442 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1375 



bauer in Germany, and Sharp in. England, 

 and the general result in the Coleopterolog- 

 ical world has been one of some confusion. 

 These systems down to the present time have 

 not been thoroughly adjusted and Mr. Leng 

 had to make a compromise. This difficult 

 work he has done in an admirable manner, 

 as I am told by my expert friends and asso- 

 ciates, and ia his introduction he has dis- 

 cussed this subject at length. It is an enor- 

 mous improvement upon previously published 

 North American lists from the fact of this 

 painstaking and enlightening discussion which 

 must have taken an enormous amount of 

 work, as well as from the bibliographical 

 references to original descriptions of new 

 si)ecies and genera and the further citation of 

 synopses of monographs that have appeared. 

 The reference system is well handled, and the 

 bibliography, covering more than eighty pages, 

 is remarkably complete and well arranged. 



Of course, as one uses the catalogue from 

 day to day in his work, points will be brought 

 out which might suggest improvements, but 

 none have occurred to me in turning the 

 pages. Undoubtedly certain useful changes 

 have occurred to the author and his colleagues 

 in reading the proofs, but in the conditions 

 in the printing trade at this time the expense 

 of alterations is almost prohibitory; and at 

 any rate the defects, if there be any, must be 

 relatively unimportant. 



I have talked with several of my associates 

 who are intimately familiar with this group 

 of insects, and all are enthusiastic in their 

 praise of the book. Mr. Leng gives generous 

 acknowledgment of assistance from such au- 

 thorities as Messrs. Davis, Mutchler, Schwarz, 

 Barber, Bequaert, SchaefEer, Lutz and Boving; 

 and the fact that he has had the assistance of 

 these men intensifies the confidence which we 

 must have in his work. 



Although the price of the volume seems 

 high ($10), it is one of those absolutely in- 

 dispensable things. Every entomologist, in- 

 cluding the economic entomologist, must be 

 able to consult it; and all libraries must 

 have it. 



The reviewer anticipates with assurance a 



greatly increased interest in the group of 

 beetles. It is an order of the greatest interest. 

 The specimens are easily collected and are 

 easily preserved. Their compact form and 

 durable structure renders them much more 

 available for collections than any other group 

 of insects. They are much less fragile than 

 the others, and, while they apparently lack the 

 esthetic qualities that attract i)eople to butter- 

 flies and the larger moths, their structure is 

 beautifully adapted to their methods of life, 

 and they offer an easy field for the study of 

 certain aspects of broad biological problems. 



L. 0. Howard 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



METEOROLOGY AND BALLOON RACING 



I am relieved from my anxiety by hearing that 

 the adventurers descended well; . . . that they had 

 perfect command of the carriage, descending as 

 they pleas 'd by letting some of the inflammable air 

 escape. . . . Bad the wind blown fresh, they might 

 have gone much farther. — Franklin. 



The International Balloon Race of 1930. — 

 These words were written by Benjamin 

 Franklin after witnessing one of the first 

 free-balloon flights at Paris, and they are a 

 quaint epitome of the sentiment of free- 

 ballooning, both from the standpoint of the 

 public and that of the pilot. When one has 

 seen the start of a balloon race, with the great 

 silk-skinned bubles rising in the glow of the 

 lowering sun, and the ballast streaming down 

 from the baskets like slender cascades of gold 

 dust, then he may well appreciate the emotions 

 of Franklin in his anxiety for the safety of 

 the balloonists and in his admiration for the 

 skill and judgment required of them. But 

 it is the pilot who can best appreciate the 

 significance of the last statement — "had the 

 wind blown fresh, they might have gone much 

 farther." 



No more convincing proof of this can be 

 adduced than that which lies in the distribu- 

 tion of landing points in the International 

 Balloon Eace for the Gordon-Bennett cup, 

 which started from Birmingham, Alabama, 



