May 26, 1899. ] 



SCIENCE. 



743 



This peculiar style of the Indian flageolet 

 I have not met with, except among the In- 

 dians of the United States, and those chiefly 

 west of the Mississippi. There are whistles 

 made of bone, stone or other materials by 

 the Indians of the United States which are of 

 the European character and they may have 

 been known before the coming of the Euro- 

 peans. But the peculiar construction of 

 the flageolet I have described is so different 

 from the common form that I have no 

 doubt of its entirely Indian origin. 



E. H. Hawley. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Traite elementaire de meteorologie. Par Alfred 



Angot. Paris, Gauthier-Villars. 1899. Pp. 



vi + 417. Price, 12 francs. 



Professor Angot occupies the position of 

 meteorologist to the French Bureau Central 

 Meteorologique, and is so well known to meteor- 

 ological workers the world over, that a formal 

 treatise from his pen will receive careful con- 

 sideration. It, is not too much to say that 

 Angot is to-day the foremost meteorologist in 

 France, and as such his treatise will be con- 

 sidered au authority in his own country. The 

 question naturally arises : Does the book repre- 

 sent the meteorology of to-day ? 



The author in his preface explains that he is 

 not giving a complete treatise on meteorology, 

 but merely a non-mathematical presentation of 

 the elements of the science. The subject of 

 meteorological instruments and their use has 

 been excellently presented by the author in his 

 ' Instructions meteorologique,' and he has 

 omitted this from his present treatise ; thus hav- 

 ing more space to devote to the results of me- 

 teorological observations and theories. 



Professor Angot remarks that little attention 

 is paid to instruction in meteorology in the in- 

 stitutions of learning in France, and he refers 

 to the contrast existing in the United States, 

 where ' a great number of special chairs are 

 devoted to meteorology in the high schools 

 as well as in the universities.' I must say that 

 I am surprised to learn of this activity in the 

 study of meteorology in our country, for my 



own observation has revealed an almost utter 

 indifference, in fact the indifference which 

 comes from ignorance, to the claims of meteor- 

 ology on the part of those who have the say of 

 what shall and what shaiSl not be taught in our 

 schools and colleges. If there is any institu- 

 tion in the United States, except Harvard Uni- 

 versity, that devotes $500 a year to meteoro- 

 logical instruction I have not yet heard of it ; 

 and, looking at the matter from another point 

 of view, it may be remarked that our pub- 

 lishers who have brought out works on ele- 

 mentary meteorology express a disinclination 

 to have their fingers burned by a repetition of 

 the experiment. 



Angot has divided his work into five books, 

 which follow a brief introduction. Book I. 

 treats of the Temperature ; Book II. of the 

 Atmospheric Pressure and Wind ; Book III. of 

 the Water in the Atmosphere ; Book IV. of the 

 Disturbances in the Atmosphere ; Book V. of 

 the Forecasting of the Weather and Meteoro- 

 logical Periods. 



In the introduction the author explains the 

 derivation of average values, the various 

 periodic changes which occur in meteorology 

 and the significance of interpolation. 



Under the heading Temperature there is 

 given first an excellent chapter on actinometry, 

 which is followed by the usual treatment of the 

 periodic diurnal and annual changes of tempera- 

 ture, and their variations with change of alti- 

 tude, latitude and continental or oceanic sur- 

 roundings, and the distribution of temperature 

 over the earth's surface. An unusually full 

 section treating of the influence of temperature 

 on vegetation, and a quite lengthy chapter on 

 the temperature of the soil and water surface 

 closes this book. The charts representing the 

 geographical distribution of the temperature 

 (and the other elements) show the convergence 

 of the meridians, and are consequently an im- 

 provement on the ordinary Mercator's projec- 

 tion. 



The treatment of the barometric pressure is 

 especially full as regards the diurnal variation ; 

 and, as was to have been expected, the cause of 

 the semi-diurnal oscillation is referred to as still 

 unknown. 



The general conceptions concerning the direc- 



