282 F. Waldo — Contributions to Dynamical Meteorology. 



12. Wilhelm von Bezold, Zur Thermodynamik der Atmosphare 

 Theil 1. Sitz. der k. preuss. Akad. d. Wissensehaften, 

 April 26, 1888. (No. xxi). 38 pages. 



13. Theil II. Same title. Nov. 22, 1888. (No. xlvi). 18 pages. 

 (Theil I and Theil II reprinted in the Meteor. Zeit. Jun., 

 Jul., Aug., 1889.) 



14. William Ferrel, A Popular Treatise on the Winds ; New 

 York, 1889, 505 pages. 



No. 1. — Meteorologists are very attentive to the ideas put 

 forth by those physicists who have made a world-wide reputa- 

 tion in some other branch of study, and who have at last 

 turned their attention to those branches of meteorology which 

 need the clear insight of genius added to rare knowledge of 

 physics to investigate them if any satisfactory conclusions are 

 to be attained. It is under these conditions that we welcome 

 Siemens's contribution to that branch of dynamical meteorology 

 which on account of the difficulties of treatment has been one 

 of the least satisfactory. Recognizing the solar energy as the 

 initial cause of the great atmospheric motions, the author ap- 

 plying the principles of rotation velocity and living force, by 

 methods more nearly represented by the conception of the 

 potential of force, reaches conclusions that are in the main 

 coincident with those found by Professor Ferrel in his studies 

 of thirty years ago. The physical conditions which give rise 

 to'various special phenomena of rainfall have been treated in a 

 general way in explanation of such features as the rainfall in the 

 temperate zones. It seems that Siemens has given his views 

 without having made himself thoroughly acquainted with 

 the results already obtained by previous workers in this same 

 field, and that he was not familiar with many of the points 

 stated by Sprung in the excellent summary given in his Lehr- 

 buch. As it is, some of the ideas which the author advances 

 as novel have already been more or less satisfactorily treated 

 by others. Still, such questions as the origin and maintenance 

 of barometric maxima and minima, and the mechanics of spout 

 phenomena, need further treatment, and every new view, if 

 based on accepted principles, is a help toward the final dis- 

 covery of the actual truth, which cannot be said to be reached 

 at the present time. 



JVo. %. — The paper of Siemens just mentioned called forth 

 this short, but practically important communication from Max 

 Muller. (Mr. Muller is a young engineer of Hamburg who 

 has written several very suggestive semi-popular papers on the 

 mechanics of the lesser atmospheric motions, and which have 

 shown an unusual grasp of the subject). In the present paper 

 the author calk attention to the important factor which the loss 

 of living force by friction of the air in contact with the rough 



