December 18, 1003.] 



SCIENCE. 



79o 



the behavior of Pole by the French coniinis- 

 sion, will be looked for with interest. 



ISR.\EL C. RfSSEI.L. 



CUIiltEyT NOTES ON UETEOROLOUY. 



METEOROLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES. 



It is likely that but few persons will be 

 perfectly satisfied with any single volume of 

 the ' International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature,' but the help to be gained from 

 the different volumes is so great that it seems 

 rather ungrateful to make adverse comments. 

 Any one who has endeavored to keep a com- 

 plete card catalogue of the current literature 

 in even one science will necessarily appreciate 

 these volumes much more fully than he who 

 has not spent many weary hours in the mo- 

 notonous labor of copying titles from scientific 

 journals. The writer has, since 1887, the 

 date with which the ' Signal Service Bibliog- 

 raphy of Meteorology ' ended, kept for his 

 own use, and that of his students, a fairly 

 complete card catalogue of meteorological lit- 

 erature, not only of original articles, but also 

 of notes, abstracts and reviews. To him, 

 therefore, the publication of the ' International 

 Catalogue,' unsatisfactory as it is in many 

 respects, means the relief from cataloguing to 

 which reference has just been made, and this 

 means the addition of just so many more 

 hours to constructive work. 



The chief complaint which is to be made 

 regarding the first volume on meteorology 

 (1901) of the ' International Catalogue ' is 

 the entire omission of the Meteorologische 

 Zeitschrift. The Zeitschrift is by far the 

 most important of all meteorological journals, 

 and no one can pretend to keep up with the 

 progress of the science who does not see this 

 publication regularly. It is evident, moreover, 

 that Austrian publications as a whole were 

 neglected, for we miss also the Sitzungsher- 

 ichle and the Denkschriften der Wiener 

 Akademie der Wissenschaficn, which have 

 always contained valuable contributions to 

 meteorology. Furthermore, Dr. ITann, whose 

 writings on meteorology are among the most 

 important the world over, and who by common 

 consent stands in the very front rank of 



meteorologists and climatologists, appears in 

 this volume only as the author of the ' Lehr- 

 buch der ileteorologie ' and of one article, of 

 comparatively little note, published in the 

 Geographische Zeitschrift. It is almost in- 

 conceivable that this volume should have been 

 allowed to appear without any mention of the 

 Zeitschrift and of the Vienna Academy pub- 

 lications. Doubtless the mistake will be 

 rectified in the 1902 issue, and it certainly 

 should be. 



There are a number of misprints. Among 

 them we have noted the spelling of Dr. Kop- 

 pen's name as Koppen; of Meleorologie as 

 Meterologie, etc. Nevertheless, with all its 

 imperfections — and we do not propose to de- 

 bate here the question of the classification 

 which has been adopted by the International 

 Council — the 1901 volume on meteorology of 

 the catalogue will be received by many workers 

 in meteorology, as it has been by the writer, 

 with a grateful feeling of relief. 



While considering meteorological bibliogra- 

 phies, it is to be hoped that an appropriation 

 from the Carnegie fund may be made with o 

 view to comiileting and printing the ' Signal 

 Service Bibliography ' above alluded to. The 

 few copies of that publication which were sent 

 out, in the very crude form which was alone 

 possible at the time of its issue, but empha- 

 sized the importance of the work. It would 

 be a very great help to meteorologists and 

 other persons who have need to refer to 

 meteorological literature, if the ' Signal Ser- 

 vice Bibliography ' could at last be completed 

 and properly printed. 



As regards current meteorological bibliog- 

 raphies, these are now published regularl.v in 

 three journals, the Meteorologische Zeit- 

 schrift, the Monthly Weather Review and the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society. With these lists coming in from 

 month to month, and with the annual list in 

 the ' International Catalogue,' the lot of 

 working meteorologists and climatologist.s, as 

 well as of teachers and students of these 

 branches of science, is made much easier than 

 it was a year or so ago. 



R. DeC. Ward. 



