Maech 20, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



431 



■works back onto the track of the cyclone. 

 Thus a cyclone may have loops in its path. 



JOURNAL OF THE SCOTTISH METEOROLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY 



The annual volume (Vol. XVI., 3d Series, 

 XXX.) of this society including rainfall re- 

 turns and meteorology of Scotland for 1912 

 has recently appeared. There are seven spe- 

 cial articles. Agricultural meteorology is 

 touched in three — Dr. W. N. Shaw, " On 

 Seasons and Crops in the East of England " 

 (pp. 179-183), A. Watt, "On the Correlation 

 of Weather and Crops in the East of Scot- 

 land " (pp. 184-187), and Dr. H. N. J. Miller, 

 " The Composition of Eain Water Collected 

 in the Hebrides and in Iceland, with Special 

 Reference to the Amount of Nitrogen as 

 Ammonia and as Nitrates" (pp. 141-158). 

 Dr. Shaw has another article, " Upper Air 

 Calculus and the British Soundings during 

 the International Week (May 5-10, 1913)" 

 (pp. 167-178). The other papers are — M. M'C. 

 Fairgrieve, " A Possible Two-hourly Period 

 in the Diurnal Variation of the Barometer " 

 (pp. 158-166), Dr. E. M. Wedderbum, "On 

 the Appearance of the Surface of Fresh- 

 water Lochs in Calm Weather " (pp. 189-193), 

 and Dr. G. A. Carse, " Note on Atmospheric 

 Electric Potential Results at Edinburgh dur- 

 ing 1912" (pp. 188-189). 



NOTES 



On January 1, 1914, the United States 

 Weather Bureau began to issue daily weather 

 maps of the Northern Hemisphere with pres- 

 sures indicated in millibars and temperatures 

 in Absolute Centigrade degrees. This map is 

 printed on the back of the usual Washington 

 weather map of the United States. 



The Central Meteorological Bureau of 

 France has created a special forecast service 

 for aeronauts. 



Mr. R. C. Mossman, of the Argentine 

 Weather Service, is acting editor of Symons's 

 Meteorological Magazine and director of the 

 British Rainfall Association during the tem- 

 porary absence of Dr. H. R. Mill on account 

 of ill-health. 



The Italian Meteorological Society will 

 hold an international congress in Venice in 

 September, 1914. The higher atmosphere, 

 climatology, aerology, meteorology and mari- 

 time meteorology will receive particular 

 attention. 



In connection with studies of air currents, 

 pilot balloons are used extensively in Ger- 

 many. Vertical currents are determined by 

 comparing the observed rate of ascent of the 

 balloons with the theoretical. The turbulent 

 meeting planes of opposing vertical currents 

 are usually marked by clouds.^ 



The daily synchronous weather charts of 

 the southern part of the Southern Hemisphere, 

 October 1, 1901, to March 31, 1904, compiled 

 from the observations of ships and the nu- 

 merous Antarctic expeditions give the first 

 extensive (though general) information con- 

 cerning the cyclones of the south temperate 

 and sub-antarctie zones. The paths of these 

 cyclones lie far south, particularly in summer, 

 when they are beyond latitude 60 degrees. 

 The average rate of progression is about 20 

 kilometers per hour — about the same as ocean 

 cyclones elsewhere.^ 



Charles F. Brooks 



Harvard Unix'^ersity 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



the SYSTEMATIC POSITION OF THE ORGANISM OF 

 THE COMMON POTATO SCAB 



Scab is probably the most widely distributed 

 disease of the potato tuber. We are indebted 

 to Professor Roland Thaxter for associating a 

 specific organism with the cause of this dis- 

 ease. His description of the morphological 

 and biological characters of this organism are 

 so careful and his substantiation of the same 

 as causal agent, so conclusive, that we are 

 unable to add anything of material import- 

 ance — at any rate here — ^from our own study 

 of the organism. 



Professor Thaxter named the organism 

 Oospora scalies^ by which " provisional " 



4 Dr. A. Peppier, Deutsche Luftfahrer Zeit- 

 scTirift, November 26, 1913, pp. 578-580. 



5 See Nature, London, December 4, 1913, pp. 

 393-395. 



