June 19, 1891. J 



SCIENCE 



547 



is much to be hoped that when fully carried out it will not only 

 annihilate the others but will lead up to the true theory. (4) The 

 electric field theory. 



The 6nal theory must include the following points: (a) Storms 

 and high areas are largely dependent upon each other, and are 

 somewhat alike except with opiiosite signs. 



(6) The velocity of the current varies at every level as one 

 rises in the atmosphere. 



(c) In this country at least, storms and high areas follow each 

 other and have practically the same velocity. 



(d The conditions producing our stornns and high areas seem to 

 extend far above our highest mountains, and may extend to the 

 limits of the atmosphere. 



(e) There is no motion or carrying of air or moisture particles 

 in a horizontal or up-and-down direction, by pure air currents, to 

 form storms or high areas. 



(/) There is an enormous increase of moisture in the fore-front 

 of storms, entirely independent of precipitation, wind, heat, evap- 

 oration, and every other ordinary element. 



(g) There is a corresponding di-yness in the fore-front of our 

 high areas, which may be due in part to the descent by gravity of 

 the cooler, denser, and drier air above.' 



(h) The precipitation, in the case of general storms, is, in this 

 country at least, far (at times four hundred miles) in advance of 

 the central point of the isobars, and very often none at all falls at 

 the centre. 



(j) In what may be called normal storms, the velocity may rise 

 to forty or even more miles per hour, especially in the winter sea- 

 son. 



(k] The temperature in normal storms most emphatically shows 

 no reversal as we ascend in the atmosphere, but, it any thing, 

 shows a greater relative rise at the upper station than occurs at 

 the earth's surface. 



(l) The temperature in normal high areas has, if any thing, a 

 greater relative diminution at a high mountain station than at 

 the earth's surface. 



While the last two propositions ai'e most abundantly borne out 

 on Mount Washington, it should be noted that a study of the 

 conditions at the highest regular station in Europe (Sonnblick, 

 10,000 feet) has shown no reversal. While there is a difference 

 in the results at the two mountains, yet this is only in degree. 

 Excepting a few anomalous cases, the conditions ai'e practically 

 the same at both stations {Science, Sept. 5, 1890). 



The time for formulating a consistent theory of storm genera- 

 tion and motion is still a long way off. It seems to me that the 

 most promising sign of recent discussions is the marked tendency 

 on all hands to lay aside pure theoretic considerations and to de- 

 mand rather the facts and causes which underlie all atmospheric 

 disturbances. H. A. Hazen. 



Washington, D.C., June 15. 



BOOK-EEVIEWS. 



An Introduction to the Study of MetaUurgy. By W. C. Roberts- 

 Austen. Philadelphia, Lippincott (London, GrifSn). 292 p. 

 8°. 



In telling something about this book we cannot begin better 

 than by quoting the first part of the preface, which runs as follows : 

 •' The literature of metallurgy is rich, but those who are beginning 

 to study it need guidance to a knowledge of the principles on 

 which the art is rightly practised. It depends, as is well known, 

 on the application of chemistry, physics, and mechanics; but the 

 methods of metallurgists vary greatly from those of chemists, who, 

 however, frequently fail to appreciate the difference. Ten years' 

 experience has convinced me that it is more important at the out- 

 set for the student to know what was the scope of mind of the 

 early practisers of metallurgy, and to see what kind of aid the art 

 may be expected to receive in future from the sciences, than to 

 acquu-e familiarity with complicated details of processes and ap- 

 pliances." 



In these few sentences the author has given not only the reason 

 for the existence of his book but also an outline of what the student 

 may expect to find in its pages. The first four chapters may be 



considered almost as a separate section, covering the subject gen- 

 erally as a whole, the other chapters going more into the details; 

 of the various processes employed in metallurgy. 



