164 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1285 



justors (central nervous organs) and effectors 

 (muscles or other organs that enable the ani- 

 mal to react on the environment). Of these, 

 effectors alone are found in sponges. " They 

 mark the beginnings of the neuromuscular 

 mechanism in that they possess the original 

 and most ancient of its constituents, muscle, 

 around which the remainder of the system is 

 supposed subsequently to have been evolved." 



Two chapters are devoted to the sponges, a 

 third to independent effectors in the higher 

 animals, and a fourth to a sluggish type of 

 non-nervous transmission (neuroid) that is 

 exhibited by sponges, ctenophores and prob- 

 ably by the ordinary tissues of animals. These 

 four chapters constitute the first of three 

 sections concerned respectively with effector 

 systems, receptor-effector systems, and central 

 nervous organs. 



Section two, comprising eight chapters, 

 deals with the neuro-muscular structure of, 

 and nervous transmission in, sea anemones, 

 iellyflshes and hydroids; the nerve net, of 

 which their nervous systems are in large part 

 representative, and which reappears also in 

 the higher animals, e. g., in connection with 

 the musculature of blood vessels and intestine ; 

 the diffuse transmission which characterizes 

 the nerve net; and its relation to the appro- 

 priation of food and other complex responses. 



The single chapter in section three discusses 

 by way of conclusion the relations of the ele- 

 mentary nervous system to the central nervous 

 system of the more complex animals, espe- 

 cially the evolution of that novel element in 

 the system, the central organ or adjuster, 

 which arises in the region between receptor 

 and effector and out of that material which in 

 the elementary system constitutes the nerve 

 net. 



General readers as well as special students 

 of science may congratulate themselves on the 

 publication of another book in the growing 

 list by American authors that is making ac- 

 cessible to them in unteohnical and attractive 

 form the latest episodes in scientific progress, 

 each with all the authority of a master in his 

 chosen field. 



Harry Beal Torrey 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



METEOROLOGY AS A SUBJECT FOR STUDY 



The great importance of weather in mili- 

 tary operations- early made current European 

 weather information a matter of military 

 secrecy, and put a premium on meteorologists. 

 The IT. S. Signal Corps met the demand by 

 training about 500 scientific and technical 

 men in meteorology ,2 and the Naval Aviation 

 Service trained about another 100.* Meteorol- 

 ogy was also introduced in some institutions 

 as part of the prescribed work of the S.A.T.O.,^ 

 but most of them had planned this work for 

 the second or third term, and so failed to 

 give it. 



Thus at the end of the war, in spite of the 

 stimulation, the amount of meteorological in- 

 struction given in the United States had 

 changed but little from its pre-war status: in 

 fact, the loss of instructors eliminated me- 

 teorology from the list of courses given at a 

 number of institutions. A recent survey of 

 the extent of instruction in meteorology in the 

 colleges and universities of the United States, 

 revealed only 70 (less than a sixth of the 

 number reporting) in which any course in me- 

 teorology or climatology were given; though 

 perhaps an additional third of the institutions 

 of higher learning in the coimtry touch on 

 meteorology in more general courses.® 



Nevertheless, the present demand for meteor- 

 ological information, particularly for special 

 aeronautical forecasts, is much greater than 

 ever before ; and the demand for more detailed 

 forecasts and for longer range ones has become 

 more insistent. Our institutions of higher 

 learning are already beginning to appreciate 



2 See R. DeC. Ward '3 articles on the influence of 

 weather on military operations: Bibliography in 

 Monthly Weather Review, February, 1919, Vol. 47, 

 pp. 84-85. 



3 See Monthly Weather Seview, December, 1918, 

 Vol. 46, pp. 560-562, and April, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 

 210-225. 



i Ibid., AprU, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 225-230. 



5 See the text-book written for this: "Introduc- 

 tory Meteorology," New Haven, 1918, 149 pp. 



6 For further details see Monthly Weather Se- 

 view, March, 1919, Vol. 47, pp. 169-170. 



