738 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIII. No. 854 



Isidore's father and later his antagonist, al- 

 most always referred to Etienne Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire as " M. Geoffroy." In bibliographies 

 and catalogues the respective names are to be 

 found under Barthelemy and Geoffrey. 



These are certainly very few and really un- 

 important blemishes to a work of such general 

 excellence. Before the appearance of the vol- 

 ume, the English-reading peoples were far 

 behind the French and Germans in versions 

 of the " History of Animals." Now we are 

 ahead of all and it will probably be long before 

 it can be superseded by another. Before such 

 shall be the case, the fauna of Greece must be 

 thoroughly explored and doubtless in some 

 sheltered nooks names of animals that have 

 perished in places investigated may be still 

 found in use as in Aristotle's time but under 

 variant modifications. Meanwhile, we shall 

 have reason to congratulate ourselves on the 

 superiority of that which we have. 



Theo. Gill 



NOTES ON METEOSOLOGT AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 

 Though authorities agTee that climate is 

 practically unchangeable, except when geolog- 

 ical time-units are considered, this problem, 

 and especially the corollary relating to mild 

 winters and severe springs, has aroused con- 

 siderable discussion. The backwardness of 

 spring during the last few years in many parts 

 of the United States has caused considerable 

 alarm among those who are directly affected. 

 In Missouri orchardists have begun to ques- 

 tion the policy of continuing the attempt to 

 raise fruit on an extensive commercial scale. 

 In view of these facts, Mr. George Eeeder, 

 section director of the United States Weather 

 Bureau, made a study of the cause of the 

 alarm. His investigation has been summar- 

 ized in a paper, " Late Spring Frosts in Eola- 

 tion to the Fruit Crop of Missouri," which was 

 read at the January meeting of the Missouri 

 State Horticultural Society. It is reprinted 

 in part in the Monthly Weather Review for 

 December, 1910. He points out the fact that 

 the daily minimum temperature, rather than 

 the mean temperature for the day, is the im- 



portant factor, for it is the extreme minimum 

 rather than the mean daily temperature that 

 affects vegetation most. As far as minimum 

 temperatures are concerned, the springs of the 

 last ten years, and particularly the last five 

 years, averaged colder than those of the pre- 

 ceding fifteen years. Not only is the average 

 of the daily minimum temperatures for April 

 and May lower in the last decade than in the 

 preceding two decades, but the frequency of 

 freezing temperatures during these months 

 has been greater of late than formerly. While 

 this is an apparent substantiation of the pop- 

 ular notion that " our climate has changed," 

 he cautions the reader from drawing such a 

 conclusion, suggesting that these changes oc- 

 cur in cycles or oscillations. Data for a suffi- 

 ciently long period are not available for deter- 

 mining the lengths of these cycles, or for fore- 

 casting a change in the present conditions. 

 In conclusion he says, " The popular idea that 

 the climate is changing is evidently an old 

 one, and is caused by the temperature and 

 precipitation conditions remaining for com- 

 paratively short periods below or above the 

 normal conditions; such changes should be 

 referred to as oscillations in the weather 

 rather than as changes in the climate." 



" The Practical Application of Meteorology 

 to Aeronautics," a paper which was read by 

 the author, Mr. W. H. Dines, before the Aero- 

 nautical Society of Great Britain, appears in 

 the Aeronautical Journal for January. He 

 showed that the density, the temperature and 

 especially the motion of the atmosphere are of 

 considerable importance to the aviator. The 

 decrease in density of the air with height re- 

 sults in a loss in supporting power, but since 

 the actual resistance to forward motion be- 

 comes less, gTeater speed is possible. The de- 

 crease of temperature with height renders it 

 necessary for the aviator to wear thicker and 

 therefore heavier clothing. However, by far 

 the most important consideration in this con- 

 nection is the wind, both in respect to velocity 

 and to direction. Wind affects aviation in 

 two ways, (1) by its actual presence, and (2) 

 by its steadiness or gustiness. From data ob- 

 tained by means of kites and balloons, certain 



