December 25, 1896. J 



SCIENCE. 



937 



of central France, but the cranial type in 

 other respects is not the same. 



DISTRIBUTION OF ARCH^OLOGICAL ARTEFACTS 

 IN AMERICA. 



A VALUABLE article by Mr. A. E. Doug- 

 lass appears in the Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History for October 

 26th. It explains the arrangement adopted 

 by him for his extensive collection of Ameri- 

 can aboriginal relics. The aim is "to en- 

 able the students to determine with the 

 least labor to what class any object in his 

 possession properly belongs, and, by com- 

 parative study, to decide how it was used." 



The geographical distribution of the vari- 

 ous forms is discussed at length, and pre- 

 sented at the close of the paper in an elab- 

 orate table. 



Mr, Douglass calls especial attention to 

 the need of a uniform nomenclature for 

 American archaeology, and adds, " a point 

 has been reached when this matter could 

 and should be definitely settled," and offers 

 the valuable suggestion that the Anthropo- 

 logical Section of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science should ap- 

 point a committee for the purpose. 



D. G. Brinton. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



CURRENT N0JE8 ON METEOROLOGY. 

 THE MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 



There was a time when the Monthly 

 Weather Review of our Weather Bureau was 

 anything but an interesting publication, 

 for it contained little besides meteorological 

 summaries and statistics. During the past 

 two years, however, under the editorship of 

 Prof. Cleveland Abbe, to whom meteorology 

 in this country owes so much, the Review has 

 taken on more of a popular character, and 

 it now presents every month not only the 

 usual tables and summaries, but a consid- 

 erable number of longer or shorter papers 

 and notes on different meteorological sub- 



jects. These papers come mostly from the 

 professors and observers of the Bureau, 

 although outsiders also contribute. Prof. 

 Abbe himself prepares each month a set of 

 ' Notes by the Editor.' The Monthly Weather 

 Review, with the strong backing of the 

 Weather Bureau, is doing successfully a 

 good share of the work which the American 

 Meteorological Journal carried on in this 

 country for twelve years and which, as it 

 did not receive sufficient financial support, 

 it was obliged to discontinue last April. 

 The September number of the Review pre- 

 sents an unusually large number of inter- 

 esting articles, and an idea of their scope 

 may be obtained by noting some of their 

 titles and authors, which follow : S. P. 

 Fergusson : ' Kite Experiments at the Blue 

 Hill Meteorological Observatory ' and ' A 

 High Kite Ascension at Blue Hill ' (an ac- 

 count of the kite work at Blue Hill, already 

 referred to in these notes, which has given 

 a large number of valuable records from 

 the free air at heights up to over 9,000 feet) ; 

 A. J. Henry : '■ Progressive Movement of 

 Thunderstorms;' Julius Baier: ' Low Pres- 

 ure in the St. Louis Tornado ' (the readings 

 of an aneroid give 26.94 in., with an un- 

 certainty of .20 in., as the minimum at the 

 center) ; Kobert H. Scott : ' The Interna- 

 tional Meteorological Conference at Paris;' 

 Prof C. Abbe: 'Espy and the Franklin 

 Kite Club,' ' Isobars and their Accuracy," 

 ' The First Attempt to Measure Wind 

 Force ' (Sir Isaac Newton, in 1658, deter- 

 mined the force of a gale by jumping in the 

 direction in which the wind was blowing and 

 then in the opposite direction, and measuring 

 the length of the leap in both directions) . 



CLOUD OBSERVATIONS IN TROPICAL PLANTS. 



A RECENT paper by H. B. Boyer, Observer 

 of the Weather Bureau at Key West, Fla., 

 deals with Atmospheric Circulation in Tropical 

 Cyclones as shown by Movements of Clouds. 

 The author's main conclusions are as fol- 



