July 22, 1887.] 



SCIENCE. 



45 



author is inclined to indorse the suggestions of Packard rather than 

 the hypotheses of Metchnikoff and Boas. 



The report on the Pteropoda gymnosomata is in some respects 

 disappointing. It was hoped by those interested in these animals 

 that the extraordinary opportunities offered by the 'Challenger' 

 voyage would result in a monographic series of illustrations, giving 

 us satisfactory artistic representations of these exquisite '.sea-butter- 

 flies ' taken from life. Instead of this, we have a series of diagram- 

 matic plates taken from pickled specimens, and in nearly every case 

 grossly misrepresenting the form and proportions of the living ani- 

 mal. M. Paul Pelseneer, who reports on the group, is evidently 

 quite unacquainted with these animals under their normal condi- 

 tions of existence, — an ignorance which is not unpardonable, but 

 which has led him Into sundry observations which future experi- 

 ence, should he have it, will enable him to modify in the direction 

 of accuracy. 



For the rest, considering the chaos which preceded Dr. Boas's 

 monograph, in the Spolia Ailantica, in regard to the species, 

 sometimes well figured but poorly described, sometimes unfigured, 

 and sometimes described from immature or mutilated specimens, — 

 considering all this confusion, and finding the characters of form 

 and color familiar to those who know these animals in life, gone ir- 

 revocably in pickled specimens, it is not surprising that the author 

 should be disposed to criticise sharply, if not altogether justly, the 

 work of a past epoch. He has brought a certain order out of the 

 confusion, and his work will be helpful to the student of museum 

 specimens. The ideal iconography, which we might have had, of 

 the animals as they live and move, must, however, be looked for 

 from some other direction. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The government of the province of Cordoba (Argentine Re- 

 public) has established a meteorological service, of which Prof. 

 Oscar Doering will be in charge. The new institute will be inde- 

 pendent of the national meteorological office which was founded by 

 Mr. Gould. The officers of telegraph and telephone stations will 

 be obliged to make observations in conformity with the instructions. 

 The work will be begun next year on forty stations. 



— The first number of the American Journal of Psychology 

 will appear early in October. Among the articles which will prob- 

 ably appear in that or the succeeding numbers are the following : 

 ' On Gradual Increments of Sensation,' ' New Methods and Fur- 

 ther Results in the Study of the Knee-jerk,' ' Psycho-Physic 

 Methods and Star Magnitudes,' ' A Criticism of Psycho-Physic 

 Methods and Results,' ' A New Binocular Phenomenon and its 

 Use in Determining the Empirical Horopter,' 'A Review of Con- 

 temporary Methods and Results in the Histology of the Central 

 Nervous System in Europe,' 'Paranoia. — A detailed study of a 

 case extending over many years,' ' An Important Study of the 

 Play-Instinct in Children,' ' A Further Study of Heracleitus,' ' An 



, Extended Review of the Work of the English Society for Psychical 

 Research.' The journal will also contain many digests and crit- 

 iques of current psychological literature, both books and articles. 



— The following statistics have been compiled, for the U. S. 

 Geological Survey, by Charles A. Ashburner, principally from the 

 direct returns of the operators of individual coal-mines, supple- 

 mented by valuable contributions from State officials. The total 

 production of all kinds of coal in 1886, exclusive of that consumed 

 at the mines, known as colliery consumption, was 107,682,209 short 

 tons, valued at $147,112,755 at the mines. This may be divided 

 into Pennsylvania anthracite, 36,696,475 short or 32,764,710 long 

 tons, valued at §71,558,126 ; all other coals, including bituminous, 

 brown coal, lignite, and small lots of anthracite produced in 

 Arkansas and Colorado, 70,985,734 short tons, valued at $75,554,- 

 629. The colliery consumption at the individual mines varies from 

 nothing to 8 per cent of the total product, being greatest at special 

 Pennsylvania anthracite mines, and lowest at those bituminous 

 mines where the bed is nearly horizontal and where no steam-power 

 or ventilating furnaces are employed. The averages for the dif- 

 ferent States vary from 3 to 6 per cent, the latter being the average 

 in the Pennsylvania anthracite region. The total production, in- 



cluding colliery consumption, was : Pennsylvania anthracite, 34,- 

 853,077 long or 39,035,446 short tons, all other coals, 73,707,- 

 957 short tons ; making the total absolute production of all 

 coals in the United States 112,743,403 short tons, valued as 

 follows: anthracite, $76,119,120; bituminous, $78,481,056; total 

 value, $154,600,176. The total production of Pennsylvania 

 anthracite, including colliery consumption, was 699,473 short tons 

 in excess of that produced in 1885, but its value was $552,828 less. 

