November 15, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



675 



that one wlio admits that there is any " ex- 

 perimental " indeterminateness in any organic 

 process can not consistently stop short of the 

 extreme view he has himself defined. But he 

 has scarcely proven this; and in any case, if 

 he imputes the acceptance of this view to 

 Driesch, he is identifying the conclusions 

 which he himself might draw from certain of 

 Driesch's positions (if he held them) with the 

 conclusions which Driesch draws. 



I am afraid the foregoing shows that Pro- 

 fessor Jennings has, after all, succeeded in 

 luring me into " exegetical inquiries into the 

 precise meaning of a rather difiicult writer." 

 However interesting these may be, there are 

 other questions in which, I confess, my inter- 

 est is more acute — as, no doubt. Professor 

 Jennings's really is also. Among these is the 

 question: What do the data chiefly empha- 

 sized by Driesch really tend to prove about 

 organisms ? On this, which was the principal 

 theme of my previous communication on the 

 subject in Science, Professor Jennings's re- 

 cent letter has little to say. Yet I think that 

 his letter leaves the matter in a not wholly 

 satisfactory logical condition; and that there 

 is a good deal more which might with advan- 

 tage be said, in the interest of a full clearing 

 up of this genuinely significant issue. But 

 that undertaking, to which I hope before long 

 to attempt to contribute elsewhere, would call 

 for a lengthier disquisition than would be 

 suitable for publication in this journal. 



Arthur 0. Lovejoy 



The Johns Hopkins TJnivebsity, 

 October 15, 1912 



WINTER WEATHER IN FLORIDA 



Under the above caption in Science for May 

 31, 1912, Mr. Andrew H. Palmer submitted 

 some observations on Florida weather. The 

 winter of 1911-12, in Florida, was by no 



senschaft, 1911, lie defines biology as a Gesetzes- 

 wissenschaft, which has for its most fundamental 

 part ' ' the doctrine of the laws of morphogenesis. ' ' 

 And he speaks of these laws as discoverable 

 through gewisse Sondererfahrungen. Vitalism, he 

 adds, "never means Gesetslosigheit" (pp. 34, 37, 

 39). 



means severe, but the temperature averaged 

 low during January and February, as com- 

 pared with the normal, the monthly departures 

 during the winter months being: December, 

 + 5°.l; January, — 0°.6, and February, 

 — 4°.6. 



Mr. Palmer's statement that " Florida's cli- 

 mate did not receive careful attention until 

 large numbers of settlers were attracted by the 

 recent land-boom," is rather gratuitous. For 

 forty years the weather bureau records of 

 Florida have been consulted by people of broad 

 intelligence in their search for truth, regard- 

 ing the climatology of the state. With regard 

 to the statement : " In all but eight of the last 

 seventy years freezing temperatures have 

 occurred in Jacksonville," a few supplementary 

 facts are essential to a correct understanding. 

 Mr. Palmer's figures were correctly copied 

 from " Climatology of the U. S.," but included 

 in that report were miscellaneous records that 

 antedate those of the weather bureau, and, 

 though given official cognizance to the extent 

 of publication, yet, the official life of local 

 weather bureau data begins with the estab- 

 lishment of a station in Jacksonville in 1871. 

 The records previous to 1871 were mostly 

 by voluntary observers, and they are not recog- 

 nized as coordinate in importance with those 

 compiled under official supervision during 

 subsequent years; hence, to a certain extent, 

 they are taken cum grano salis. A freezing 

 temperature in Jacksonville is not followed, 

 necessarily, by similar conditions in the citrus 

 belt for Jacksonville sustains, approximately, 

 the same relation to the rest of the state as 

 Sacramento, California, does to the San 

 Diego section. 



The above qualifications are pertinent also 

 in the matter of snowfall in Florida. During 

 the severe blizzard of February, 1899, snow 

 fell over the extreme northern portion of the 

 State to the depth of several inches; that is, 

 over an area of slightly more than 1° in 

 latitude. This was the heaviest snow fall in 

 Florida of which there is authentic record, 

 and it is believed to be an expression of 

 maximum intensity along that line. Cer- 

 tainly it was not exceeded during the century. 



