May 29, 1891.J 



SCIENCE. 



305 



barometric depression in the west of France, its path being recog- 

 nized from Vendir to Ardennes. 



The tornado at St. Claude, on the 19th, was studied by M. 

 Cadenat. The giratory movement was recognized by prostrate 

 trees, by pieces of board, dibris of roofs, etc. On the right of the 

 track many trees were blown down toward the north-east. On 

 the left less trees were uprooted, and some lay in an opposite di- 

 rection. In some places trees were blown down at right angles to 

 the track, their roots invariably to the right. At some places 

 bunches of trees were left intact in the centre of the tornado's 

 track. The whirl was counter-clock-wise. " This trombe-cyclone 

 in its narrowness furnishes the character of a trombe or tornado, 

 and in its whirling, of a cyclone. I give the following secondary 

 phenomena in the order of importance : — 



" (1) The liberation of considerable electricity. 



" (2) The straight currents. 



" (3) The division of the principal branch. 



"(4) The funnel-shaped cloud. 



" (5) The aspiration. 



" (6) The lateral wind." 



" At 8 P.M. the sky is like a vast conflagration; the air is calm. 

 Some great drops of rain, some few hail-stones, very great (40 

 grams), formed of agglomerated grains, preceded the disaster. A 

 lightning stroke fired a house at Bois d'Amont (Jura). At the 

 Swiss frontier the people saw fire on all sides. At another place 

 globular lightning was seen. Some people were killed by light- 

 ning strokes. On all sides was a smell of ozone. Walls were 

 prostrated, holes bored in window-panes, stoves destroyed, keys 

 and bars of iron twisted, etc. On all sides thunder-bolts were very 

 evident from their mechanical effects. 



" We see on the left and right of the track through a forest, and 

 in front of each point struck by a thunder-bolt, trees thrown down 

 in great number, the top directed against (contre) the point struck. 

 The direction of some fir-trees was perpendicular to the path. 



" The funnel-cloud, thanks to numerous and intense lightnings, 

 was seen by an observer at Aigh, some .35 miles from the tornado. 

 The aspiration produced by the whirl was shown by the transport 

 to 300 and more yards of great and solid vachers, by the removal 

 of roofs, by the plucking up of a heavy boundary-stone weighing 

 a hundred pounds, by the transport of objects 31 miles, mostly to 

 the north. Hail fell at more than two miles to the north-west." 



M. Faye also received a private report from M. Cadenat, and re- 

 marks : " It is very remarkable that in the United States tornadoes 

 are rarely accompanied by electric balls similar to those at Dreux 

 or at St. Claude, or at the ancient tornadoes of Assonval (1822) 

 and of Chatenay (1835)." He thinks this is because they occur 

 here mostly in daylight. He also suggests that the mechanical 

 action of tornadoes is well understood to-day. 



I note (1) there seems to be an enormous variety of terms which 

 are applied in France to phenomena of this kind. In the four re- 

 ports, covering eleven pages, the following are noted : coup de 

 vent, used 6 times; cyclone, 6; meteor, 11; orage, 13; oiiragan, 9; 

 tempete, 4; tourbillon, 12; tourmente, 1; tornado, 19; trombe, 13; 

 trombe-cyclone, 2. The fact that " tornado" heads the list in fre- 

 quency is significant. 



(2) It is hardly probable that there was a diminution in the gas 

 pressure at Dreux through a diminished air pressure. A similar 

 fact was noted at Cleveland, O., when there was no tornado, and 

 at Louisville, Ky., during the tornado last year. An investigation 

 of this question has shown that the diminished pressure is due to 

 the forcing of the gas-holder at the works, by the wind, against 

 the upright posts (see " The Tornado," p. 136). 



(3) It is hardly probable that the absence of the observation of 

 fire-balls in the tornadoes in this country is due to the light of day 

 hiding the appearance. At such a time the sky is black, and the 

 light is sufl3ciently diminished to show any bright, fiery object. 

