August 24, 1S83.] 



SCIENCE. 



227 



the formation of rain under these eirciimstancos 

 seems disproved, in another place, h\ the 

 author himself, who rejects the theory that any 

 considerable precipitation can be produced by 

 the mixture of masses of hot and cold air. 

 Mr. Scott acknowledges that nothing definite 

 is known as to the origin of atmospheric elec- 

 tricity ; but his conjecture that the coalescence 

 of cloud-droplets into raiu-drops may be due 

 to electricity will hardly be accepted liy mete- 

 orologists at present. The description of a 

 peculiar electrical manifestation observed in 

 the Alps, July 10, 1803, is very similar to that 

 given bv Siemens while on Cheops pvraniid, 

 April 14, 1S.J9. 



The division of thunder-storms into heat 

 and cyclonic is hardly applicable to the United 

 States, where it appears as if no thunder-: 

 storms occur, except as largely influenced by, 

 or directly dependent on, the presence of a 

 barometric depression. 



The error of more than forty million square 



miles in the earth's surface between the equa- 

 tor and .'50° north latitude should be corrected 

 in the next edition. 



The statement, that at great depths in the 

 ocean a probable uniform temperature of .".2° V. 

 prevails, has been disproved by the researches 

 of Professor Verrill and the U. S. fish-com- 

 mission. 



We notice on p. 302 the surprising state- 

 ment, that, as' the central otllce of the U. S. 

 weatlier bnreau is in the eastern part of the 

 country, there is a great advantage to those 

 predicting storms b^- the use of the tele- 

 gr.aph. 



The chart of mean January isobars does 

 not incorporate Stelling's work in Siberia, 

 published in 1S7!>. and accepted by Mohn 

 in the Last edition' of his .Meteorology. Mohn's 

 . chart shows a mean pressure over central Si- 

 beria of 780 mm. (30.79 in.), while the highest 

 figure in Scott for the same region is 30.4 

 inches. 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



The thirty-second annual meeting of the 

 American association was opened in the halls 

 of the university of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 

 Aug. 15, at 10.30 a.m. Dr. J. W. Dawson, 

 the retiring president, introduced the presi- 

 dent elect. Prof. C. A. Young, who briefly 

 and gracefully expressed his thanks to the 

 association for tlie distinction they had offered 

 him. After welcomes spoken by the governor 

 of the state and the mayor of the city, the 

 principal address was made by the acting 

 president of the university. Dr. W. AV. Folwell, 

 on behalf of the local committee. From his 

 adilress we print the closing sentences : — 



I should <lo a wrong to ray city if I should leave 

 upon you the impression that we are so overwhelmed 

 and engrossed with our material labors as to have no 

 care for the things. of the mind and the higher life. 

 If that were true, why should we welcome with so 

 much sincere ardor tlie assemblage of your associa- 

 tion ? From the villages of New England, and the 

 farmhouses of the Middle states, our people have 

 brought that perennial curiosity, that thirst for 

 knowledge, that intense though sombre imagination, 

 which havegiven American civilization and American 

 literature a cast and hue of its own. 1 must, in a 

 word, praise our system of public schools, both city 

 and state, which imder able management and popu- 

 lar support cannot, we believe, be ranked below Ihose 

 of any communities of our size in the Union. Minne- 

 sota is the first place which has organized its second- 

 ary as well as its primary education, and offered to 



every child in the state a free course of studies, from 

 the alphabet to the degree of master of arts. Our 

 churches, goodly in size and number, may speak for 

 the interests of religion. The future will attest the 

 diligence and th« fidelity of those who love music 

 and the sister arts, of whom far older cities might be 

 proud. It is thus, however, Mr. President, that we 

 Minneapolitans, alert, pre-occupied, pause in the midst 

 of our labors to welcome your already venerable asso- 

 ciation. We hail you as the survivors of a generation 

 of great investigators, — the Sillimans, ttie Baches, 

 the Morses, the Kogerses, who have made their own 

 country famous and their own names as imperishable 

 as science herself. AVe hail you as the worthy suc- 

 cessors of such a generation, perpetuating and enlar- 

 ging their work. In common with civilized people, we 

 recognize the immense debt of the modern world to 

 science; yet often, no doubt, while we are filling the 

 sky with applause to some lucky inventor, we are not 

 remembering the years, perhaps generations, of incon- 

 spicuous and painful labors, carried on in our studies 

 and laboratories, which made the invention possible. 

 Let the inventor have his glory and his profit without 

 envy and without stint; but let us not fail to build 

 the cenotaph of a thousand nameless geometers, star- 

 gazers, and natural philosophers, who, vforking in 

 silence and obscurity, without thought of fame or 

 hope of reward, put it in his power to bless and capti- 

 vate the world. We are grateful, therefore, to science 

 for the telegraph and the microscope, for chloroform, 

 for the photograph, for all the nameless applications 

 of electricity. To science we owe that magnilicent 

 apparatus of transportation which is the crowning 

 and distinctive feature of modern material life. To 



