March 21, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



igt 



sations of heat and cold are due not merely to the temperatui-e of 

 the air, but also to the direct solar radiation and the wind's 

 velocity. Upon this basis, Mr. J. Vincent, the Belgian meteor- 

 ologist, as we learn from Engineering, has experimented on tlie 

 temperature of the exposed surface of the human body, as the 

 hands and face, and given an account of his investigation in Ciel 

 et Terre under the title ' 'Climatological Temperature. ' ' A long 

 series of observations has conducted him to the formula, adapted 



to Falirenheit' s thermometer, 



S- 



- = 1.43, whence S=70.d 



+ 0.34.where99.7° is the interior temperature of the human body ; 

 A , the temperature of the air ; S, the temperature of the exposed skin 

 when in shaded and calm air. Let E be the excess of solar radia- 

 tion above the temperature of the air, V the velocity of the wind 

 in miles per hour ; then C, the climatological temperature, or the 

 temperature of the skin, as influenced by A, E, and V, is 



0=70.3-1-0.3^ -I-0.3A'— V4.34 V. 

 Thus, if 4=48'=', i;=4°, F= 20 miles, then 0=76.3-', and this is 

 the temperature of the exposed skin ; whereas in calm air it would 

 have been 85 S", and in calm and shaded air 84.7^. Here the 

 effect of sunshine is very small. It is often very considerable. 

 Observations carried out in this manner during December, 1889, 

 show that the thermometrioal coldest day, 30.8'', was the 3d; the 

 warmest. 48'', the 24th; whereas the greatest sensation of cold, 

 71.4", wds due to the 9th; of heat, 88.8", to the 15th. Although 

 the air was not so cold on the 9th as on the 3d, it felt colder be- 

 cause there was no wind; and although the 24th was much 

 warmer than the loth, the loth felt warmer because there was much 

 less wind and powerful sunshine. The observations were made 

 at noon. The investigation is exceedingly curious and interest- 

 ing ; gives a direct utility to observations of solar radiation ; and, 

 without doubt, ought to enlist the attention of meteorologists, 

 and be carried out more extensively, for which purpose the origi- 

 nal memoir must of course be consulted. 



Probably it will be found that these relations are only tolerably 

 identical in healthy subjects ; for physiological and pathological 

 influences, as well as those of the weather, determine the bodily 

 sensations. This investigation, however, clearly makes manifest 

 that our individual bodily experience is in several respects quite 

 a diflferent meteorological indicator to the unsentimental ther- 

 mometer. 



KILIMA NJAEO. 



This mountain, as is well known, consists of two summits, 

 the Kibo and the Kimawenzi, connected by a saddle studded with 

 hills of lava. From this saddle Dr. Meyer tried, in 1887, to 

 scale the Kibo (Scottish Ozographicil Magazine) , but had to 

 give up the attempt on account of the weather. Last October 

 he pitched his tent on the saddle, at an elevation of over 14, 000 

 feet, and on the 3d of the month set forth at half -past two in 

 the morning, accompanied by Herr Purtscheller, and provided 

 with the usual equipment of the Alpine climber. During the 

 darkness they made their way to the glacier valley which de- 

 scends from the flanks of Kibo in a south-easterly direction, 

 and at dawn stood on the rocky northern boundary, looking 

 down into the valley nearly 500 feet below. Crossing this 

 valley, the climbers reached the ridge of lava forming its 

 •southern boundary, up which they purposed to make their 

 way to the summit of Kibo. Here they met with the first 

 patches of snow, lying under the protection of the rocks at an 

 elevation of 16,400 feet. 



