810 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 519. 



Usage. — If ' use is the law of language ' 

 then the supporters of ' glucinum ' have little 

 upon which to base their argument. By far 

 the larger number of investigators of the ele- 

 ment and its compounds have used and are 

 using ' beryllium.' All the leading chemical 

 journals of the world with the exception of 

 those in the French language give preference 

 to the latter term and in most cases use it 

 exclusively. The German, Swedish and Dutch 

 chemists who have the greater number of 

 original articles to their credit use no other. 

 Italians use ' berillio ' from the same root. 

 English journals until recently used the name 

 prefered by the particular author but they 

 have now almost ceased to put even the ' glu- 

 cinum, see beryllium ' in their indexes. 



Por American chemists to attempt to bring 

 the world to the use of ' glucinum ' when by 

 far the majority of chemical journals have 

 dropped it even as a synonym is, in my opin- 

 ion, worse than useless even if there was a 

 preponderance of argument in its favor. 



Charles Lathrop Parsons. 



New Hampshire College, 

 November 11, 1904. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



CLIMATE OF BALTIMORE. 



The Maryland Weather Service has issued 

 a valuable ' Report on the Climate and 

 Weather of Baltimore and Vicinity,' by Dr. 

 O. L. Fassig, section director of the U. S. 

 Weather Bureau in Baltimore, and in charge 

 of meteorological instruction in Johns Hop- 

 kins University. This volume (' Special Pub- 

 lication,' Vol. II., Part la., 1904) was pre- 

 ceded, in 1899, by Vol. I., in which a report 

 on the physiography of Maryland was followed 

 by papers on ' The Aims and Methods of 

 Meteorological Work, Especially as Conducted 

 by State Weather Services,' by Professor 

 Cleveland Abbe ; ' A Sketch of the Progress of 

 Meteorology in Maryland and Delaware,' by 

 Dr. O. L. Fassig, and an ' Outline of the Pres- 

 ent Knowledge of the Meteorology and Clima- 

 tology of Maryland,' by F. J. Walz. The 

 present report is modelled on the lines of 

 climatological discussions laid down by 

 Hann, in his ' Handbuch der Klimatologie,' 



Vol. I., and is the first, in point of complete- 

 ness and thoroughly scientific quality, of 

 American publications on the climatology of 

 special areas. There are numerous graphic 

 illustrations of the variations of the different 

 elements, which help greatly in an adequate 

 understanding of the conditions discussed. 

 Each element is considered with reference to 

 ■ (a) its diurnal period, (h) its annual period, 

 and (c) its variability, or non-periodic aspects 

 of long and short duration. In the present 

 issue. Part la, atmospheric pressure and tem- 

 perature are considered. The discussion of 

 humidity, precipitation, cloudiness and sun- 

 shine, and winds, is reserved for a later issue, 

 now in press. Part II. will concern 

 ' Weather.' Dr. Fassig is to be congratulated 

 on the successful accomplishment of what has 

 certainly been an arduous task. He has the 

 satisfaction of knowing that he has given 

 American climatology an impetus which it 

 sadly needed. 



CYCLONES OF THE FAR EAST. 



In 1897 there was published by the Manila 

 Observatory a monograph entitled, ' Baguios 

 6 Ciclones filipinos,' in which Father Jose 

 Algue, S.J., director of that institution, sum- 

 marized what was then known concerning the 

 typhoons of the Philippine Islands. A Ger- 

 man translation, by Dr. Paul Bergholz, ap- 

 peared in 1900, under the title, ' Die Orkane 

 des fernen Ostens,' and an English translation 

 of Dr. Bergholz's translation, by Dr. R. H. 

 Scott, was published in 1901. In an enlarged 

 edition, with the addition of newer material, 

 and of a more complete discussion, we now have 

 a volume of 283 quarto pages (Manila, 1904), 

 issued as a ' Special Report of the Director of 

 the Philippine Weather Bureau,' and bearing 

 the stamp. Department of the Interior, 

 Weather Bureau. The title has been changed 

 to ' The Cyclones of the Far East,' because the 

 field covered is larger than that in the case 

 of the first edition of ' Baguios 6 Ciclones 

 filipinos.' Among the more notable additions 

 to the new edition are a fourth part, dealing 

 with practical rules for navigating, and giving 

 a list of ports of refuge in the far east, espe- 

 cially in the Philippine Archipelago; a new 



