416 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



" On Chemical Climatology," or, in other words, on the impurities of 

 atmospherical air. In addition to the ordinary analysis of the 

 gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, Dr. Smith proposes to 

 collect and determine the foreign matter suspended in it. In dry 

 weather, or in covered places such as hospital wards, he shakes some 

 water in a large bottle, containing about a gallon of air, and renews 

 the air a3 often as necessary. In wet weather he collects rain. The 

 preliminary results are very interesting from a sanitary point of view, 

 but their general bearing is more chemical than meteorological. The 

 author hopes " to be able to tell plainly and authoritatively if a place 

 is close or otherwise ; and to say that the rain or the ah when washed 

 must not show more than a given amount so as to be fit for respira- 

 tion. In this way it may be possible authoritatively to fix a limit 

 to the density of population, and the extent to which manufactures 

 may be carried on within a given area." The large amount of solid 

 matter in specimens of rain collected in Glasgow leads Dr. Smith 

 to connect the fact with the great mortality of that town. We are 

 glad to see that a more extensive investigation of the subject is 

 being undertaken, and that rain is being collected at many different 

 stations to be subsequently analyzed by Dr. Smith. 



Mr. Buchan gives a preliminary paper " On the Eainfall of the 

 South of Scotland," which is chiefly of local interest, as the rain- 

 gauges are very unevenly distributed over the country. The driest 

 district is the lower part of Teviotdale, where Jedburgh reports 

 21 *99 inches ; while the greatest fall is on Ettrick Pen, at a height 

 of 2268 feet, where 71*73 inches were collected. However, the 

 observations on hill-sides show most clearly that no law of increment 

 with height can be assigned — the conditions of rainfall are dependent 

 to so great an extent on the he of the hills. The fall in the South of 

 Scotland is far less than that in the West Highlands, owing to the fact 

 that Ireland drains the south-west winds of much of their moisture. 



The last few numbers of the ' Proceedings of the British Meteoro- 

 logical Society' do not contain many papers of interest. The forty- 

 eighth number is entirely taken up with a paper by Mr. Glaisher 

 " On the Daily Eainfall at Greenwich for the last Fifty-five Years." 

 Although the period is so long, the numbers vary very much from 

 day to day, and the irregularities are not eliminated even by grouping 

 the results for periods of 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 days. The 

 only practical conclusion arrived at is, that all the periods of least 

 rainfall occur during the first three months, and the heaviest between 

 the months of June and December. The graphical representation 

 of the results gives a very irregular curve. The absolute minimum 

 of daily fall occurs about the end of March, between the eightieth 

 and ninetieth day of the year, and the absolute maximum is noticed 

 in the last half of October, between the 290th and 300th days. 



