114 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1283 



individual student on the other hand. It is 

 hard to see how cut and dried laboratory ex- 

 periments, with all materials measured out in 

 advance ready to be put together, can interest 

 an intelligent student so much as experiments 

 performed on the lecture table. 



The writer realizes that many will deem 

 him guilty of heresy even for putting the 

 question: Do we give too much laboratory 

 work in our science courses? If it becomes 

 necessary on account of expense to so stand- 

 ardize the laboratory work that it loses nearly 

 all its stimulus, were it not better to omit 

 laboratory from the program until at least the 

 point is reached where experiments described 

 earlier as of the sustained type apply? 



Some students are at school or college for 

 a general liberal education — not to specialize 

 in science. How shall they be treated if they 

 elect to study the elements of chemistry? Is 

 the expense of even a standardized and dena- 

 tured laboratory course justified ? When chem- 

 istry is chosen mainly for the object of in- 

 tellectual development does not the class room 

 work without the laboratory serve the pur- 

 pose? Indeed does it not require a higher 

 order of intelligence to visualize a chemical 

 phenomenon from a text-book statement alone, 

 than from a laboratory demonstration ? 



The writer has ventured to raise questions 

 in the foregoing some of which have an ob- 

 vious answer, others of which have been 

 viewed for more than a generation in a uni- 

 form dogmatic manner, but ought now to be 

 reopened and reconsidered on their real merits. 

 The Freas System involves these questions, 

 and it constitutes a compromise between two 

 unreconcilable conditions. So far as the evi- 

 dence presented in the article referred to goes, 

 it seems like the case in which the compro- 

 mise was effected by one party acceding to all 

 the demands of the other. However, a mis- 

 conception may have been gained from the first 

 article of the series and the other numbers 

 should be awaited with interest. 



Furthermore, if an issue seems capable of 

 adjustment only through an unsatisfactory 

 compromise, is it not the part of wisdom to 



to see if perhaps the issue itself ought not 

 be reconstructed in such a manner as to avoid 

 the necessity of a compromise. 



Aethur a. Blanchaed 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology 



meteorology and the trans-atlantic 



FLIGHT 



Within the past few months many millions 

 of people have had their attention directed, 

 as never before, to the importance of meteor- 

 ological conditions in connection with the 

 question of trans-Atlantic flight. A popu- 

 lar interest has thus been aroused which has 

 been but partially satisfied by the often 

 contradictory and usually rather meager in- 

 formation supplied by the daily newspapers. 

 Many persons doubtless have a real desire to 

 inform themselves more fully in regard to the 

 weather conditions which are likely to be met 

 with at various altitudes over the North At- 

 lantic Ocean. A recent paper on " Trans-At- 

 lantic Plight from the Meteorologists' Point 

 of View "^ brings together, in compact form, 

 just the sort of information of which the in- 

 telligent public is in search. The author, 

 Willis E. Gregg, of the Weather Bureau, was 

 actively concerned as a meteorological expert 

 in connection with the flight of the TJ. S. 

 l^avy planes. The fact that Mr. Gregg's 

 article was in print before the recent trans- 

 Atlantic flights were accomplished does not 

 in any way detract from its interest or value. 



Mr. Gregg's chief conclusions are as follows : 

 Pavorable conditions of wind and weather are 

 necessary for the safety of airplanes which at- 

 tempt the trans-Atlantic flight. In order to 

 obtain the requisite knowledge of the prevail- 

 ing atmospheric conditions, frequent and 

 widely-distributed observations are necessary. 

 When a favorable day comes, the meteorolog- 

 ical expert can indicate the successive direc- 

 tions toward which the airplane should be 

 headed in order to keep to any desired course, 

 and can also calculate the assistance which the 

 winds will furnish. Pavorable conditions for 

 an eastward crossing are foimd at 500-1,000 



reexamine the conditions underlying the issue i Mo. Wea. Bev., Vol. 47, 1919, pp. 65-75. 



