738 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 358. 



during at least one quarter of the year '99-' 00 

 fell below the average necessary for permission 

 to continue his studies. 



Mr. Raymond's administration ended pre- 

 cipitately after this report had been presented 

 to the legislature. To the bill providing funds 

 for the maintenance of the University was 

 added a clause which stipulated that none of 

 the funds could be used until Mr. Raymond's 

 resignation had been accepted by the board of 

 regents. Both the president and the board 

 that had supported him were thus legislated 

 out of office. 



The new board met in June and elected 

 Dr. Purinton, of Denison, to the presidency of 

 West Virginia University. The following ad- 

 ditional changes have since been made in the 

 management of the instruction at the Univer- 

 sity : The professor of botany was dispensed 

 with on economic grounds, and the depart- 

 ment of botany was left in charge of the pro- 

 fessor of zoology. The professor of philosophy 

 was given the department of economics, the 

 new president taking charge of the depart- 

 ment of philosophy. The premedical and the 

 domestic science departments were abolished, 

 and the head of the domestic science, a Ph.D. 

 in sociology, was made assistant professor of 

 sociology. One of the two professors who had 

 been compelled to resign in the fall by the old 

 board of regents was reelected for one year, 

 and for that year was given a leave of absence 

 without pay. The departments of English 

 literature and rhetoric were divided, and the 

 English literature was given to a Morgantown 

 lady without university training, who had at- 

 tained some local literary distinction as secre- 

 tary of the Morgantown Fortnightly Club. 

 The assistant in rhetoric was offered an assist- 

 antship in mathematics, and on refusing to 

 teach mathematics was dropped. The professor 

 of German the following day went before the 

 board in regard to their action on the assistant 

 in rhetoric, and as a result the latter was rein- 

 stated with an increase of salary of three hun- 

 dred dollars. 



In view of all that has happened at West 

 Virginia University during the past year, it is 

 not easy to foresee what will be its history in 

 the immediate future. x- * * 



CANNONADE AGAINST HAIL STORMS. 



To THE Editor op Science : My attention 

 has been called to an article by Professor W. 

 S. Franklin, in your esteemed journal of Sep- 

 tember 27, page 496, on the control of the 

 weather. 



Professor Franklin's argument for the rational 

 plausibility and possible effectiveness of can- 

 nonading with vortex rings ' for inaugurating 

 at will the storm movements of atmosphere ' 

 is very surprising in view of two facts : 1st, 

 Stiger and his followers do not maintain that 

 the rising vortex rings initiate storms, but that 

 they destroy storms, at least hail storms, turn- 

 ing them aside from their intended paths or con- 

 verting the hail to rain ; 2d, the cannonade 

 against hail has been prosecuted for centuries, 

 and the special vortex ring cannonade has been 

 practised by tens of thousands during the past 

 three years, and yet thus far there has not been 

 reported a single case where cannonading has 

 been logically demonstrated to have been effec- 

 tual. Hail storms move, divide and pass by 

 on either side, develop and decay, just the same 

 whether the cannons are fired or no ! The 

 popular faith in cannonading that seems to pre- 

 vail among the peasantry of southern Europe 

 is a craze that has no scientific basis whatever. 

 If Professor Franklin has any faith in this 

 process he has but to submit it to a thorough 

 experimental trial : Get a dozen of his neigh- 

 bors to load their rifles with five ounces of gun- 

 powder, which is the charge recommended by 

 Stiger, leave off the wad so as not to burst the 

 guns, and all fire away as fast as possible when 

 a hail storm is approaching. After actually 

 witnessing the failure of this process let him sit 

 down and calculate approximately the relative 

 amounts of energy in the explosions and in the 

 hail storm. 



The importance of unstable equilibrium in 

 the atmosphere is a matter that has been so 

 thoroughly investigated since the days of Espy, 

 that Professor Franklin has only to study the 

 modern literature of meteorology and the me- 

 chanics of whirlwinds in order to realize the 

 folly of his argumentation. 



The Weather Bureau needs, and hopes to ob- 

 tain, the hearty cooperation of the best men in 

 American science in order to overcome the dif- 



