58 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 497. 



path was five miles long, and 250 yards wide 

 at the point of greatest destruction. The fun- 

 nel-shaped cloud ' had a phosphorescent glow.' 

 Debris from Moundville is reported to have 

 been carried nineteen miles to the northeast. 

 The tornado occurred on the southeast side of 

 a well-marked barometric depression, accord- 

 ing to the usual habit of these disturbances. 



Concerning lightning rods, Professor W. S. 

 Franklin, in the same number of the Review , 

 states that, ' given a good ground connection, 

 then directness of path to ground from the 

 region which is to be protected is so impor- 

 tant that the matter of insulating the rod 

 from the building, either by air spaces or by 

 glass, is of no importance whatever in com- 

 parison. If the path is direct, there is no need 

 of insulation, and if the path is roundabout, 

 effective insulation is not practically feasible.' 



A short article on ' Paths of Storm Centers ' 

 brings together a few essential facts regard- 

 ing the tracks and velocities of cyclones. 



NOTES. 



It is stated (Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc, 

 5XXVI., 39) that the front of the Muir Gla- 

 cier has retreated two and a half miles in four 

 years, which is a higher rate of retrogression 

 than has been observed before. The present 

 indications are that the glacier will before 

 long cease to reach tide water. 



During 1903 Mr. W. G. Black, of Edin- 

 burgh, collected in an open dish, 8J inches 

 square, 17 ounces of ' dust and soot.' This 

 would give a fall of 32 ounces per square foot. 



R. DeC. Ward. 



WILLIAM HENRY PETTEE. 



The senate of the University of Michigan 

 has adopted the following memorial as offered 

 by the committee. Professors Preseott and 

 Demmon : 



Again the university senate has been sorely 

 stricken, and we are called to record the loss 

 of another of our beloved members. Por 

 nearly thirty years he has sat with us in all 

 our deliberations, scrupulously attentive to 

 every official duty, thoroughly informed on all 

 university affairs, courteous, firm and wise. 

 Possessed of a genial and kindly nature, of 



refined sensibilities and a wide culture, he 

 early won the respect and affection of his col- 

 leagues and held these steadily to the end. 

 He has gone from us honored by many years 

 of valuable service to the university, and his 

 loss must continue to be felt in many ways 

 for a long time to come. It seems peculiarly 

 fitting that the senate should come together 

 and spread upon its records some expression 

 of the esteem and love with which we cherish 

 his memory and of our high regard for his 

 services in the great cause of learning, services 

 to which his life was devoted without reserve. 



Professor Pettee died at his home on Hay 

 26, 1904. He was engaged in his regular 

 duties in the university up to the last evening 

 before his death, but his health had been im- 

 paired for nearly a year and his physician 

 had informed him of the uncertain tenure of 

 his life. 



William Henry Pettee was born in Newton 

 Upper Falls, Mass., January 13, 1838, of rep- 

 resentative New England parentage. His 

 father was a manufacturer of cotton fabrics 

 and of mill machinery. In boyhood his stu- 

 dious tastes had to be restrained and his college 

 preparation delayed out of regard to his some- 

 what slender bodily frame. He entered Har- 

 vard College at nineteen years of age, took 

 high rank in the required classical course of 

 that period, was selected to deliver a Latin 

 oration in the junior year, and graduated with 

 distinction in the class of 1861. He continued 

 in graduate studies in the same university for 

 over three years, receiving the degree of 

 master of arts in 1864, studying at first in the 

 engineering work of the Lawrence Scientific 

 School and then in the college, where at the 

 same time he was an assistant in chemistry 

 under Professor Josiah Parsons Cooke, Irving 

 professor of chemistry and mineralogy and 

 then well known as an author. Mr. Pettee 

 had taken chemistry as his elective subject 

 in his junior year. Of his remaining oppor- 

 tunity for election he had chosen Spanish, in 

 this having the pleasure of reciting for a year 

 and a half to James Russell Lowell. As a 

 chemical assistant, 1863-65, he taught the re- 

 quired chemical physics to the sophomore class 

 and had charge of the elective section of the 



