396 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 479. 



(' Examen de la methode de la prediction du 

 temps de M. N. Demtscliinsky,' Odessa, 1903, 

 8vo, pp. 74). The conclusions reached by 

 Professor Klossovsky are distinctly unfavor- 

 able, as was to be expected. The author sug- 

 gests that if M. Demtschinsky persists in 

 issuing these forecasts, the whole matter 

 should be taken up by the International 

 Meteorological Committee. Dr. Klossovsky, 

 in connection with his study of the Demt- 

 schinsky forecasts, summarizes briefly the 

 present state of weather forecasting, and out- 

 lines the older method of mean values, the 

 new method of synoptic meteorology, the use 

 of analytical methods and the question of 

 periodicity. 



THE ' LINE STORM ' FALLACY. 



In the annual summary of Climate and 

 Crops, New England Section, a tabulation of 

 daily precipitation between September 14 and 

 28 at Boston, during 32 years (1872-1903) is 

 given, with a view to throwing light on the 

 popular belief in the equinoctial storm. On 

 September 21 measurable amounts of pre- 

 cipitation occurred but six times during the 

 period, and for the week of which September 

 21 was the middle day, there have been but 

 twelve years in which the total weekly pre- 

 cipitation was over one inch. 



THE CLIMATE OP IOWA. 



The 'Annual Report of the Iowa Weather 

 and Crop Service ' (Des Moines, 1903) con- 

 tains an appendix on ' Iowa Climate and 

 Crops,' in which there is a good brief account 

 of the climate of the state (pp. 11-23). 



E. DeC. Ward. 



Harvard Univeksitt. 



REGENT ZOOPALEONTOLOGT. 



revised edition of zittbl's paleontology. 



The first volume of the revised edition of 



von Zittel's ' Grundziige der Palaontologie,'* 



which has just made its appearance, is a work 



of 558 pages covering the whole field of fossil 



invertebrates. It represents an enlargement 



of about forty pages over the original edition, 



* ' Grundziige der Palaontologie,' by K. A. von 

 Zittel, Abth. I., 1903, R. Oldenbourg, Munich and 

 Berlin. 



with twenty new figures, but except for cer- 

 tain portions relating to the corals and echino- 

 derms, there is essentially no change either in 

 subject matter or in classification. The au- 

 thor remarks in the preface that he has duly 

 considered the merits of the new system 

 adopted in the English version, but has chosen 

 to abide by the older established usage. In 

 the case of the brachiopods and trilobites at 

 least, there are many who will regard this as 

 a backward step, where the studies of Beeeher 

 and others have resulted in as satisfactory a 

 classification as exists in the animal kingdom, 

 and it is rather a pity that in the choice of new 

 figures, none of the classic illustrations show- 

 ing stages of development in these groups were 

 selected. Whether the vertebrate classes will 

 be treated with equal conservatism remains 

 to be seen when the second volume appears. 



TERTIARY ELASMOBRANCHS FROM SOUTHERN 

 ITALY. 



Those interested in the distribution of Ter- 

 tiary elasmobranchs will find this memoir of 

 Dr. Pasquale,* a student of Professor F. Bas- 

 sani at Naples, particularly useful, not only 

 on account of the new data it contains, but 

 also because of the careful comparisons the 

 author has made with the type specimens of 

 older writers, resulting in many cases in re- 

 vised determinations. The various tables 

 given at the end of the memoir are of great 

 convenience. Signorina Pasquale has done 

 for the Italian faunas what Leriche has re- 

 cently accomplished in praiseworthy manner 

 for the Belgian, in his memoir published by 

 the Brussels Museum, and it is to be hoped 

 that other localities will be taken up by pale- 

 ichthyologists in similar close detail. 



J0RASSIC pishes from SPANISH LITHOGRAPHIO 

 LIMESTONE. 



Since the discovery made by L. Vidal a year 

 or two ago of the occurrence of lithographic 

 stone in northeastern Spain exactly com- 

 parable to that found in Bavaria and central 

 Prance, a number of fossil remains have been 



* ' Revisione dei Selaciane Fossili,' by Maria 

 Pasquale, Atti Accad. Sci. Napoli, Vol. XII., No. 

 2, 1903. 



