June 21, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



979 



it is relatively immaterial which branch of 

 higher learning he may make his specialty. 



President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, of the 

 University of California, does not at present 

 intend to accept the position. In the strictest 

 sense he has never been foi-mally offered it, 

 but he did agree, in response to the request of 

 the committee, to come here and talk with the 

 members concerning it. Were he willing to 

 accept the place it would be pressed upon him, 

 an arrangement which amounts to about the 

 same thing as a formal tender. Presidents of 

 state universities are becoming increasingly 

 aware of the advantage that they possess in 

 being freed from the necessity of ' begging,' 

 except, of course, from the single source to 

 which they regularly go for funds. Seeking 

 pecuniary aid among friends of an institution 

 is not an agreeable task. This part of the 

 Boston work is believed to be quite as respon- 

 sible for Dr. Wheeler's present state of mind 

 as anything else, although he in addition real- 

 izes his personal unfamiliarity with a con- 

 siderable range of the institute's educational 

 interests. 



Dr. Pritchett, who resigned the presidency 

 a year and a half ago, and has since been 

 carrying on the leadership of the institute 

 while attending to his other duties, thus 

 shouldering a very heavy responsibility, will 

 definitely terminate his work on his departure 

 for his vacation this summer. It is hardly 

 likely that any serious attempt will be made 

 to secure a president between now and that 

 time, but instead a member of the faculty, or 

 perhaps of the executive committee, will be 

 designated as acting president, to carry on the 

 work until the place can be formally filled. 

 Dartmouth College will be next year in the 

 field looking for a president, too. Increasingly 

 difficult it seems to be in the present com- 

 plexity of university affairs to get the right 

 men for positions of this character. — The Bos- 

 ton Transcript. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY 

 AND CLIMATOLOGY 



MEISSNER's ' METEOROLOGISCHE ELEMENTE ' 



A RECENT book by Otto Meissner, published 

 in the ' Sammlung naturwissenschaftlich- 



paedagogischer Abhandlungen,' deals with the 

 most essential facts of meteorology in a clear 

 and simple way. The full title of the volume 

 is " Die Meteorologische Elemente und ihre 

 Beobachtung, mit Ausblicken auf Witterungs- 

 kunde und Klimalehre. Unterlagen fiir 

 Schulgemasse Behandlung sowie zum Selbst- 

 unterricht." The publisher is Teubner (Ber- 

 lin, 1906, 8vo, pp. 94, figs. 33). The object 

 of this new book, as stated in the title, is to 

 promote meteorological instruction in schools 

 and, by treating the subject in an elementary 

 way, to make it possible for the reader to in- 

 struct himself. Special emphasis is laid, in 

 the final chapter, on the relations between the 

 meteorological elements and organic life, and 

 the simple rules for weather forecasting are 

 adapted to the use of individual observers 

 who wish to make local forecasts. The origin 

 of important technical terms is indicated in 

 foot-notes. Meissner's little volume is hardly 

 adapted for use in teaching -systematic 

 meteorology — it is too disjointed and too 

 superficial for that — but there are numerous 

 suggestions and illustrations which are not 

 found in other books on the same subject. We 

 regret the wholly inadequate statement as to 

 the deflective force of the earth's rotation 

 (p. 39), which gives the impression that north 

 and south winds only are deflected, although 

 later paragraphs state that Perrel's Law acts 

 in the case of all winds. We note (p. 42) 

 that the anti-trades are stated ' wenigstens 

 teilweise ' to descend at the Horse Latitudes, 

 in accordance with Hildebrandsson's view. 

 Undue emphasis is laid (p. 52) on the effect 

 of dust in promoting condensation, no men- 

 tion being included of the effect of ioniza- 

 tion. And it appears (p. 89) as if the effect 

 of deforestation and reforestation were much 

 greater than the best observations lead us to 

 think. Finally we observe one misprint, and 

 a bad one at that. On page 90 Hann is spelt 

 Hamm — and that in a meteorological text- 

 book. 



' INTERNATIONALER METEOROLOGISCHER EODEX ' 



An official ' Internationaler Meteorolog- 

 ischer Kodex ' has been prepared by Drs. Hell- 

 mann and Hildebrandsson (large Svo, Berlin, 



