148 



SCIENCE. 



[K S. Vol. XXIV. No. 605. 



probably a syringobulbia. Both these papers 

 are illustrated. Dr. Hugh T. Patrick pub- 

 lishes a brief supplementary report and cor- 

 rection to his paper on ' Hereditary Cerebellar 

 Ataxia' in the March issue of the Journal 

 for the year 1902. The meeting of the Boston 

 Society of Psychiatry and Neurology for Jan- 

 uary 19, 1906, and that of the Chicago Neuro- 

 logical Society for November 23, 1905, are 

 reported. 



The first three numbers of the Philippine 

 Journal of Science contain several papers 

 which will not appear elsewhere. Among 

 these may be mentioned the completed series 

 on the cocoanut, its growth, the production of 

 oil from the nuts, and the insects attacking 

 the trees, by Messrs. Copeland, Walker and 

 Banks; the monograph on tropical ulcers and 

 the paper on plague vaccination, by Dr. 

 Strong; the preliminary discussion of beriberi, 

 by Dr. Herzog; the first of a series treating of 

 the geology of the Philippine Islands, by W. 

 D, Smith, etc. There have also been pub- 

 lished the results of the investigations carried 

 on in Manila by Drs. Brinkerhoff and Tyzzer, 

 but these latter have also been given to the 

 public elsewhere in somewhat different form. 

 The fourth number of the Journal will con- 

 tain the first of a series of articles on the 

 composition of a tropical forest, by H. N. 

 Whitford, the subject being taken up from an 

 ecological standpoint; and the fifth, the be- 

 ginning of a number of papers on Philippine 

 fibers and fiber substances, with especial ref- 

 erence to their availability for paper making, 

 by George F. Richmond. In June there will 

 also be published seven of the papers read at 

 the third annual meeting of the Philippine 

 Islands Medical Association, one of these be- 

 ing by Professor Kitasato, of Tokyo, on com- 

 bating plague in Japan, another by Professor 

 Shiga on bacillary dysentery, one by Dr. 

 Strong on questions relating to the aggres- 

 sins, one by Dr. Stitt on dengue fever, one 

 by Dr. Craig on malaria, and a monograph 

 by Dr. Musg]*ave on amoebic dysentery and 

 its complications, the subject of liver abscess 

 being especially discussed by the latter. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



APPEAL FOR AN AERO-PHYSICAL OBSERVATORY IN 

 JAPAN. 



It is well known that the progress of 

 meteorology has seemed very slow. Within 

 the past century the world has seen electricity, 

 chemistry and other special branches of sci- 

 ence emerge from their previous uncertain 

 and indefinite condition, but dynamic meteor- 

 ology is still wandering in fog and darkness. 

 Thousands upon thousands of observations at 

 the earth's surface have told us much, but still 

 the fundamental mechanical problems have 

 not yet been solved. Although the importance 

 of the exploration of the upper atmosphere 

 has been recognized ever since the days of 

 Pascal, yet very little is known of this vast 

 mysterious ocean of air. Meteorologists are 

 now fully convinced that the atmospheric phe- 

 nomena at the earth's surface depend, in great 

 measure, upon the thermal and electrical, as 

 well as the dynamic, conditions of the upper 

 atmosphere. So long as this upper region 

 remains unexplored, meteorology will not only 

 be unable to enter into the group of exact 

 sciences, but will fail to do its full service for 

 the promotion of human welfare. Hence, a 

 number of mountain observatories have been 

 established in Europe and elsewhere, and 

 many balloon and kite ascensions have been 

 made for sounding the depths of the upper 

 atmosphere. The balloon ascensions of Gay 

 Lussac and Biot in 1804, of Barral and Bex 

 in 1850, of Glaisher in 1862, and of Berson in 

 1894, furnished many important facts relative 

 to the physics of the atmosphere. Since this 

 last date, unmanned balloons, carrying only 

 very light self-registering apparatus, have 

 been brought to great perfection, and extreme 

 heights of eleven or twelve miles have been 

 reached that would otherwise have been inac- 

 cessible. By this mode of research Hermite, 

 Besangon and Teisserenc de Bort in Prance, 

 and Assmann, Berson and Hergesell in Ger- 

 many, have done a great service to meteorol- 

 ogy. Beginning with October, 1902, daily 

 balloon and kite ascensions were made by 

 Assmann and his associates at the Prussian 

 Aeronautic Observatory, while Teisserenc de 



