598 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 670 



appearance of their indwelling mind, and 

 therefore is of moment for their future. It is 

 diiBcult to foretell whether the American will 

 continue forever the government that was well 

 enough for a boys' academy in colonial times. 

 The desire is unquestionably awakened in us to 

 have universities that can stand with the great- 

 est of the world ; and the desire will in the end, 

 I believe, lead us more and more to distrust 

 external rule. Our present forms have served 

 our nonage; the days of our ignorance have 

 been winked at, but now we are commanded 

 everywhere to repent. We shall hardly repro- 

 duce in haste the European models, with all 

 their clear advertisement that they are 

 scholars' commonwealths, are municipalities of 

 science; and yet it can not be thought that we 

 shall continue forever and without regret upon 

 our present course. We shall in the end place 

 less reliance upon commercial methods in dis- 

 covering and bringing into harmony the 

 choicest minds; the university will perceive 

 that it must become for them a hospitable 

 place, showing in its very laws and customs 

 that it is a union of gifted persons sanely 

 working together to increase the store of in- 

 telligence among men. It will feel that it 

 must bestow on all who come within its walls 

 the keys and freedom of a great city. — Pro- 

 fessor George M. Stratton in the Atlantic 

 Monthly for October. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



BRITISH RAINFALL 



The forty-sixth annual volume of that 

 unique publication, British Rainfall (1906), 

 is at hand. Dr. H. R. Mill informs us, much 

 to our regret, in his preface, that " the sta- 

 tionary ^condition of the available funds" has 

 made it necessary for the editor to " divert a 

 considerable part of his time from editorial 

 duties to remunerative work." It is a great 

 pity that the British Rainfall Organization, 

 which is of such immense importance to the 

 people of the British Isles, should suffer for 

 lack of support. In this connection we note 

 that His Majesty the King heads the subscrip- 

 tion list. Dr. Mill points out that by means 



of an automobile, kindly placed at his disposal 

 by one of his regular observers, he was able 

 to make inspections of several rainfall stationa 

 in a very much shorter time than would have 

 been taken up had he traveled in any other 

 way. The present volume of British Rainfall 

 contains a discussion, by L. C. W. Bonacina, 

 of " The Effects of Exposure to Wind upon the 

 Amount of Rain caught by Rain Gauges, and 

 the Methods of Protecting Rain Gauges from 

 them," with a bibliography. We desire once 

 more to call attention to Dr. Mill's study of 

 "Heavy Falls on Rainfall Days in 1906." in 

 which the cyclonic control of special rainfalls 

 is discussed and illustrated. It would be well 

 if for every state in the American union we 

 had such studies each year. 



LIGHT AND BACTERIA 



Dr. John Weinzirl has recently investi- 

 gated anew " The Action of Sunlight upo» 

 Bacteria, with Special Reference to Bacillus 

 Tuberculosis " (Bull. Univ. New Mex., hiol. 

 ser., III., No. 12, 1907). The results obtained 

 by previous investigators were, in the opinion 

 of the writer of this paper, markedly and un- 

 favorably affected by reason of the investi- 

 gators' methods of exposing the organisms to 

 sunlight, exposure under glass necessitating 

 reflection and absorption of a large proportion 

 of the sun's rays. By improved methods Dr. 

 Weinzirl believes that he has come much 

 nearer the truth. He finds the effect of sun- 

 light much more powerful than previous re- 

 sults indicated. From two to ten minutes of 

 direct exposure to sunlight is sufficient to kill 

 the bacteria. This gives added emphasis to 

 the advantage of a dry climate, like that of 

 the western United States, where dryness and 

 sunshine quickly destroy most bacteria. The 

 importance of well lighted and ventilated 

 houses is also emphasized. " The results by 

 direct exposure of the bacteria indicate that 

 sunlight is a much more powerful germicidal 

 agent, and consequently a more important 

 hygienic factor, than it has heretofore been 

 considered ; that the bacteria, when freely ex- 

 posed, are killed in one fifth to one twentieth 

 of the time formerly considered necessary." 



