314 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 453. 



the moving particle has or has not already a 

 velocity X in the direction of the a;-asis, is the 

 case in which the kinetic energy is simply 

 dependent upon X" + Z". 



Not directly connected with this matter of 

 the dynamics of the electron, but of great in- 

 terest, is the question of the amount of elec- 

 trical energy stored in the electric field which 

 surrounds an electron. Taking the data which 

 have been obtained from experiments on cath- 

 ode rays, it appears that a number of electrons 

 sufficient to weigh a gram have associated 

 with them about 6.10'^ joules (or 40 million 

 million foot-pounds) of energy when sta- 

 tionary. That is, estimating that a hot gas 

 radiates 5 watts per gram, the total electron 

 energy associated with an atom would last for 

 a hundred million million million oscillations 

 of full intensity before it were all exhausted 

 by radiation, or rather the energy associated 

 with a pair of rotating electrons would last 

 for a hundred million million million periods 

 before it were all radiated. This gives us 

 some insight into the matter rhentioned in the 

 foregoing note on the interference of light 

 with great path difference. It is probable that 

 the limit of path difference which will produce 

 interference is determined by frequency of 

 molecular collisions rather than by diminished 

 amplitude of atomic oscillations between col- 

 lisions. 



Another matter of interest, growing out of 

 the excessively small size of the electron, 

 vastly smaller than the atom, is that the elec- 

 trons are always at great distances apart in 

 comparison with their size, so that the varia- 

 tions of total energy due to different forms 

 of electron aggregation are but a small frac- 

 tion of the total energy. Thus the diminu- 

 tion of energy accompanying the formation 

 of a gram of water is only about 16,000 joules 

 or one four-thousand-millionth part of the 

 total electron energy. 



Another matter of interest is that the volume 

 integral of ether stress — which may be the 

 fundamental cause of gravitation — is inde- 

 pendent of states of electron aggregation to 

 about the same degree of approximation as 

 above pointed out for electron energy. 



W. S. F. 



CVRREy'T NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 

 JIARCH WE.\THER PROVERBS. 



Mr. B. C. Webber, acting director of the 

 Meteorological Service of Canada, contributes 

 a paper on ' March Winds ' to a recent num- 

 ber of the Monthly Weather Eeview (Vol. 

 XXXL, No. 3). On the basis of thirty 

 years' records for Ontario, Quebec and the 

 Maritime Provinces, it appears that there is a 

 considerable decrease in the number of days 

 with high winds in March, as compared with 

 the three preceding months; that the month 

 of March has fewer cold winds than February ; 

 that the snowfall of March is very much less 

 than during the preceding winter months, and 

 that there is nothing in the records for the 

 past thirty years to justify the assumption that 

 ' if March comes in like a lion it goes out 

 like a lamb.' Thus do many of the ' popular ' 

 sayings about the weather often prove to be 

 without foundation in fact when they are con- 

 fronted with the results of meteorological ob- 

 servations. The results of the investigation 

 along somewhat similar lines, by W. B. Stock- 

 man, of the U. S. Weather Bureau, are dis- 

 cussed in the May Review. . 



HEIGHT OF THE SEA BREEZE. 



Observations as to the height of the diurnal 

 sea breeze are few in number, albeit of con- 

 siderable importance. By means of a captive 

 balloon, sent up from Coney Island a number 

 of years ago, it was found that the average 

 height at .which the cool inflow from the 

 ocean was replaced by the upper warm out- 

 flow from the land was from 500 to 600 feet. 

 At Toulon, in 1893, the height of the sea 

 breeze was found to be about 1,300 feet, and a 

 distinct off-shore current was found between 

 1,900 and 2,000 feet. More recently (1902), 

 on the west coast of Scotland, Dines, using 

 kites, has noted that the kites would not rise 

 above 1,500 feet on sunny afternoons, when 

 the on-shore breeze was blowing (Quart. 

 Journ. Roy. Met. 8oc., April, 1903). 



STORMS OF THE GREAT LAKES. 



For some years the Weather Bureau has 

 been giving special attention to the storms 

 which occur over the Great Lakes, with a view 



