January 17, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



Ill 



involved several nations in war, was the 

 scarcity of rain during the preceding autumn, 

 and the consequent impoverishment and dis- 

 content of the people. In this very Chinese 

 war, the allies at Tientsin (July 3, 4) are re- 

 ported to have been saved from total defeat 

 by a torrential rainfall which obliged the 

 Chinese to retire. A severe winter precipi- 

 tated the outbreak of the French Eevolution. 

 The Eussian saying that the Eussian Gen- 

 erals January and February are invincible 

 dates from the time of Napoleon's terrible re- 

 treat from Moscow, and again suggests the 

 historical importance of a severe winter. 

 Going back much farther, into more ancient 

 history, we find that in the year 54 b. c, 

 Cfesar's legions in Gaul had been scattered 

 about in separate winter quarters, because of 

 the scanty harvest following a drought. Un- 

 der these circumstances a defeat at the hands 

 of the enemy was natural, and actually took 

 place. 



The number of such cases might be ex- 

 tended almost indefinitely, but anyone who 

 reads history with his eyes open to the con- 

 trols which lie behind the military and poli- 

 tical movements of the past will be able to 

 collect an abundance of illustrations for him- 

 seK. 



ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF LAST JULY's HEAT AND 

 DROUGHT. 



Another recent paper, by the compiler of 

 these Notes, published in the Bulletin of the 

 American Geographical Society for October, 

 under the title, 'Some Economic Aspects of 

 the Heat and Drought of July, 1901, in the 

 United States,' brings out certain additional 

 features in connection with the economic side 

 of meteorology. Trade in the United States 

 throughout the greater part of July showed 

 some very marked effects of the high tem- 

 peratures and of the drought. There was, on 

 the one hand, a stimulation of retail trade in 

 all kinds of light-weight summer clothing, and 

 the continuance of the heat carried this sale 

 beyond the usual time. On the other hand, 

 there was commonly noted a depression of re- 

 tail trade other than that in summer goods. 

 The heat of the first week of July caused a 

 practical suspension of industrial activity in 



many cities, thus interfering with the output 

 along the several lines affected by the shut- 

 downs. The drought caused a lack of pastur- 

 age in the Southwest, and this led to record- 

 breaking shipments of cattle and hogs to mar- 

 ket at Kansas City. Thus the market became 

 overstocked ; buyers dictated prices ; the situa- 

 tion in hides was much complicated. Prices 

 of cereals and of railroad stocks showed 

 marked fluctuations throughout the hot spell, 

 the damage to corn being the chief control in 

 the case. Eeports of rain in the corn belt 

 sent up the prices of corn, and of the stocks 

 of the corn-carrying railroads. Under the in- 

 fluence of the July drought, the number of 

 failures in August was larger than usual. 

 Building was interfered with, and trade in 

 building materials was checked. Meat was in 

 less, and fruit and vegetables were in greater, 

 demand than usual. The demand for ice was 

 so great that there was difficulty in chartering 

 vessels enough in which to ship the ice from 



Maine. 



snow crystals. 



Mr. Wilson A. Bentley, of Nashville, Vt., 

 who has spent some twenty years in the 

 critical study of snow crystals by means of 

 micro-photogTaphy, contributes a paper under 

 the title, 'The Story of the Snow Crystals,' to 

 Harper's Monthly Magazine for December. 

 This article does not differ essentially from 

 one by the same writer in the Monthly 

 Weather Review for May last. Since January, 

 1885, 800 photographs of snow crystals have 

 been taken, and no two of them are alike, i'he 

 conditions under which the different forms of 

 crystals fall have been carefully studied, and 

 it is stated to be possible to read the character 

 of a storm directly from its crystals. Mr. 

 Bentley's micro-photographs rank with any 

 that have been obtained in Europe. Several 

 of the most beautiful types are reproduced 

 with the article. 



WEATHER AND TETANUS. 



Numbers of cases of tetanus have recently 

 followed vaccination in different sections of 

 the eastern States where there have been out- 

 breaks of smallpox, and the blame has usually 

 been laid upon the impurity of the vaccine 

 matter. In at least one case, however, a study 



