OCTOBBE 5, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



521 



acid and pyridine or whatever the unknown 

 quantities may prove to be. 



Returning to the camphor-producing 

 animal, it may be noted that Polyzonium is 

 a circumpolar genus and is represented in 

 Europe by P. germanicum, with which our 

 American form is closely related if not 

 identical. That the nature of the secretion 

 should have remained undiscovered is not 

 suprising in view of the fact that the animal 

 is small (15 by 2 mm.) and of very retiring 

 habits, affecting only the humus of moist, 

 undisturbed forest regions. Moreover it has 

 a very peculiar appearance and would 

 generally be taken for a worm or a small 

 slug rather than for a myriapod, and may 

 not give off its repugnatorial secretion un- 

 less injured. Taxonomically it is looked 

 upon as the type of a distinct family, Poly- 

 zonidse, also of a suborder, Polyzonoidea, 

 in which it is, however, associated with a 

 tropical family, Siphonotidse. With two 

 other suborders also consisting of few genera 

 and few and local species, but having a wide 

 general distribution, the order Colobognatha 

 is made up. This has been found to differ* 

 from other diplopods, not only in the posses- 

 sion of many primitive characters, but in 

 having the copulatory legs not truly homol- 

 ogous, a very reliable indication of long 

 separation in evolutionary history. Of 

 course this is no reason for supposing that 

 Polyzonium has preserved the ancestral type 

 of repugnatorial secretion, particularly in 

 view of the fact that camphor is a much 

 more complex substance than prussic acid. 

 That the biological affinity is thus remote, 

 may, however, encourage the chemists by 

 providing all the time necessary for any 

 succession of reactions they may see fit to 

 predicate. 



O. F. Cook. 



Washington, D. C. 



* " A new Character in the Colohognatha, with 

 drawings of Siphonotus," Ameriean Naturalist, Oct. 

 1896, XXX, 839-844. 



PBOOEESS IN 3IETE0R0L0OICAL KITE 

 FLYING. 



The value of the kite in meteorological 

 research is now universally recognized. As 

 a result of improvements in apparatus and 

 methods successively greater heights have 

 been reached until within the past fifteen 

 months, 4300 meters or higher has been 

 reached by Teisserenc de Bort, in France, 

 while at Blue Hill Observatory in this 

 country, 4,850 meters was attained on July 

 19, 1900. This last height is greater than 

 that of any American balloon ascension 

 where accurate observations were made. 

 Since meteorological kite flying may be 

 said to have begun practically within the 

 past seven years, it is improbable that the 

 limits of maximum height or of efiBcient 

 work have been reached ; for as yet but few 

 individuals or institutions have undertaken 

 such work on an adequate scale. 



The work at Blue Hill during the past 

 year indicates that improvement may be 

 expected (1) as a result of further modify- 

 ing the kite and (2) from experiments to 

 determine the size of wire best adapted for 

 use as line. 



The original Hargrave kite with flat lift- 

 ing surfaces usually attained an angular 

 altitude of 54° to 56° when flown from a 

 short line. The addition of an inter- 

 mediate lifting surface in the front cell 

 possibly increased this average altitude to 

 58° or 59° but rendered the kite unstable. 

 In winds of 15 meters per second, or 

 higher, the flat surfaced kites are driven 

 downward by the increase of pressure 

 upon the front edges of the cells, high 

 flights being possible only during favor- 

 able conditions. By the addition of rigid 

 curved sustaining surfaces the altitude 

 reached by the best kites is now about 

 66°, and the average of several kites is 

 about 64°. The efl'ect of wind pressure on 

 the edges of the cells does not seriously 

 affect the altitude until the velocity of the 



