April i, 1909J 



NA TURE 



127 



including tlie " Generelle Morpliologie," and shows 

 jjs — rather by a statement of facts than by any 

 formal estimate— the influence Haeclcel has had on 

 modern biology and on the intellectual outlook 

 generally. He does not hesitate to quote the hardest 

 things that have been said of Haeckel's physics and 

 metaphysics, and even of his biology, but he gives 

 us something of the defence as well. The quotations 

 from irresponsible authors might have been left out, 

 as well as all the verses from " Jugend," " Kladder- 

 adatsch," and the like, which seem out of keeping 

 with the serious character of the book. It is a 

 restrained and careful piece of work, tending, 

 perhaps, to exaggerate the importance of Haeckel's 

 later writings, but marked by unusual objectivity and 

 impartiality of statement. There is an excellent 

 bibliography. 



\ cnWXation for Dwellings, Rural Schools and 

 Stables. Bv F. H. King. Pp. iv+128. (Madison, 

 Wis. : Published by the Author, 190S.) Price 75 

 cents. 

 Prof. King knows the value of experimental demon- 

 stration in explaining scientific principles, and makes 

 excellent use of it in his little book. The interesting 

 treatment of the facts upon which successful ventila- 

 tion depends, and the application of theoretical conclu- 

 sions to practical problems, should make the book 

 useful to a wide circle of readers. The supply of pure 

 air is of vital importance in all the circumstances 

 with which the book is concerned, and the volume 

 may be commended specially to parents, teachers, and 

 stock owners. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opiniom 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he 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 0/ anonymous communications.] 



Temperature of the Upper Atmosphere. 



Since my letters which appeared in Nature on March 12 

 and July 30, 1908, you have published various communica- 

 tions on this subject. In your issue of March 18, p. 68, 

 Mr. E. Gold contributes a mathematical calculation of the 

 possible size of the difference between the temperature of 

 the surrounding air and that of the balloon or the thermo- 

 meter. His conclusion, if I rightly understand him, is 

 that under the conditions which he postulates it is 

 impossible for a thermometer of the Hergesell pattern to 

 differ from the temperature of the surrounding air by 

 sensibly more than 2° C. 



In my last letter I specified actual cases in which 

 differences larger than 2° C. had been observed between 

 two thermometers of different types sent up with the same 

 balloon, on occasions when a comparison of falling and 

 rising readings seemed to show the impossibility of ex- 

 plaining this by mere errors of graduation. The causes 

 which Mr. Gold investigates would naturally affect the two 

 thermometers in the same direction, so that the difference 

 between them is presumably an underestimate — possibly a 

 large underestimate — of the disturbing influences exerted on 

 the thermometer most affected. This does not, of coursp, 

 necessarily invalidate the accuracy of Mr. Gold's work, 

 because the conditions which he postulates may have been 

 violated during the ascents in question ; but I have no 

 reason to suppose that I hit upon ascents which could 

 reasonably be regarded as of a wholly exceptional character 

 at the stations concerned. Out of the considerable number 

 of records which I examined, there were only a few which 

 gave data from two thermometers, and tliere seems no 

 reason to suppose that the physical conditions on these 



NO. 2057, VOL. 80] 



occasions were exceptional. Considering the many un- 

 certainties in the physical data available at present, I am 

 afraid that any mathematical calculation must be received 

 with considerable reserve so far as practical applications 

 are concerned. 



I am glad to see, both from his letter and from a recent 

 paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, that Mr. 

 Gold prefers to speak of an isothermal region rather than 

 of an isothermal layer ; but I would invite him and other 

 active meteorologists to take yet a second step, and dis- 

 card the term isothermal. What the instruments usually 

 suggest — rightly or wrongly — is, as I pointed out before, 

 not uniformity in temperature, but an inversion of tempera- 

 ture. It is surely ridiculous to apply the term isothermal 

 to the phenomena observed at Uccle on July 25, 1907, 

 during the highest ascent yet effected (Meteorologische 

 Zeitschrift, February, p. 88). During the ascent tempera- 

 ture fell from -I- 13°-5 C. at 360 metres to — 56°-8 at 12,112 

 metres. Then came, according to the records, an in- 

 version, temperature rising until at 26,557 metres, the 

 greatest height attained, it was — 42°.3, or 14J" C. 

 above the minimum. The temperatures recorded during 

 the fall agreed remarkably with those recorded at the same 

 heights during the ascent, thus affording — as is pointed 

 out in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift — strong support to 

 the view that the ventilation was throughout sufficient. It 

 is surely a misuse of words to apply the term isothermal 

 to a region of which different portions — according to the 

 only evidence available — differ in temperature bv at least 

 145° C. The records from some ascents even raise doubts 

 as to whether, above the height of inversion, the tempera- 

 ture gradient is always and everywhere very small. The 

 Uccle record above referred to showed a rise of 6° C. 

 during the ascent from 12,112 metres to 13,000 metres, 

 and a fall of 5°-6 C. during the descent from 13,000 metres 

 to 12,000 metres. C. Chree. 



Marcli 20. 



The Encouragement of Research. 



I TRUST that you will permit an appeal to be made to 

 those of your readers who believe that the encouragement 

 of scientific research is a matter of national as well as of 

 local importance. 



The new buildings erected by the council of this college 

 in the Cathays Park, Cardiff, are now approaching com- 

 pletion, and a special feature of those buildings is a 

 laboratory dedicated wholly to the purposes of scientific 

 research. 



The erection of the whole of the new -college buildings, 

 according to the designs of Mr. Caroe, would involve an 

 outlay of close upon 250,000/. The council has not con- 

 sidered it possible, at the present time, to undertake such 

 an expenditure, but has sanctioned the completion of the 

 buildings assigned to the arts, the administrative and the 

 educational departments, the library, and the research 

 laboratory. The erection and equipment of this portion 

 of the buildings involves an expenditure of nearly 140,000!.. 

 of which about 100,000/. has been secured. A special and 

 strenuous effort is now being made to raise from local 

 sources the 40,000/. immediately required. 



In such circumstances it is felt that any attempt to 

 secure in this district, at the present time, the amount 

 necessary for the equipment and modest endowment of the 

 research laboratory might react injuriously upon the pro- 

 spects of the special effort to which reference has already 

 been made. 



I venture, therefore, to appeal to those of your readers 

 who, although not directly interested in educational 

 matters in this district, feel that the encouragement of 

 respnrch is a national duty, to assist the movement for 

 obtaining the necessary equipment for the suitable and 

 handsome edifice which is being provided by local 

 cenerosity and dedicated by the council of the college to 

 the purposes of scientific investigation. 



.\ collection of physical apparatus has already been pre- 

 sented to the laboratory, but as it is of a somewhat 

 specialised nature it can only be regarded as a nucleus. 



.All donations received in answer to this appeal will be 

 devoted solely to the equipment and upkeep of the research 



