246 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. S 



humanizing or personifying the plant through 

 attributing to it various human concepts, such 

 as fear, reason and the like. 



Burton E. Livingston 

 The Desekt Labokatcey 



NOTES ON METEOSOLOGl AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 



Eapid progress is being made in the United 

 States in the opportunities for instruction 

 offered to students in meteorology and clima- 

 tology. Moreover, college students, especially 

 those in medicine, engineering, agriculture 

 and forestry, are showing an increasing inter- 

 est in these sciences. At the University of 

 Minnesota, where instruction in meteorology 

 was first given only four years ago, the classes 

 under Professor E. M. Lehnerts last year 

 numbered eighty-seren students, being the 

 largest in this branch of science in the coun- 

 try. At the University of Wisconsin there is 

 now a separate department of meteorology in 

 which three courses open to undergraduates 

 and four courses open to graduates and under- 

 graduates are given by Mr. Eric E. MiUer, of 

 the U. S. Weather Bureau. As a result of the 

 policy of the university to cooperate with the 

 scientific branches of the national govern- 

 ment, the local office of the Weather Bureau 

 is located in one of its buildings. North Hall, 

 and the ofiScial in charge lectures in the uni- 

 versity. A similar situation is found at 

 Johns Hopkins University. At the Univer- 

 sity of Nevada instruction in meteorology 

 will be offered for the first time during the 

 coming college year. It will be given by Mr. 

 S. P. Fergusson, formerly of Blue Hill Ob- 

 servatory, who during the past year has had 

 charge of the meteorological work at the Ex- 

 periment Station in Eeno. Mr. W. G. Eeed, 

 Jr., for several years past an assistant under 

 Professor Ward in Harvard University, goes 

 to the University of California at the begin- 

 ning of the new year to teach meteorology 

 and climatology. 



A NEW edition of the " International Cloud 

 Atlas " has just been prepared by MM. A. 

 Hildebrandsson and L. Teisserenc de Bort, to 



whom the publication of the work has been 

 entrusted by the International Meteorological 

 Committee. The first edition of the atlas, 

 which appeared in 1895, was soon out of print, 

 but it accomplished its purpose — interna- 

 tional uniformity in cloud nomenclature and 

 the recording and publication of cloud data 

 by means of symbols. At the International 

 Meteorological Conference at Innsbruck in 

 1905 certain improvements were suggested, 

 and these have been incorporated in the new 

 edition. The latter consists of complete defi- 

 nitions of the various kinds of clouds and in- 

 structions to observers, all printed in three 

 languages, together with twenty-nine photo- 

 graphs of the various types of clouds, which, 

 with their backgrounds, are shaded and col- 

 ored as in nature. Only clouds of typical 

 form are shown, making it an easy matter 

 for one to recognize the various kinds of 

 clouds and to learn the names by which they 

 are known. The more important changes 

 made in the second edition as a result of the 

 resolutions of the Innsbruck Conference are 

 the following: (1) Stratus cloud is defined as 

 " a uniform layer of cloud resembling a fog 

 but not resting on the ground," instead of " a 

 horizontal sheet of lifted fog." The com- 

 plete absence of details of structure differen- 

 tiates stratus from other compact cloud 

 forms. (2) A new term, lenticularis, is used 

 for certain cloud forms, particularly frequent 

 on days of sirocco, mistral or foehn, which 

 have an oval shape and occasionally show iri- 

 sation. Clouds of this kind are cumulus lenti- 

 cularis and stratus lenticularis. (3) Observ- 

 ers are urged to designate, by means of a 

 special symbol, a cloud which is specially 

 characteristic of its type, or a cloud from 

 which rain falls. (4) Distinction is also made 

 between a fog which wets exposed surfaces 

 and one in which exposed surfaces remain 

 dry. 



Eepresentatives of the weather services of 

 two foreign countries visited the United 

 States recently to study the methods used 

 here. One was Professor Torahiko Terada, of 

 Tokio, Japan, who is at present on a tour 



