Mat 31, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



845 



stations which do not make aerial sound- 

 ings their chief work. The quarterly as- 

 censions will be made during three consec- 

 utive days, on dates to be named hereafter. 

 It is recommended that the trajectories of 

 the baHons-soTides, and of the pilot bal- 

 loons, when only these are used, should be 

 determined by angular measurements and 

 that the same thing be done for clouds. 

 It is also desirable, as General Rykat- 

 chef has suggested, to have at least one 

 temporary station for these international 

 observations in the midst of the great 

 Asiatic anti-cyclone, especially in winter. 

 If this can be established the observations 

 should last seven days instead of three 

 days, that is to say, two days before and 

 two days after the normal days. 



A subcommission consisting of Messrs. 

 Teisserene de Bort, Berson, Hergesell, 

 Koppen, De Quervain and Roteh decided to 

 adopt Professor Koppen 's proposition to 

 publish' a compendium of the best methods 

 of sounding the atmosphere, for which the 

 several establishments actually conducting 

 such investigations will be consulted and 

 the publication made by the Inter- 

 national Coromission. The subcommission 

 also recommended that a form of publica- 

 tion, similar to that used by the Deutsche 

 Seewarte, be adopted for statistics relating 

 to the kite flights and that a similar resume 

 for balloon ascensions be used by the in- 

 stitutions participating in them. 



The commission expressed its satisfaction 

 that atmospheric soundings had been 

 begun by the United States Weather Bu- 

 reau on Mount Weather and hoped that 

 they might be extended to other stations of 

 the service. 



The conference agreed with Major 

 Moedebeck that it would be useful for sci- 

 entific as well as for ordinary balloon 

 ascensions, if, on the topographic maps of 

 the various states there should be indicated 

 in red the location of collections of lights 



which could serve to orient the aeronaut 

 at night, and if the lines of high electrical 

 potential, and also the places which were 

 sheltered from wind, should be marked on 

 the maps. 



The propositions of Professor Assmann, 

 relative to the meetings, were adopted in 

 this modified form: The commission shall 

 meet but once in three years, unless there 

 is special reason for assembling earlier. 

 The reunions are intended to consider the 

 organization of the work and to discuss 

 methods and instruments, scientific com- 

 munications being relegated to the last and 

 only presented then if time allows. 



It was the sense of the meeting that the 

 entertainments in honor of the commission 

 should be restricted henceforth and at the 

 present convention they had been mostly 

 combined with technical demonstrations of 

 aeronautical apparatus in the exposition 

 and elsewhere. Thus, on one excursion to 

 Pavia the aero-dynamical observatory 

 of Signor Gamba was inspected. After- 

 wards the university was visited and a 

 lunch tendered by the municipality. 

 On another excursion to Lake Maggiore, 

 through the courtesy of Signor Mangili, 

 president of the exposition committee, 

 experiments in flying kites and libera- 

 ting iallons-sondes from a steamboat, were 

 attempted, although without much success. 

 After the close of the meeting members of 

 the congress had the opportunity of ma- 

 king balloon ascensions, under ideal condi- 

 tions of weather, in eight balloons which 

 rose from the exposition grounds and 

 landed not far from Milan, a few hours 

 later. A. Lawrence Rotch 



Blue Hill Meteokological Obsebvatobt, 

 Hyde Paek, Mass. 



THE DANGER OF OVERSPEGIALIZATIOW- 

 In the ever-recurring discussion of our 

 'Read before the meeting of April 5, 1907, of 

 the New York Section of the American Chemical 

 Society. 



