April i 5, 1880] 



NATURE 



565 



of the eighteenth century it had begun to develop itself 

 on an enormously great scale, to lands where ground 

 could be obtained at a cheaper rate. In his first research 

 on chlorine Scheele observed its bleaching property, which 

 was carefully investigated by him, only however for the- 

 oretical, not for practical purposes. But ten years after- 

 wards the discovery was practically applied by the 

 French chemist Berthollet, who showed that manufac- 

 turers possessed in chlorine an invaluable means of giving 

 cloth the desired whiteness by a simple chemical treatment 

 within the manufactory itself. Now for the first time was 

 it possible for the cotton industry to attain the enormous 

 development, the immense social and political importance 

 which the nineteenth century has witnessed. Chloroform 

 and chloral, &c, are obtained by the action of chlorine on 

 organic substances; by the action of chlorine on lime and 

 potash are obtained chlorides and chlorates — all substances 

 of incalculable importance for theoretical and practical 

 chemistry, for medicine and the arts. Thus in the history 

 of the natural sciences one discovery is linked with an- 

 other, and the new truth which to-day seems devoid of 

 importance to-morrow becomes a lever for advancing the 

 happiness and well-being of the million. 



The second of the works in question is separately 

 printed, first in German, with the title, " Carl Wilhelm 

 Scheele's, d. konigl. Schwed. Acad. d. wissenschaft. 

 Mitgliedes.'chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem 

 Feuer. Nebst eincm Vorbericht von Torbern Bergman, 

 Chem. und Pharm. Prof, und Ritter, verschied. Societ. 

 Mitglied, Upsala und Leipzig," 1777.' In the introduction, 

 dated 13th July, 1777, Bergman says that the work in 

 question had been ready nearly two years, though various 

 circumstances had delayed its printing, and in a letter to 

 Bergman, preserved in the Library at L T psala, Scheele 

 complains bitterly of the publisher Svederus' procrasti- 

 nation. Various of the most important observations 

 recorded in this work had been already made during the 

 examination of the black oxide of manganese (177 1-1774). 

 From all this it follows that Scheele's discovery of oxygen, 

 of nitrogen,- and of the composition of atmospheric air 

 took place simultaneously with Priestley's, and that both 

 these investigators reached the same goal by widely 

 separated paths. Lavoisier too is often, but incorrectly, 

 named as the discoverer of oxygen. On the other hand, 

 it was his genius that laid Priestley's and Scheele's 

 discovery as the foundation for the new and still existing 

 fabric of knowledge. While Scheele and Priestlev, 3 who 

 made the fundamental discovery on which the new' theory 

 was founded, remained at the old stand-point, this 

 discovery was estimated by Lavoisier at its true value, 

 and it thus became a veritable turning-point in the 

 history of science. But the numerous ingenious experi- 

 ments by which Scheele proved the propositions advanced 

 by him at the very beginning of his treatise on " Fire and 

 Air" that the air is composed of two different gases, still 

 to this day are the corner-stones in the new fabric of 

 science, and most of them are still repeated in every 

 series of lectures on the subjects in question. 



Death broke off Scheele's scientific path the same 

 year that the work was printed in which Lavoisier 

 distinctly rejected the phlogiston theorv, and three years 

 before the first edition of his " Traite" Elementaire de 



,hl «'° 5 !r °J . Sd > ee,e ' s w ° rks "W fi^t printed in the Transactions of 

 he Swedtsh Academy of Sciences, but «cre immediately after translated 

 into foreign languages. After his death his collected works were published 

 m Latin under the title "Opuscula Physica et Chemica." Lipsi. 

 tits short papers, in which important discoveries 



but 



snort papers, in which important discoveries are often stated and (mW 

 .U^SF.i. ^ "" Pe "i """"Pieces, not only inrespect of their contents. 

 a»oof their form and mode of exposition. "Ses memoircs sont s,ni 



. exposition. "Ses me"moircs sont 



modele comme sans imiuteurs ! ' (Dumas' •• Philosophie Chftnique." p. 06) 

 * The Scotch phy>,.i.ui Daniel Rutherford has also great credit in connVe- 

 aonwith Rediscovery of nitrogen. He showed in ,772 thai 

 t maintain combustion, remained after the 1 



gas. which c 



was withdrawn by 1 «f causae potr.sh frcr; the air'expred 



*a.n?„"of,h, R " ,herf ? r t h0WeVer d,d not carr >' out ™Y f ""«" i-vesti. 

 gallon ot the nature of this gas 



inlL rie f ,le . y f ysiQh 'e laS e "''""*• " Mr Scheele's discovery was certainly 

 independent of mine, though I believe not made quite so early." 



