658 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XVIII. No. 464. 



new hair hj'grometer, exhibited by Pro- 

 fessor Pernter as superior to the psychrom- 

 eter. A commission, consisting of Sir 

 Norman Loclcyer, Dr. Shaw, Professor 

 Pernter and M. Angot, was appointed to 

 consider the study of the relations of solar 

 phj^sics to meteorology, and it was decided 

 to support the resolutions of the Royal 

 Saxon Academy of Sciences relative to the 

 organization of investigations in atmos- 

 pheric electricity. After hearing Professor 

 Hergesell's report on the progress in ex- 

 ploring the atmosphere with kites and 

 balloons, the continuation of this work, 

 especially its prosecution in England, was 

 recommended, and the writer's project, to 

 explore the atmosphere above the tropical 

 oceans by means of kites flown from a steam- 

 ship, received hearty endorsement. It was 

 announced that the committee for scien- 

 tific aeronautics would meet at St. Peters- 

 burg next August, and that the general 

 committee would assemble at Innsbruck in 

 September, 1905. Dr. Snellen resigned 

 from the committee, in consequence of his 

 retirement as director of the meteorological 

 service of the Netherlands, and was suc- 

 ceeded by M. Lancaster, chief of the me- 

 teorological service of Belgium. Professor 

 Hellmann, who had recently taken Pro- 

 fessor von Bezold 's place on the committee, 

 agreed to codify the resolutions that had 

 been adopted at the various meetings since 

 the Vienna Congress of 1873. 



In the Physical Section of the British 

 Association meteorology also predominated, 

 the chief topics discussed being the rela- 

 tions of solar activity to meteorology and 

 the exploration of the upper atmosphere. 

 Great interest was manifested in the use 

 of kites for the latter purpose, and this 

 was especially gratifying to the writer, 

 who first advocated the method at the 

 Liverpool meeting of the Association in 

 1896, and in consequence of the growing 

 interest has since presented annual reports 



of the results obtained with kites at Blue 

 Hill and on the Atlantic Ocean. The 

 Physical Section was divided into two sub- 

 sections, and in one of these meteorology 

 was recognized as a distinct branch of 

 physics. Dr. Shaw was chairman of the 

 department of astronomy and meteorology, 

 and it is believed that his introductory ad- 

 dress is the first treating exclusively of 

 meteorology which has been given before 

 the Association for many years. The sub- 

 ject was 'Methods of Meteorological In- 

 vestigation, ' and after mentioning the good 

 work accomplished by the several members 

 of the committee and by others, Dr. Shaw 

 declared that meteorology in Gi'eat Britain 

 needed the aid of the universities. The 

 topic of simultaneous solar and terrestrial 

 changes was introduced by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer's paper, in which, from a com- 

 parison of rainfall and barometric obser- 

 vations in India with solar prominences, 

 the author eonehided that the latter 

 are not only the primary factors in the 

 magnetic and atmospheric changes occur- 

 ring in our sun, but that they are also the 

 instigators of the terrestrial variations. 

 (This paper is reprinted in Science, pp. 

 611-623.) Professor Hildebrandsson con- 

 firmed the general conclusions of Sir Nor- 

 man as to the 'surgings' of the barometric 

 pressure, while Professor Hellmann and 

 Dr. Buchan corroborated the coincidence 

 found between rainfall and sunspots, using 

 the data for other years. Father A. L. 

 Gortie, of Stonyhurst, spoke of the recent 

 researches made by Father Sidgreaves, Dr. 

 Chree and himself on the question of the 

 relation between sun spots and terrestrial 

 magnetism. Sir Norman Loekyer, he said, 

 had raised the question as to whether 

 prominences might not supply the place of 

 sun spots in eases where a great magnetic 

 storm was unaccompanied b.y sun spots. 

 By a series of observations he had made, 

 and by the observations of Father Fenyi, 



