Mat 14, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



791 



long, and the skull proves it to have been an 

 old individual'. 



Killer whales rarely strand on the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States, and, aside from the 

 individual just mentioned, there are, so far as 

 I am av^are, no specimens from definite lo- 

 calities on our Atlantic seaboard in any mu- 

 seum. Two killers stranded at Eastport, Me., 

 in 1902, and were reported on by myself, and 

 another was obtained at Portland, Me., in 

 1904, but the bones were not, I believe, pre- 

 served in either instance. 



r. W. True 



April 6, 1909 



THE PTARMIGAN AND THE SONNET 



To THE Editor op Science: Probably some 

 readers of Mr. Clark's letter in Science, 

 March 26, were no more amused at that queer 

 ptarmigan than at his naming a blank-verse 

 poem' a " sonnet." " It is written that the 

 shoe-maker should meddle with his yard and 

 the tailor with his last, the jSsher with his 

 pencil and the painter with his nets," to the 

 entertainment of men ever since old Capulet's 

 Peter. 



H. L. Seaver 



johannsen's determination of rock-foeming 

 minerals 

 Since the book review in this journal of 

 January 1, 1909, p. 32, the author has ar- 

 ranged with the publisher to indent and 

 thumb reference the different parts of the 

 text-book. This has added greatly to its con- 

 venience and efficiency. 



L. McI. L. 



FAMILY RECORDS 



Recognizing the great importance to hu- 

 manity of a knowledge of the method of in- 

 heritance of physical and mental human 

 characters the Station for Experimental Evo- 

 lution is attempting to collect data for study 

 and requests the assistance of persons who wiU 

 volunteer to fill out a pamphlet form with 

 blank spaces for data on some 36 characters 

 in three generations of their family. These 

 " Family Records " are sent in duplicate ; one 

 to be retained by the collaborator for his own 



use, the other to be mailed to the station. A 

 request by postal card for these records wiU 

 receive an immediate response. 



C. B. Davenport 

 Cold Spring Harbok, N. Y. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 Handhuch der Klimatologie. Band I. All- 

 gemeine Klimalehre. Dritte wesentlich 

 Tzmgearbeitete und vermehrte Auilage. Von 

 Dr. Julius Hann. 8vo, pp. xiv-f-394, figs. 

 22. Stuttgart, J. Engelhom. 1908. 

 1883, 1897 and 1908 are three important 

 dates in the progress of climatology. They 

 are the years in which were published the first, 

 second and third editions of Hann's " Hand- 

 buch der Klimatologie." Eew text-books, ia 

 any one science, are so widely known to all 

 men of science as Hann's famous " Hand- 

 buch." The second edition was so complete 

 and so satisfactory that it was practically im- 

 possible to find fault with it in any important 

 respect. Yet the new edition is an improve- 

 ment upon the former one. The size of the 

 page has been somewhat increased, a fact 

 which is of special significance when the 

 climatological tables, which will be necessary 

 in the second and third volumes, are printed. 

 The arrangement by books, chapters and sec- 

 tions, as well as the many new paragraph 

 headings, help very much to make the volume 

 more convenient for general use. All the im- 

 portant literature bearing dates since the 

 publication of the second edition is mentioned, 

 or summarized, in the new edition. Indeed, 

 this book is much more than a text-book. Its 

 numerous and well-selected bibliographic lists 

 make it truly an encyclopaedia. 



Additions have been made throughout the 

 volume. We note, especially, the newly in- 

 troduced or the more extended discussion, of 

 sensible temperatures ; of the relative humidity 

 indoors; of the nature and measurements of 

 solar radiation; of the introduction of the 

 cyclonic unit into climatological investiga- 

 tions; of the reduction of temperature obser- 

 vations to uniform periods of time; of the 

 zonal distribution of the climatic elements, 

 and of the classifications of the zones. Many 

 persons will naturally turn to the chapters on 