Their route now led over blocks of stone and heaps of d/bris, 

 up the steep lava ridge, — a toilsome way, — where they had to 

 make frequent halts to recover their breath, for the rarity 

 of the atmosphere became more and more perceptible. Shortly 

 before ten o'clock they came to the lower edge of the icy mantle 

 which encircles the summit and conceals it from view. The 

 height of this spot was about 18,270 feet. The rocky declivity 

 over which the climbers had ascended had an inclination of 30° : 

 the icy wall which rose above it, 35°. Dr. Meyer and his com- 

 panion found it very exhausting work to scale this slope, cut- 

 ting steps, as they advanced, in the ice, which, far from being 



firm at the bottom, became still'^more unsound and uneven 

 as "they ascended" At length the crevasses were crossed, the 

 highest undulation of the ice visible below was surmounted, and 

 at a quarter to two o'clock the climbers stood on the edge of 

 the crater. Here they perceived that the highest point of the 

 crater wall lay about one and a half hours' march to their left 

 on the southern side. Weary as they were, they did not ven- 

 ture to run the risk of being caught in a fog, or of being obliged 

 to bivouac on the mountain-side without any protection against 

 the cold. They therefore turned back, and, after a day of six- 

 teen hours, reached their camp on the saddle, congratulating 

 themselves that at any rate the true nature of the summit 

 had been discovered. Three days later they again went forth, and 

 passed the night in a cave they had remarked in the right side of 

 the glacier valley, whither Dr. Meyer's negro follower carried 

 their blankets, etc. No fuel could be procured; but, con- 

 sidering the elevation, 15,150 feet, the night vcas mild (10.5° 

 F.) , for their bivouac was sheltered from the wind blowing over 

 the glacier. Starting at tliree o'clock, the climbers reached 

 the point where they turned back on the former occasion, at 

 a quarter to nine. It? elevation above the sea-level was 19,230 

 feet. Beyond this point no great difficulties were encountered. 



The edge of ice which runs round the crater slopes gradually 

 up towards the south, where it is pierced by three peaks. It 

 was impossible for the eye to decide which of these three was 

 the highest, and therefore Dr. Meyer ascended all three, and 

 found that the middle one was 50 to 65 feet higher than the 

 others. This, the highest point in German territory, being 

 somewhere about 19,680 feet above the sea-level, he named 

 "Kaiser Wilhelm Spitze." From this position the crater 

 could be well observed. Its diameter is about 6,500 feet, and 

 it sinks to a depth of 650 feet. On the north and east the ice 

 descends from the edge inwards in steep terraces, while on the 

 west and south lava precipices take its place. A little to the 

 north of the centre a slightly arched eruptive cone, composed 

 of dark -brown ashes, rises to a height of 490 feet above the 

 crater bottom. Its upper portion is bare, but its base is cov- 

 ered by a mighty glacier which escapes from the crater through 

 a cleft in its western side. 



About a fortnight later Dr. Meyer visited the northern side 

 of the mountain, where he found the ice mantle much nan-ower 

 than on the other side, beginning at an elevation of 18,820 

 feet, but so steep and hard that only experienced mountaineers 

 would be able to cross it. He also descended through the great 

 eastern cleft into the crater itself. Dr. Meyer also made sev- 

 eral expeditions up Mawenzi, or Kimawenzi. It is evident that 

 a much longer period has elapsed since this crater became ex- 

 tinct, for the whole mountain is riven, eroded, and degraded 

 in a marvellous manner, so that it is both difficult and danger- 

 ous to climb over its rocks. Dr. Meyer considered it vain for 

 two men to attempt the ascent of the highest pinnacle, but he 

 reached the top of another not much lower, which he found to 

 have a height of 17,250 feet. Towards the east the flanks of the 

 mountains sink precipitously. The lava is so friable, and has 

 been so much denuded by wind and rain, that the mountain 

 is reduced to a mouldering skeleton. It is a mass of turrets, 

 pinnacles, pyramids, and battlements, intermingled with heaps 

 of detritus. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Sound- English. A Language for the World. By Adgustin 

 Knoflach. New York, Stechert. 12°. 25 cents. 

 This is another attempt at spelling-reform. The author justly 

 holds that the English language, by its simple structure and its 

 extensive and rapidly increasing prevalence, is entitled to be- 

 come the universal language for international communication. 

 But the present orthogi-aphy of English is an insuperable obstacle 

 to its adoption as the world-language, and this obstacle can only 

 be removed by a phonetic spelling. Apparently, also, he is not 

 satisfied with the phonetic systems that othei-s have proposed, 

 though he offers no criticism of them. His own system has thr-ee 

 essential points, though some of them ai-e not peculiar to it. He 



