July 5, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



33 



Hickman replies in a long letter, wliicli ap- 

 peared in the Times, but his remarks re- 

 fer more to alleged imperfections in American 

 work and the value of protection than to the 

 cause of competition. He asks what evidence 

 exists of 'superior chemical research, technical 

 education, etc.,' and says, "I deny the 'chem- 

 ical research'" mentioned by Lord George 

 Hamilton. Apparently Sir Alfred Hickman 

 attaches no importance to such reports as those 

 prepared for the University of Birmingham and 

 the Manchester Technical Education Com- 

 mittee as to the position of technical education 

 in the United States ; and he can scarcely be 

 familiar with American scientific and technical 

 publications or he would not ' deny the chem- 

 ical research ' with so free a mind. It seems 

 pretty clear, however, that the India Office 

 official who wrote Lord George Hamilton's 

 letter to Sir Alfred Hickman was not the one 

 who expressed views about the chemistry at 

 Coopers Hill and aided the efforts which have 

 strangled the technical education of the officers 

 of the Indian Public Works Department. — 

 Nature. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



CANNON-FIRING TO PREVENT DAMAGE BY 



HAIL. 



A MOST unfortunate report was recently made 

 to the State Department by the United States 

 Consul at Lyons, France. According to the 

 summary of the report published in the daily 

 papers, the consul states that great success has 

 attended the experiment of firing cannon as a 

 means of protecting orchards and vineyards 

 from damage by hail, and goes on to say that 

 cannon firing is now to be used in order to pre- 

 vent or to lessen injury by frost. As Consular 

 Eeports are official documents, and are looked 

 upon by most persons as authoritative, many 

 inquiries naturally came in to the Department 

 of Agriculture, in Washington, as to when the 

 United States Government intended to adopt, 

 or to experiment with, some such method of 

 protection. It therefore became necessary that 

 some official answer should be made to these 

 inquiries, and by direction of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, the Chief of the Weather Bureau 

 recently issued a statement to the press in 



which he says that it is his conviction that " we 

 have here to do with a popular delusion as re- 

 markable as the belief in the effect of the moon 

 on the weather. * * * The great processes go- 

 ing on in the atmosphere are conducted on too 

 large a scale to warrant any man or nation in 

 attempting to control them. * ^ - After the 

 experience that this country has had during 

 the past ten years with rain-makers, I am loth 

 to believe that the bombardment of hailstorms 

 will ever be practiced, or even attempted, in 

 the United States, much less encouraged by the 

 intelligent portion of the community. Every 

 effort should be made to counteract the sj)read 

 of the Italian delusion which has been imported 

 into this country." 



On this recently much-debated question as to 

 the possibility of preventing hail by means of 

 cannonading, Van der Linden, in Ciel et Terre 

 for May 16 sums up the discussion about as 

 follows: "We see, on the one side, many who 

 believe in the new method ; on the other side, 

 sceptics and those who are opposed to the 

 method are calling for clearly established facts 

 before they commit themselves, one way or the 

 other. Under the circumstances, it seems wis- 

 est to await further developments before form- 

 ing an opinion." 



CLIMATE OF MANILA. 



Meteorological data lately published by the 

 Jesuit Observatory, at Manila, are based on 

 pressure, temperature and humidity observa- 

 tions made during the years 1883-1898, and 

 rainfall observations during 1865-1898. The 

 normal temperatures, relative humidities and 

 rainfall for each month follow : 