 The total production of bituminous coal was 1,086,408 short tons 

 greater than in 1885, while its value was $3,866,592 less. The 

 total production of all kinds of coal shows a net gain of 1,785,881 

 short tons compared with 1SS5, but a loss in spot value of 

 $4,419,420. 



— The Natiirwissenschaftliche Rundschau gives an abstract of 

 J. Coaz's observations on the planerogams first taking possession 

 of the land at the end of retreating glaciers. The end of the Rhone 

 glacier has been marked yearly since 1874, and therefore Coaz made 

 his observations at this place. In the zone left by the ice in 1874, 

 he found 39 species ; in the zone following, 37 : 23 species grew in 

 the zone left by the ice in 1876, but then the figures fall off to 12. 

 In the zone of 1881 only 7 are found, and in that of 1881 only a 

 single species. This is Saxifraga aizoides. Epilobmm Fletscherz 

 and Oxyria digyna grow in all zones except the last. Willows do 

 not occur except in the first two zones. The observations were 

 made in 1883. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*♦* The attention ofscientijic men is called to tke advantages of the correspondence- 

 columns oySciUKCK/or plarittg promptly on record brief prelitni nary notices of~ 

 their investigations. Twenty copies of the number containing his communication 

 'will be furnished free to any correspondent on request. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of 



Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is 

 in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Scientific Ballooning. 



I AGREE most heartily with Professor Waldo, in Science for July 

 1 5, that " no meteorological data are so much to be desired as those 

 which are now obtained for short, irregular intervals, by balloons."" 

 Six years ago, when there was talk of a balloon-voyage from Min- 

 neapolis to the Atlantic, I wrote a note regarding the relative 

 importance of the free and captive balloon. 1 was not 

 then aware that no balloon had ever been kept afloat at 

 a half-mile height more than twenty hours, and then only by 

 the use of about half a ton of ballast. Probably there are now 

 several balloons, in this country, that can be floated more than 

 twenty-four hours by using four hundred or five hundred pounds 

 of ballast each day. The great desideratum in ballooning is a gas- 

 tight envelope. The best record I know of is the suspension of a 

 balloon at about one thousand feet, for thirteen hours, with a loss, 

 of about one hundred and sixty pounds of sand. I think an ap- 

 proximation to a tight balloon may be made by increasing the num- 

 ber of coats of varnish, but this would bring about an unwieldly 

 envelope and one likely to crack when emptied of gas. 



If we had such an envelope, however, it would be impossible tO' 

 keep the balloon captive, at a half-mile height, in a wind much 

 over five miles per hour. As the chief investigations we wish to 

 make are during the progress of storms, when the velocity of the 

 current rises to forty and fifty miles per hour, it can hardly be con- 

 sidered that a captive balloon is practicable. 



A captive balloon, however, can never give us what we wish ; 

 namely, the distribution of temperature, moisture, etc., in a vertical 

 direction, nor in a horizontal stratum. Just the height to which we 

 must go is in some doubt, some authorities placing it at 20,000 feet 

 and over. I think that at least nine-tenths of the disturbance is 

 below 6000 feet, so that the exploration is by no means as formidable 

 as it might seem at first. There is nothing the aeronaut, with a 

 few hundred pounds of ballast, has so completely under his control 

 as an up-and-down movement, and he can satisfy the most en- 

 thusiastic observer with all he may wish of such movement. The 

 weight of an observer, perhaps, is the least objectionable point in 

 ballooning. In most cases at least two men are taken, together 



