April 29, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



609 



those just given that the reader will obtain a 

 glimpse, faint and imperfect though it may be, 

 of a single day's doings at Penikese." 



The description of the Physalia is unique 

 and especially good : "As we have no speci- 

 men before us, let us try, through the medium 

 of the ' dead languages,' a little induction a pos- 

 teriori, and discover, if we can, what our speci- 

 men is really like." 



"At first sight, the Portugese man-of-war 

 would put one in mind, as the name suggests, 

 of an immense bubble of air. " * * "It stings us 

 with an electric stroke." * * "The true home 

 of this living, floating island is in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, ' ' etc. The author says he found a speci- 

 men, which 'threw off a whole tankful of 

 young, which went paddling around every- 

 where of their own free will, as happy as clams 

 at high water. ' 



Aside from a few errors in spelling and the 

 misstatement of a few well-known historical 

 facts, we offer no further adverse criticism, 

 though in closing we cannot refrain from quo- 

 ting from page 64, where the author says : 

 ^'Well do I remember how often Professor 

 Agassiz urged us to read only the best of 

 books." * * * "He cordially detested the 

 ordinary books upon scientific subjects. At one 

 time, in a paroxysm of rage at these ' would-be 

 scientists,' he exclaimed : ' They are mere com- 

 pilations of persons unfamiliar with science, 

 who mix the false and the true.' Alas, shall we 

 ever again meet with his equal, as teacher and 

 pupil and brother combined ! ' ' 



H. C. B. 



Note : Since writing the above review we 

 have examined an advertising circular which 

 announces 'A Memorial Volume of Penikese,' 

 the same as the above mentioned work. We 

 quote fi'om this circular as follows: "About 

 two years ago I completed a contract for the 

 printing of my ' Penikese Island ; ' unfortu- 

 nately, before the pages were finished, the par- 

 ties with whom I contracted became bankrupt. 

 I have just succeeded in rescuing the sheets 

 from the wreck at an expense of something 

 over $100. The work is in signatures, is on 

 tinted paper, hand-made expressly for the pur- 

 pose, comprises about 100 pages, and only 100 



copies were printed. These will be sent to the 

 old teachers and scholars and thejr friends only 

 if they can be found. Price, postpaid, $3.00. 

 Send check or postal order to W. A. Stearns, 

 Atlanta, Ga." 



Explorationof the Air hy Means of Kites. I. Kites 

 and Instruments, by S. P. Tbrgusson. II. 

 Results from the Kite Meteorographs and Simul- 

 taneous Records at the Ground. III. Discus- 

 sion of the Observations, by H. Helm Clay- 

 ton. Reprinted from the Annals of the As- 

 tronomical Observatory of Harvard College, 

 Vol. XLII., Part I. Cambridge, 1897. 4to. 

 Pp. 43-128. Pis. VII. 



Ten years ago no one would have thought 

 that a serious piece of scientific work could 

 have for its subject the exploration of the air by 

 means of kites. Yet, as has been frequently 

 pointed out in this Journal during the last two 

 years, the records obtained from the free air, at 

 altitudes up to two miles above the earth's sur- 

 face, by means of meteorological instruments 

 attached to kite lines, have given extremely 

 valuable results. So much so, indeed, has this 

 been the case that kite meteorology, if we may 

 so term it, has come to be recognized as an in- 

 creasingly important branch of the general 

 science of meteorology. Occasional reference 

 has been made in these columns to the kite 

 work done at Blue Hill Observatory, under the 

 direction of Mr. A. Lawrence Eotch, by Messrs. 

 Clayton, Pergusson and Sweetland. This work 

 is now well known, but until the present time 

 there has been no complete report upon it. 



The publication, in the Annals of the Harvard 

 College Observatory, of a monograph on The 

 Exploration of the Air by Means of Kites, marks 

 an epoch in the history of modern meteorology. 

 The Weather Bureau issued, in 1896, a valuable 

 Bulletin (by Professor Marvin) entitled Kite 

 Experiments at the Weather Bureau, but this was 

 concerned chiefly with the construction of kites 

 and the forces acting on them, and did not in- 

 clude a discussion of the instrumental records 

 obtained by means of the kites. 



It is impossible, in a brief notice, to do the 

 Blue Hill kite report justice. There are three 

 chapters in all. The first, on Kites and Instru- 

 ments, is by Mr. S. P. Fergusson, and deals with 