 The lack of this observation is due, partly to its not having been 

 investigated, partly to the fact that most every one seeks safety in 

 a cellar or dug-out, where it cannot be observed, but mostly, I 

 think, because in the severer tornadoes the electric action, while 

 abundant, does not manifest itself in this way. We are but just 

 beginning to learn about unusual manifestations of electricity in 

 storm phenomena. One of the most recent utterances is this, re- 



garding the action of a lightning flash : "The seat of the electrical 

 energy is, and must be, not in the cloud or in the earth, just 

 preceding a flash of lightning, but in the air column between cloud 

 and earth " (American Meteorological Journal, April, 1891, p. 

 599). If it can be once proved that it is possible to intensely elec- 

 trify a column of air, we shall have gone a long way toward de- 

 termining the cause of our funnel-clouds and the destructiveness 

 of the tornado. It should be noted that fire-baUs were observed 

 at Louisville (" The Tornado," p. 134). 



(4) I think we have hardly made a beginning in a determination 

 of the causes of the mechanical effects noted either in our general 

 storms or tornadoes. I can do no better than close with a quota- 

 tion from "Bay of Bengal Cyclone Memoirs, Part HI.," just re- 

 ceived in this country. 



The author, Mr. Eliot, himself an ardent supporter of the ordi- 

 nary condensation theory of storms and tornadoes, by a course of 

 reasoning almost identical with that previously adopted in this 

 country, has arrived at the following conclusion, on page 285 : — 



" A cyclonic circulation cannot be resolved into the translation 

 of a rotating disk or mass of air. The fact that the main supply 

 of the energy is applied in front of the cyclone suggests that it is 

 perpetually renewed in front, and that in fact its motion and 

 transmission are hence rather to be explained by some process 

 analogous to the transmission of a wave." This may be regarded 

 as a noteworthy corroboration of views seriously antagonistic to 

 present theories, and seems to indicate a significant advance iii 

 theories of storm generation. (See also in this connection this 

 journal, No. 423, p. 150, and Scientific American Supplement, Jan. 

 18, 1890.) 



(The following journals have been consulted in making up the 



above paper : C'omptes Reudus, Aug. 20. 1890; Sept. 15, 1890; Oct. 



6, 1890; Dec. 22, 1890; Das Wetter, December, 1890; April, 1891; 



and American Meteorological Journal, April, 1891.) 



H. A. Hazen. 

 Washington, D.C., May 23. 



BOOK-EEVIEWS. 



Our Common Birds, and Hoiv to Know Them. By John B. Grant. 

 New York, Scribner. Oblong 12". |1.50. 



This is an attractive little volume which cannot fail to interest 

 any one who loves nature and to be helpful to him who wishes to 

 become intelligent upon our common birds. 



To quote from the modest introduction : "The author desires to 

 disclaim great scientific knowledge of birds and their ways, his 

 object being not so much to impart information as to point his 

 readers to the way of acquiring it for themselves." It becomes 

 quite evident, however, that Mr. Grant can tell us much more than 

 he does, when we have mastered the first steps. 



Some seventy portraits of birds on separate plates are given ; the 

 significant characteristics of each are so closely brought out, that, 

 in connection with the text, it makes identification of the real ob- 

 ject a comparatively simple matter. 



The writer succeeded, during one hour spent in a small thicket 

 a few hundred feet from his house, in New Jersey, m matching 

 bird and picture of about a dozen specimens. 



The book is of convenient size for carrying about, and would be 

 as valuable an addition to the library of every school boy and girl 

 as it is interesting to any one who, in his love of nature, " holds 

 communion with her visible forms." 



Appletons' School Physics. By John D. Quackenbos, literary 

 editor; Alfred M. Mater; Francos E. Nipher; Sn.AS W. 

 Holman; Francis B. Crocker. New York, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago, American Book Company, 1891. $1.20. 

 The title of this book shows what place it is intended to fill, and 

 the list of authors shows how earnestly the publishers have at- 

 tempted tn make a book that shall fill that place with satisfaction. 

 The literary editor, Dr. Quackenbos, is a professor of English at 

 Columbia College, and is a member of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences and a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. To 

 each of the four scientific men whose names follow that of Dr. 

 Quackenbos on the title-page has been assigned a special de- 

 partment of physics. Professor Mayer of the Stevens Institute, 



