L ^2 J 



LX. Notices respecting New Books. 



Oil en est la Mittorologie ? By Alpho> t se Berget. 8vo. Pp. 303. 

 G-authier Yillars. Price nor indicated. 



r |^HIS work is one of a series intended to give general accounts 

 -■■ of the present positions of various scientific subjects. As a 

 summary of our present knowledge of meteorology it is excellent, 

 and often remarkably up to date, even including results published 

 in the early part of 1920. The chapters on the constitution of 

 the atmosphere audits optical and electrical properties are parti- 

 cularly good. Full treatment of particular points cannot naturally 

 be given in a small work covering so much ground as this, and 

 some important matters are omitted ; but it is a notable achievement, 

 in so diffuse a subject, to have made the striking omissions as few 

 as they are. The inclusion of references to original papers and 

 an index would have increased the value of the book considerably. 



Dr. Berget is distinctly hostile to Germany in general and 

 German science in particular, and expresses his views somewhat 

 freely, and often soundly. But one may disagree with his ob- 

 jection on p. 155 to the complexity of Kop pen's 11-compartment 

 classification of climates, when he himself requires 6 classes to 

 deal with Prance alone. He also disapproves of millibars and 

 absolute temperature. It may be noted that on p. 84, " par centi- 

 metre carre " should be " par metre carre " ; on p. 90 the pattern of 

 wind-screen shown is not that used in Britain ; on p. 179 there is no 

 indication of the unit of velocity ; and that on pp. 275-6 "weather " 

 is three times misprinted. The section on the temperature of the 

 stratosphere makes no mention of Gold or Humphreys ; that on 

 the lunar tide in the atmosphere, none of Chapman ; that on the 

 variations of wind, none of G-. I. Taylor ; those on the structure of 

 cyclones and methods of forecasting, none of Bjerknes ; and if 

 there is any mention in the book of Hann, Shaw, or Dines, it is 

 not easily found. The account of the general circulation is based 

 on the conventional theory of the geography books, but bad as 

 this theory is, it presumably had to be included in a work on the 

 present position of meteorology, as it is still the only one available. 

 The blame for this state of affairs rests on meteorologists in general, 

 and not on Dr. Berget in particular. 



But in spite of these defects, most meteorologists will find in 

 this book much that is new and interesting to them, and the definite 

 mistakes are very few. H. J. 



