502 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
officers to make the predictions and make a scientific study of the vast collection 
of meteorological data now on hand. 
The number of stations in operation at the close of the year was 376, or iiS 
less than at the close of the preceding year. The number of stations from which 
telegraphic reports have been received is 139, a decrease of 13. Daily reports 
have also been received from 335 foreign stations, including 19 in British North 
America, and irregular reports at intervals from 605 steamships of 59 different 
lines, Monthly reports have also been made to the Chief Signal Officer by 339 
voluntary observers in various parts of the United States. 
The work of the Service has been done by 19 officers and 500 enlisted men. 
During the last two years an attempt has been made to secure the enlistment 
of young college graduates, and it has met thus far with gratifying success. Out 
of 172 enlistments made within the period mentioned, 53 have been graduates of 
colleges. 
Among the improved methods of distributing weather predictions introduced 
during the year, is that by means of railway trains. The Cleveland, Akron & 
Columbus Railway has adopted a system of weather signals which are displayed 
on their cars, and which thus give warning to the farmers of the country through 
which the line passes. A red ball denotes higher temperature; a red crescent,, 
lower temperature; a red star, stationary temperature; a blue ball, general rain 
or snow; a blue crescent, fair weather; a blue star, local rain or snow. The pre- 
dictions are sent to the road at midnight. The av^erage percentage of accuracy 
of the warnings given in this way, as determined by persons not connected with 
the service, has been over 80 per cent. Arrangements are now making to extend 
this system to all lines of railway operated by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 
Company. 
BOOK NOTICES. 
World-Life, or Comparative Geology : By'Alexander Winchell, LL. D.; 
8vo., pp. 642. S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago, 1883. For sale by M. H. 
Dickinson, $2.50. 
This book, which gives the author's views of the processes of world forma- 
tion, world-growth, and world decadence is, in the main, made up from lectures 
delivered before his classes and before popular audiences during the past fifteen 
years or more, but presents the ideas, theories, and arguments in a more sub- 
stantial and profound manner. It is intended to be an incorporation of the 
soundest and latest views of the best writers upon the various branches of the 
subject with the carefully drawn conclusions ofithe author; the whole discussion, 
as he says, being conducted from the standpoint of nebular cosmogony, which 
" has shaped the views presented on the accumulation of the materials for world- 
