NOYEMBEE 17, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



687 



purely geometrical work that precedes. Here 

 again a treatment of deformable bodies and 

 of elasticity is added to the more usual treat- 

 ment of the mechanics of rigid bodies. 



As a whole the work seems a most satis- 

 factory compilation, to which the author has 

 added materially by careful readjusting and 

 supplementing existing work. The bibliog- 

 raphy and references are good. 



In being late, the present review has the 

 advantage of referring the readers to a num- 

 ber of admirable reviews already in print; 

 among those most readily accessible are : E. 

 S. Ball, Nature, LXXXI., July, 1909, p. 34; 

 Longley, Bull. Amer. Math. Soc, XVI., 1910, 

 p. 493; Revue Oenerale des Sciences, 21, 

 1910, p. 15. Of these, that by Ball in Na- 

 ture is of course the most interesting on ac- 

 count of the close relation he holds to this 

 theory. 



E. E. Hedeiok 



GoTTiNGEN, Germany, 

 August, 1911 



Material for Permanent Painting. A Manual 

 for Manufacturers, Art Dealers, Artists and 

 Collectors. By Maximilian Toch. New 

 York, D. Van Nostrand Co. Pp. 208. 

 Price, $2.00. 



It would seem that Mr. Toch had gotten 

 into this small compass practically all that an 

 artist need know about his materials from the 

 standpoint of permanency. Judging from 

 the author's name, one would expect a work 

 dealing solely with pigments: only about half 

 of the book is so employed, the remainder 

 consisting of interesting chapters on the his- 

 tory of painting, preparation of canvasses and 

 other foundations, the causes and remedies 

 for cracking of paintings, their renovation, 

 and the oils and other media used in their 

 production. The articles on the photochem- 

 ical effects of light and the proper use of 

 madder are especially noteworthy and merit 

 careful study. 



Some slight slips in proof reading or un- 

 usual spellings are in evidence as, quick silver 

 (two words), cinibar, sulphureted, tuscan, 

 Vanquelin and Guinet; but these wiU doubt- 



less disappear in the next edition. Indian yel- 

 low is stated to be made from camel dung, 

 whereas the commonly accepted source is cow 

 urine. 



The work admirably fills a long-felt want 

 and a good knowledge of its contents should 

 be part of the equipment of every painter. 

 A. H. Gill 



NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND 

 CLIMATOLOGY 

 The Savannah-Charleston hurricane of Au- 

 gust 27-28, 1911, has been made the subject 

 of a special report by the United States 

 Weather Bureau. This storm resulted in the 

 loss of 17 lives, while the damage to property 

 was estimated at $1,000,000. The synoptic 

 weather charts which form a part of the bul- 

 letin show that the storm lingered oif the 

 coast for four days before its approach was 

 detected on shore. Though no wireless re- 

 ports concerning the hurricane had been re- 

 ceived, the weather officials in the two cities 

 mentioned observed the characteristics which 

 usually precede such a storm on the morning 

 of August 27. Acting upon orders from the 

 Washington office, they immediately sent out 

 cautionary warnings. The wind continued to 

 increase, and twelve hours later reached a 

 velocity of 106 miles per hour in Charleston. 

 The center of the hurricane reached the coast 

 near Savannah at 8 a.m. of the 28th, the ba- 

 rometer at that station reading 29.02 inches. 

 Moving thence inland, it passed through 

 eastern Georgia with diminishing intensity, 

 recurved over North Carolina, on a course 

 east-northeastward, and passed to sea off the 

 New Jersey coast. It is a noteworthy fact 

 that no storm of tropical or semi-tropical 

 origin has reached the southern or eastern 

 coasts of the United States without warning 

 since September, 1893, when a disturbance of 

 marked intensity devastated the Louisiana 

 coast. At the present time the Weather 

 Bureau is looking forward to the establish- 

 ment of a service whereby observers regularly 

 employed aboard coast-wise vessels would re- 

 port weather conditions twice daily to the 

 central office, and thus to provide early infor- 



