by 
Lord Sudeley requesting H.M. Government to take 
the steps necessary to provide funds to enable the 
Imperial Institute to carry out its functions adequately 
and completely. Lord Sudeley pointed out that, 
although the institute’s work is of great importance 
in connection with the war and with the development 
of the resources of the Empire, and though these ser- 
vices have been publicly acknowledged in various ways, 
yet the institute is greatly hampered in its work by 
want of funds. The motion was supported by Lord 
Rathcreedon, who gave some examples of the insti- 
tute’s work, and emphasised the need for more funds 
and more space in order that full advantage may be 
taken of the organisations which the institute has de- 
veloped for the investigation of the resources of the 
Empire and the dissemination of information regard- 
ing them. Viscount Haldane, whilst in sympathy with 
the motion, pointed out that so far as research is con- 
cerned care must be taken to secure co-operation with 
the work of the Advisory Council for Scientific and 
Industrial Research, as otherwise confusion might 
arise. In his reply Lord Islington gave an account of 
the developments which have taken place at the Impe- 
rial Institute since the passing of the new Manage- 
ment Act eight months ago. Committees are being 
appointed by the various Dominions and Colonies to 
consider their needs and interests, and the special com- 
mittee for India has been requested by the Govern- 
ment of India to undertake an important inquiry into 
the possibility of increasing the usage of Indian raw 
materials within the Empire. A number of technical 
committees has also been formed to advise with regard 
to investigations and other work on minerals, timbers, 
silk, rubber, etc. 
work in close co-operation with the newly established 
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 
especially in those cases where more purely scientific 
investigation is needed. The question of funds is 
being carefully considered, and the Executive Council 
of the institute intends to approach the Government 
in due course with a statement of needs, in order that 
the work may be maintained and, as opportunity 
offers, developed. It is hoped that further support 
The Executive Council also hopes to — 
i i 