Chimie, present^ dans un Ordre Nouveau, et d'apres les 

 Decouvertes Modemes" appeared. If a prolonged 

 activity had been granted him, if he had made 

 acquaintance not only with isolated propositions from 

 the new theory, but with the fully-developed and com- 

 pleted system, would he have adopted the new theory, 

 and with it as a starting-point gone forward to new and 

 splendid victories in the field of research, or would 

 he, like Priestley, have obstinately stood by the old views ? 

 To this question no positive answer can of course be 

 given. But the whole direction of Scheele's activity as a 

 man of science tells in favour of the former alternative, 

 and even much in his peculiar theories which, if we 

 except his attempt to include heat among chemical sub- 

 stances, have many points of contact with current ideas. 

 One thing in any case is certain. He has done enough to 

 earn a place in the first rank of the men of science of 

 all times and of all lands, and his name shall always form 

 one of the grandest memories of his native country. 



THE UNITED STATES WEATHER MAPS, 

 APRIL TO JULY, 1878 



HPHIS week we have the pleasure of presenting our 

 - 1 readers, by the courtesy of General Myer, with the 

 International Weather Map for July 1S78, showing for that 

 month the mean pressure, temperature, force, and pre- 

 vailing direction of the wind. This is the fourth consecutive 

 number of the series, which began with April of that 

 year, and may be regarded as completing the record of 

 the great outstanding features of those changes which 

 characterised the weather of the northern hemisphere 

 in its transition from the spring to the summer of 1878. 1 

 We shall here chiefly consider the departures from the 

 averages deduced from the curves and figures of the 

 Weather Maps, seeing that these well represent the 

 great seasonal movements of the atmosphere, together 

 with those meteorological conditions which rule the 

 changes of weather occurring in the different regions 

 of the globe on which the welfare and prosperitv of 

 nations so intimately depend. 



The map for April showed very large deviations from 

 the average atmospheric pressure in all quarters of the 

 globe. Pressure was under the average over North 

 America, Greenland, the Atlantic to south of Iceland, 

 the north of Africa, over Europe south of a line drawn 

 from the north of Scotland to the Sea of Azov ; over the 

 valley of the Obi and southwards to lat. 4.0'; over New 

 Zealand and Australia, and northward to the Philippines ; 

 and probably also over a large part of the Indian Ccean,' 

 including Mauritius and the eastern part of South Africa. 

 Elsewhere pressure was in excess of the average, but 

 most markedly over the north and east of Europe, and 

 the whole of Asia had a pressure above the normal, 

 except the narrow patch already referred to in the 

 extreme west of Siberia and Turkistan. 



Of these disturbances in the distribution of the earth's 

 atmosphere, by far the most remarkable was the depression 

 in the heart of the Atlantic, midway between Spain and 

 New York, which amounted nearly to half an inch. 

 Round and in upon this area of losv pressure the wind 

 blew in the usual way, bringing warmth to the region lying 

 to eastward and cold weather to regions lying to west* 

 ward. On proceeding westward pressure rose, till on the 

 coast of the United States it was only ab.mt the sixth of 

 an inch below the normal ; but proceeding further in a 

 north-westerly direction through the region of the Lakes, 

 the depression gradually again deepened, till near Lake 

 Winnipeg it fell to full a quarter of an inch below the 

 average. The result to the States was an unusual pre- 

 valence of southerly winds r a large rainfall for this spring 

 month, and a temperature everywhere high for the season, 

 rising in the N.W. States to io"'6 above the average. 



1 These Weather Maps have appeared in Natire as follows ;— April, No. 

 53S. May, No. 538, and June, No. 543. 



