750 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
moves up a river, it will meet more waves than will strike it if going down st.cam. 
Light is the undulation of waves ; thence if the spectroscope is set on a star that 
is approaching the earth, more waves will enter, than if set on a receding star, 
which fact is known by displacement of lines in the spectroscope from normal posi- 
tions. It is found that many fixed stars are approaching, while others are moving 
away from the solar system. 
We cannot note the researches of Edison, Lockyer or Tyndall, nor of Crookes, 
who has seemingly reached the molecules whence the Universe is composed. 
The modern observatory isa labyrinth of sensitive instruments; and when 
any disturbance takes place in nature, in heat, light, magnetism, or like modes of 
force, the apparatus notes and records them. 
Men are by no means satisfied. Insatiable thirst to know more is developing 
into a fever of unrest; they are wandering beyond the limits of the known, every 
day a little farther. They survey space, and interrogate the Infinite; measure 
the atom of hydrogen and weigh suns. Man takes no rest, and neither will he 
until he shall have found his own place in the chain of nature. 
March 29th, r881. 
ME @ Om @GNs 
THE STORM CENTER AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 
BY ISAAC P. NOYES, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
The weather since the first of January 1881 has not even been as complimen. 
tary to Mr. Vennor as was that of December 1880, and re-affirms the statements 
so often made in these papers, in regard to the absurdity of attempting to guess at 
the weather, months, or even weeks in advance. Had we had the usual mid-Janu- 
ary thaw, ignorant people and even many well informed people, would have claim - 
ed that it was all in accordance with Mr. Vennor’s predictions and evidence of 
his great skill and knowledge in prophesying the weather. 
Nine times out of ten it would be safe to venture a prediction, ‘‘that about 
the middle of January we would have a thaw,” or at least some time in January. 
But this year for very simple reasons we did not have the thaw. 
As stated in former papers, in winter, when the sun is south of the equator, 
the area of low-barometer travels on a lower line than during the summer months ; 
and as the wind is always toward ‘‘low,” it necessarily follows that the wind will 
be more generally from the north and hence cold. When thesun advances north 
the general effect is to advance the area of low-barometer to a higher line of lati- 
tude. Notwithstanding this general effect of the sun in developing low, and low 
being generally on a higher line in summer than in winter, there are times in sum- 
