June 15, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



955 



publication of a large number of articles on this 

 subject within the last four or five years. Indeed, 

 the number of publications has been so large 

 that it has been difficult even for the student 

 of meteorology to keep up with the literature. 

 We now have an octavo pamphlet of 161 pages, 

 entitled Beitrdge zur Erfor»chung der Atmosphdre 

 mittels desLuftballons (Berlin, Mayer und Miiller, 

 1900. Price, 4 Marks), which will serve well as 

 an introduction to the study of the most recent 

 work done in balloon meteorology. This report 

 is edited by Dr. Assmann, and has chapters by 

 Berson, Gross, Kremser and Siiring — all of 

 them men who have been closely associated 

 with scientific ballooning in Europe. Dr. Ass- 

 mann contributes an introduction and a chapter 

 on the equipment needed on a scientific balloon 

 voyage. The others have prepared chapters on 

 the various ascents between March 1, 1893, and 

 February 15, 1895. An appendix contains 

 tables showing the most noteworthy data in 

 connection with the ascents from February 15, 

 1895, to the end of 1899. This book is a strik- 

 ing illustration of the rapidity with which the 

 investigation of the upper air by means of bal- 

 loons has progressed. Eecord is given of 77 

 ascents. 



EREOES IN SCHOOL BOOKS. 



In a recent number of the Monthly Weather 

 Revieiv, Professor Abbe calls attention to the 

 fact that the geography adopted by the Legisla- 

 ture of Montana for use in the public schools 

 of that State contains the following remarkable 

 statement : "The warm winds known as the 

 Chinook winds, from the Pacific, heated by the 

 Japan current, may spring up even in the coldest 

 weather. ' ' This view as to the source of warmth 

 of the chinook winds is entirely erroneous, just 

 as is a similar view formerly commonly held in 

 regard to the warmth of the Swiss foehn, viz, 

 that that wind, coming down warm and dry in 

 the northern Alpine valleys, has its origin in 

 the desert of Sahara. The warmth and dry- 

 ness of chinook and foehn are the result of the 

 warming by compression of the descending air, 

 as was very fully explained by Hann, in the case 

 of the foehn, some years ago. It is a serious 

 thing to have children in the public schools of 

 one of our States taught any doctrine so errone- 



ous as that which refers the warmth of the 

 chinook to the Kuro Siwo. 



THE CLIMATE OF NEW YORK STATE. 



A EECENT number of the Bulletin of the Amer- 

 ican Geographical Society (No. 2, 1900) contains 

 an article on the climate of New York, by E. 

 T. Turner, which gives an excellent presenta- 

 tion of the chief climatic features of the State. 

 The article is largely a reprint of a report 

 upon the same subject by Mr. Turner, originally 

 published in the Fifth Annual Report of the 

 Meteorological Bureau and Weather Service of the 

 State of New York (Albany, 1894, pp. 347-457). 

 Several new charts have, however, bean added, 

 including some typical barograph and thermo- 

 graph curves, and two thunderstorm charts. 

 It would be well if similar condensed reports 

 upon local climates were available for our other 

 States. 



LOSS OF LIFE BY LIGHTNING IN 1899. 



ACCOEDING to A. J. Henry [Monthly Weather 

 Review, March, 1900) the loss of human life by 

 lightning in the United States during the year 

 1899 was greater than in any preceding year for 

 which statistics have been collected. The num- 

 ber of persons killed outright, or who suffered 

 injuries i-esulting in death, was 562, and the 

 number of those who received injuries varying 

 in severity from slight physical shock to pain ful 

 burns and temporary paralysis of some part of 

 the body was 820. The greatest number of 

 fatalities (45 per cent.) occurred in the open; 

 the next greatest number (34 percent.) occurred 

 in houses ; 11 per cent, occurred under trees, 

 and 9 per cent, in barns. At least a dozen 

 persons were killed either in the act of stripping 

 clothes from a wire clothes-line, or by coming 

 in proximity thereto during a thunder storm. 



EECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



Studies of Cyclonic and Anticyclonic Phenomena 

 with Kites, by H. H. Clayton. Second Memoir. 

 Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Bulletin 

 No. 1. 1900. 4to. Pp. 36. Pis. IV. This is 

 Mr. Clayton's second Bulletin on the theory of 

 cyclones and anticyclones as viewed in the light 

 of the Blue Hill kite records. The author 

 holds that a modified convectional theory. 



