Septembeb 25, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



415 



Regalecus has a large orbitosphenoid, and 

 Mr. Tate Regan has recently shown" that 

 Lampris and Velifer also have one. I be- 

 lieve these and the Berycoid fishes to be the 

 only spiny-rayed fishes in which the orbito- 

 sphenoid has been proved to exist. 



Dr. Berg has apparently not appreciated 

 the true significance of the presence of an 

 orbitosphenoid inRegalecus when he remarks 

 towards the end of his paragraph that this 

 element has been found from so low a group 

 as the Berycoids to so high a one as the 

 Traehypteridse. Instead of indicating that 

 an orbitosphenoid may be looked for anywhere 

 among the Acanthopterygii it rather indi- 

 cates the primitive character of Regalecus. 

 Mr. Eegan (op. cit.) has, in fact, recently 

 placed it in close relationship with the Bery- 

 coid fishes, but whether or not Regalecus 

 (with its relatives forming the group Tseni- 

 osomi) originated from the Berycoid fishes, 

 it is at least as primitive as they are, and 

 belongs in the system not far from them. If 

 it is true that Grammicolepis has an orbito- 

 sphenoid it would indicate its position also to 

 be not far from the beginning of the series of 

 spiny-rayed fishes. 



Edwin Chapin Starks 



Stanford University 



an explanation op the cause of the east- 

 ward circulation op our atmosphere 



In Science for December 20, 1907, I have 

 shown that the principle of the conservation 

 of energy demands that temperature must lie 

 taken as a measure of the intensity of ether 

 viiration; this mandatory - condition at once 

 gives us the information that only the New- 

 tonian law of radiation can be true, and this 

 claim is upheld by my interpretation of exist- 

 ing observations (as explained in the closing 

 paragraph of that paper). I then demon- 

 strate that the absolute temperature of space 

 at the earth's distance from the sun is prob- 

 ably less than two degrees centigrade. 



As known gases become either liquid or 

 solid when the temperature is reduced to 

 within a few degrees of the absolute zero, a 



^Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1907, pp. 634-643. 



planet can have no atmosphere unless its sur- 

 face-temperature is above the critical temper- 

 ature of the gas which forms the atmosphere. 



From the diiierences between the polar and 

 equatorial temperatures near the earth's sur- 

 face, and from the decrease in temperature 

 with increasing height above the surface, it 

 is known that the atmospheric layers near the 

 surface of the earth act as a trap to retain 

 the heat until the temperature reaches a limit 

 which varies with varying atmospheric con- 

 ditions ; beyond this limit the loss of heat 

 through radiation into space is just equal to 

 the heat received, so> that no farther increase 

 in temperature takes place. 



As the direct rays of the sun can strike 

 only one half of the earth's surface at a given 

 instant, while the equivalent heat is later on 

 radiated from the whole surface of the earth, 

 it is plain that the mean solar component of 

 earth-radiation can not at its maximum ex- 

 ceed one half of the sun's radiant eSect at 

 the earth's distance from the sun, or 0°.75, if 

 1°.5 is adopted as the temperature of space; 

 practically, therefore, the whole terrestrial 

 radiation into space is due to inherent earth- 

 heat. 



Let us, provisionally, take it for granted 

 that on the average the atmospheric layers 

 near and in contact with the earth's surface 

 have, by reason of the trapped heat, a tem- 

 perature 100° higher than would be the case if 

 no heat were stored in these lower layers, we 

 then readily arrive at the results given in the 

 following table: 



From an inspection of the above table we 

 learn that during the first few hundred miles 

 the decrease in temperature, due to radiation, 

 is only one degree for each additional ten 