The first chapter is devoted wholly to a consideration of the re- 

 lation of metallurgy to chemistry. The second treats of the physi- 

 cal properties of metals, — molecular structure^ density, fracture, 

 malleability, ductility, tenacity, etc. The third chapter is the best 

 brief treatise of the kind and for the purpose we know of in the 

 literature of metallurgy, and might have been expanded into a 

 separate volume without a suspicion of a resort to what is known 

 as " padding." In its thirty-six pages the subject of alloys is pre- 

 sented, briefly, of necessity, but comprehensively and clearly; and 

 the results of recent investigations and experiments are given,, 

 including those in which electricity plays a part. The fourth 

 chapter deals with the thermal treatment of metals. 



The remaining chapters are devoted respectively to fuel, mate- 

 rials and products of metallurgical processes, means of supplying 

 air to furnaces, typical metallurgical processes, and economic con- 

 siderations. The illustrations are as numerous as the purpose of 

 the volume warrants; there is an abundance of diagrams and 

 tables, and the table of contents and index are models of their- 

 kind. 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 

 The first number of Vol. II. of the Outing Weekly Tennis 

 Record fov the season of 1891, was published on June 13. It is 

 the official organ and bulletin of the United States National Lawn 

 Tennis Association. 



— G. P. Putnam's Son's have just ready a handsome volume 

 entitled " Landscape Gardening,"' by Samuel Parsons, Jun., con- 

 taining notes and suggestions on lawns and lawn planting, laying 

 out and arrangement of country places, large and small parks, 

 trees, shrubs, plants, rockwork, etc. They have also ready an 

 American edition of Professor William Peck's "Popular Hand- 

 book and Atlas of Astronomy." 



— J. G. Cupples of Boston will publish immediately " The Life- 

 Romance of an Algebraist," by George Winslow Pierce, a distin- 

 guished pupil of the late Benjamin Peirce, the eminent professor 

 of mathematics in Harvai'd University. This book opens with a 

 discovery in algebra, addressed to students, and proceeds with the 

 discussion of every subject of human interest, poetry, philosophy, 

 constructive criticism, adventure, forms of truth, and mysteries of 

 being, strung on the thread of a love story. 



— The July number of The Annals of the American Academy 

 of Policical and Social Science will contain a translation into 

 English of the Constitution of Mexico, by Professor Bernard Moses 

 of the University of California. Dr. G. Ritchie, instructor in Ox- 

 ford University, has contributed to the same number an article on 

 the teaching of political science in that institution. Professor J. 

 W. Jenks of the University of Indiana discusses a reform of the 

 system of land transfer, and advocates the adoption of a method 

 which shall guarantee security to the purchaser, without the heavy 

 expense and uncertainty which the existing system involves. •' The 

 Economic Basis of Prohibition," a paper read by Professor Simon 

 N. Patten of the University of Pennsylvania at the May meeting 

 of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, also ap- 

 pears in the same issue. 



— Among its new and continued articles the American Journal 

 of Archaeology for the present year will contain the following : " A 

 Series of Babylonian and Assyrian dated Cylinders," by Mr. T. 6. 

 Pinches of the British Museum; " Hittite Sculptures," and " Orien- 

 tal Antiquities," by Dr. William Hayes Ward of New York; "An- 

 tiquities of Phrygia," by Professor William M. Ramsay of Aber- 

 deen, Scotland ; ' ' Terracottas in American Collections, " by Salomon 

 Reinach of the Museum of Saint-Germain, France; "The Apbi-odite 

 of Melos," by Dr. A. Furtwangler of Berlin; "Three Heads of 

 Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, of the Hellenistic Period," by Professor 

 Adolph Michaelis of Strassbui-g; " A New Fragment of the Edict 

 of Diocletian, found at Plataia in 1890," by Professor Theodor 

 Mommsen of Berlin; "The Mantineian Reliefs,"' by Dr. Charles 

 Waldstein, director of the American School at Athens; "Terra- 

 cottas from Southern Italy, now in Baltimore," by Professor Har- 



