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bound to stay and to increase in number and 

 in extent of the facilities tbey afford. Already 

 there are about a dozen permanent laboratories 

 located upon our two coasts, while there are 

 several more upon our inland waters. But it 

 is in Europe that these stations have their 

 greatest development, and it is of these that 

 Dr. Kofoid has given a most valuable account. 

 The arrangement of his book is geographical 

 and quite naturally begins with the celebrated 

 Stazione Zoologica of Naples, despite the fact 

 that the station at Concarneau (France) was 

 the first permanent laboratory to be located on 

 the shore (1859). Then follow, in order, the 

 laboratories of France, Great Britain, Ger- 

 many, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, Hol- 

 land, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Russia and 

 Bulgaria. Of each a history is given, usually 

 illustrated with photographs and plans, of 

 great value to all who have to do with the 

 planning, equipment and management of bio- 

 logical stations in any part of the world. The 

 volume will also be of great use to those who 

 wish to avail themselves of the facilities of 

 these stations, for it gives lists of the officials, 

 conditions on which workers are admitted, 

 lists of instruments and apparatus available, 

 extent of libraries, and states whether price 

 lists of specimens for sale are issued. 



Especially valuable to all who have to do 

 with laboratories, whether of biological sta- 

 tions or of our high schools and colleges, are 

 the notes upon aquaria and the different 

 methods of their construction, the pumps, 

 tubing, valves and tanks of the water supply, 

 and the different methods of aerating water 

 and the rearing of larvse and other forms. 

 Thus we are told the composition of the 

 Naples aquarium cement (equal parts of 

 whiting and red lead, made into a stiff putty 

 with boiled linseed oil) and the value of the 

 " mastic de Cette," used for the same purpose. 

 In connection with many of the stations a 

 statement is made of the annual expenditure 

 within recent years, from which we learn that 

 the running expenses of the Naples station are 

 about $40,000; Helgoland, $18,000; Plymouth, 

 $15,000; the Helder, $10,000, and so on down 

 to Concarneau and Bergen with a budget of 



$1,500 each and Port Erin and Wimereux 

 with a little over $1,000. Others probably 

 have even less. 



In all about eighty marine and fresh-water 

 stations are described, many of them from 

 personal knowledge on the part of Dr. Kofoid, 

 and others from the publications. Besides 

 there are accounts of other institutions which 

 are not laboratories of the same type, but, like 

 the Challenger office, are connected with the 

 investigation of marine life and other prob- 

 lems of oceanography, or like the various fish- 

 eries bureaus, are concerned with economic 

 problems. A good bibliography, to which ref- 

 erences are made in the text, concludes the 

 volume. J. S. K. 



Charts of the Atmosphere. By Abbott 



Lawrence Eotch and Andrew H. Palmer. 



New York, John Wiley & Sons. 1911. 



Oblong 4to, cloth. 



More than half a century ago Lieutenant 

 Maury, of the United States Navy, rendered 

 an invaluable service to mariners by his ex- 

 tended observations of ocean currents. The 

 work which he began is still being carried on, 

 with the result that from year to year new 

 knowledge is gained concerning those aids and 

 hindrances to navigation. 



We now have in aerial research something 

 analogous to the marine work of Maury. 



In 1885, Abbott Lawrence Eotch — now pro- 

 fessor of meteorology in Harvard University 

 — founded the Blue Hill Meteorological Ob- 

 servatory. This is situated on the su mm it of 

 a hiU a few miles south of Boston and is 625 

 feet above sea level. The summit is less than 

 eight miles from the coast line and is the 

 highest elevation, so situated, between Maine 

 and Florida. The observatory is a prominent 

 feature in the landscape and may be seen 

 eastward from Providence-Boston trains about 

 fifteen minutes before reaching the latter city. 



From the time of the foundation to the 

 present, meteorological phenomena have there 

 been continuously observed and recorded. The 

 work still goes on. 



From the beginning Professor Eotch real- 

 ized that the elusive problems which ever con- 



