488 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1324 



on the part of his friends and himself could 

 have induced him to write this letter, from 

 which I take the following extracts : 



..." The middle classes are suffering 

 frightfully in the present depreciation of 

 money. Our salaries (which are for the pres- 

 ent being paid) seem high according to the 

 figures, but they are insufficient for the pur- 

 chase of even the ordinary necessities of life. 

 We may, for instance, possibly once a week 

 have a bit of meat, but for the rest of the 

 time we have to rejoice if we can get enough 

 bad bread and vegetables to appease hunger. 

 Sugar is enormously dear and never to be had 

 in sufficient quantities. Clothing we can not 

 buy, for a single simple suit would cost more 

 than a month's salary. It is the same with 

 underclothes and shoes. "What our present 

 conditions will lead to in the near future it 

 is impossible to conceive." 



..." You can imagine it is in the highest 

 degree painful for me to write you such a 

 letter, and only real suffering would justify 

 it." 



..." While we are suffering in Austria 

 from actual need of food, packages of food 

 sent by individuals in America rarely reach 

 their destination. Money is practically of no 

 value, for there is little food to be purchased 

 with it." 



Professor , whose name I withhold, 



writes that the American Relief Administra- 

 tion (whose office in this country is at 115 

 Broadway, New York), has established an 

 American food warehouse in Vienna, from 

 which food is distributed that has been 

 shipped from this country. 



Jas. Lewis Howe 



Washington and Lee XjNivERSirr, 

 Lexington, Virginia 



journals for prague 

 To THE Editor of Science: Dr. M. Kojima, 

 surgeon-commander, Japanese Navy, has but 

 now arrived from Teh echo- Slovak where he 

 visited Professor A. Biedl. The latter has 

 sent through him a message to American 

 scientists asking if they can arrange to have 

 sent to him the various scientiiic publications 



and periodicals, since he is unable to pur- 

 chase the same on account of the rate of ex- 

 change, lack of funds, and general disturbed 

 conditions in Tchecho- Slovak. It seems to 

 me that the least we can do is to arrange 

 through our editing boards some procedure 

 by which Dr. Biedl may receive current 

 numbers of our scientific periodicals. I would 

 appreciate greatly your giving this communi- 

 cation publicity in " Science." Dr. Biedl's 

 address is Das Institute fur Experimentelle 

 Pathologie, Prag, Tchecho- Slovak. 



Frederick S. Hammett 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY 



the supposed recurrent irregularities in 

 the annual march of temperature 



" The belief that periods of unseasonable 

 heat and cold tend to recur at or about the 

 same time from year to year has prevailed 

 over a great part of the world for many cen- 

 turies and has been the subject of extensive 

 scientific investigation." This is the opening 

 sentence in an extensive, scholarly discussion 

 of the " Literature concerning supposed recur- 

 rent irregularities in the annual March of 

 temperature," by C. Fitzhugh Talman, li- 

 brarian of the Weather Bureau.^ 



Most of the literature deals with a cold 

 period in May. 



Over a considerable part of continental Europe 

 it tas been popularly believed since the Middle 

 Ages that destructive frosts were likely to occur 

 at a certain period in the month of May, and with 

 the elaboration of the ecclesdastical calendar these 

 frosts became definitely associated with the days 

 dedicated to Saints Mamertus, Pancras and Ser- 

 vatius (May 11, 12, 13), or, in south-central Eu- 

 rope, Saints Pancras, Servatius and Boniface 

 (May 12, 13, 14), hence known as the "ice saints." 

 . . . With the construction of synoptic weather 

 charts, the barometric conditions that accompany 

 depressions of temperature gradually became ap- 

 parent. . . . [This cold period] was found to occur 

 when, owing to the rapid warming of the laud re- 

 gions as compared with the ocean, a center of low 

 barometric pressure develops over southeastern 

 Europe while high pressure prevails over the ocean 



6 Monthly Weather Seview, August, 1919, Vol. 

 47, pp. 555-565. 



