July 1, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



15- 



a great variety of other works, illustrating 

 his versatility, his industry and his exten- 

 sive interests. Inaugurating in France the 

 ei-a of railways, he also, as a sequence and 

 as a part of that great work, had a hand in 

 the perfection of their bridges and stations 

 and locomotives and other rolling stock, 

 and in all forms of related constructions, 

 whether architectual or mechanical. He it 

 was who, perhaps more than any other, 

 created the systems of construction, oi'gani- 

 zation and operation of the French rail- 

 ways. In 1848 he was called upon to re- 

 build the old wooden bridge at Asnieres, 

 and showed his originality and boldness 

 by reconstructing it in wrought iron, and, 

 further, in rebuilding it and transferring 

 traflic to it from the temporary construc- 

 tion improvised upon the burning down of 

 the old bridge, without the delay of a single 

 regular train. From that time the substi- 

 tution of iron as a building material for 

 wood, in his work, was a fruitful source of 

 fame. He performed the, as then thought, 

 most marvellous feats and always with suc- 

 cess ; for his computations were always ac- 

 curate and based upon data ascertained by 

 his own experiments and observations to 

 be safe and correct. The framing of expo- 

 sition buildings, in 1878 and in 1889, by 

 Dion, his favorite disciple, and by Con- 

 tamin, his follower, were illustrations of 

 the methods of Flachat. 



Flachat reconstructed the foundations of 

 the cathedral of Bayeux, saved its central 

 toWer from imminent danger of falling, and 

 restored the church, without accident or de- 

 lay, and this after the experts consulted 

 had declared the case beyond remedy. He 

 there used a now common form of support, 

 hollow iron columns, of large diameter, 

 filled with concrete, as substitutes for the 

 failing foundations. 



The memorial erected in Paris is placed 

 by his now few surviving pupils, aided by 

 many friends and numerous admirers, as a 



testimonial of their appreciation of the ser- 

 vice rendered by the great engineer to his 

 country. E. H. T. 



CURRENT NOTES ON 3IETE0ROLOGY. 



mohn's geundzuge dbr meteoeologib. 



Mohn's Grundzuge der Meteorologie has 

 long been one of the favorite text-books of 

 meteorology in Europe. Its author is well 

 known as professor of meteorology at the 

 University of Christiania and Director of 

 the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. 

 The book was first published in Norwegian, 

 and was translated into German by the 

 author himself, the last German edition 

 (the 4th) bearing the date 1887. "We now 

 have a new German edition, the fifth (Ber- 

 lin, Reimer, 1898), enlarged from 364 to 419 

 pages, and with several changes. Among 

 the additions we note a description and a 

 cut of the Assmann aspiration psychrometer 

 and of the Richard thermograph. There is 

 a new chart of mean annual ranges of tem- 

 perature, and the other temperature charts 

 are revised. Mention is made of so recent 

 a phenomenon as the Paris trombe of Sep- 

 tember 10, 1896. The general arrangement 

 of the book is the same as in the former 

 edition, and there is, unfortunately, the 

 same lack of an index. 



VAN bebbee's wettervorheesage. 

 The present year brings us also a new 

 edition, the second, of Van Bebber's Wetter- 

 vorhersage (Stuttgart, Enke, 1898), the first 

 edition being dated 1891. The book is now 

 some forty pages longer than when it was 

 first written, and a new chapter on weather 

 forecasting for several days in advance has 

 been added. The substance of this chapter 

 was contained in a pamphlet by the author, 

 published in 1896, under the title Die Beur- 

 theihmg des Welters auf mehrere Tage voraus. 

 The plan of the work is, in brief, to present 

 by means of a large number of weather 

 charts (over two hundred), arranged 



