Miscellaneous Intelligence. 493 



nent inversion, or all the exploded portion of the atmosphere above 

 the 10,000 meter level. Here the temperature-gradient is small 

 and usually positive, so that vertical convection is impossible. 

 Various suggestions have been made to explain the inversion of 

 temperature in this upper region, but no one of these is entirely 

 satisfactory. 



Another chapter gives the results of observation of upper air 

 temperatures at Mount Weather, Trapp and Audley by the Aerial 

 Section in charge of W. R. Blair. The charts show the upper 

 air isotherms for the period covered, in July, August and Sep- 

 tember. A chapter by W. R. Gregg describes the auroral dis- 

 plays and magnetic disturbances of September, 1908, at Mount 

 Weather. The observations show a period of maximum of auro- 

 ras in 1908 corresponding to a long-time cycle of sixty or sixty- 

 one years, the culminations being in 1728, 1787, 1847 and 1908. 

 As previously noted, these periods correspond also to times of 

 maximum sun-spot frequencies. 



2. Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. — The following, are 

 recent publications : 



No. 129. Geological Series. Vol. Ill, No. 7. Notes on Vari- 

 ous Minerals in the Museum Collection ; by Oliver Cummings 

 Farrington, Curator, Department of Geology, and Edwin Ward 

 Tillotson, Jr. Pp. 131-163, 6 figures, plates xliv-liv. Among 

 the species described and figured the following may be noted : 

 Anglesite and olivenite from the Tintic District, Utah ; anglesite, 

 linarite and mimetite from Eureka, Nevada ; bertrandite from 

 Albany, Me. ; orpiment and realgar from Mercur, Utah. 



Publication 133. (Field Museum of Natural History.) Report 

 Series. Vol. Ill, No. 3. Annual Report of the Director, Fred- 

 erick J. V. Skiff, to the Board of Trustees for the year 1908. 

 Pp. 216-323, plates xxxiii-xliii. 



3. Formeln und Hilfstafeln fur Geographische O'rtsbestim- 

 rriung ; von Th. Albrecht. Vierte Auflage. Pp. viii, 348. 

 Leipzig (Wm. Engelmann). — A complete exposition of the theory 

 and practice of Geodesy. This is the standard work on this sub- 

 ject, and is indispensable to computers. It is divided about 

 equally between the tables and the discussion of formulae and 

 their development. w. b. 



4. An Astronomer's Wife ; by her son, Angelo Hall. Pp. 

 129. Baltimore (Nunn and Co). — This is the biography of Angeline 

 Hall, wife of Asaph Hall, a woman of the pioneer stock of West- 

 ern New York, of lofty character, unusual mental power, and 

 the worthy helpmeet of a great scientist. ' w. b. 



5. Comparison des Anciennes Meures ; by Jean Mascart, 

 Astronomer in the Observatory of Paris. Pp. 5, from the Bulle- 

 tin of the Astronomical Society of France, August, 1808. — Vari- 

 ous tables of length, weight, etc., published originally in a 

 volume of 500 pages by Robustel and Charles Osmont. "Inge- 

 nieurs du Roi pour les instruments de mathematique," Paris, 1 725, 

 and here reprinted as of historical interest. w. b. 



