January 13, 1905.] 



obtaining a knowledge of the British system, 

 the adoption of the metric system would result 

 in not only a ' saving of time, but an economy 

 of mental effort which is incalculable.' " 

 Lord Kelvin's argument applies with even 

 more force to the United States. The com- 

 mittee on coinage, weights and measures say 

 in their report No. 1701, April 21, 1902, made 

 to the first session of the fifty-seventh con- 

 gress : " When we consider there are over 

 15,000,000 school children in the United 

 States being educated at a public cost of not 

 less than $200,000,000 per annum, the enormity 

 of the waste will be appreciated. In the life- 

 time of a single generation nearly $1,000,000,- 

 000 and 40,000,000 school years are consumed 

 in teaching a system that as a whole does not 

 agree with any other nation in the world, and 

 which does not offer any advantage whatever 

 to compensate for its complexity. Surely the 

 children and teachers of the country are 

 worthy of qviite as much consideration as the 

 temporary personal and pecuniary interests of 

 some manufacturers, who have failed to fur- 

 nish, by either themselves or their representa- 

 tives, any evidence whatever that the manu- 

 factures of Germany or Switzerland have or 

 did suffer any loss whatever by the recent 

 adoption of the metric system in those coun- 

 tries. No one in this country has proposed to 

 affix any penalties legal or otherwise to the use 

 of the customary system, what we do want, 

 and are entitled to work for as citizens, is that 

 the government shall adopt in all its work the 

 metric system, which is already the interna- 

 tional system for a majority of the civilized 

 world." 



The American Mnchinisi, of January 14, 

 sums up the matter by saying what is true : 

 " The testimony of men who have had experi- 

 ence in all parts of the world with both sys- 

 tems in the manufacture of machinery is prac- 

 tically unanimous, that most objections to the 

 metric system are based upon purely imaghi- 

 ary difficulties, and that the testimony of men 

 who have not had such experience does not 

 amount to anything. 



We are constantly asked what advantage 

 will the metric system be to this or that partic- 

 ular business. The whole community is larger 



75 



than any part of it, and is entitled to first 

 consideration. We have shown above that one 

 of the largest and most important activities 

 in this country, the business of education, will 

 be enormously benefited, and every other trade 

 or business will also be benefited, by the in- 

 creased effectiveness of mental effort in every 

 direction which is the necessary consequence 

 of substituliug a simple and rational system 

 for the complex, irregular and barbarous sys- 

 tem now in vogue. 



WiLLiAji II. Seaman. 



CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 



TEMPERATURES IN THE FREE AIR. 



The valuable data concerning the tempera- 

 tures in the free air obtained during the daily 

 ' soundings ' made at the Prussian Aeronaut- 

 ical Observatory at Berlin, are discussed by J. 

 Homma in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift for 

 October, 1904. The observations considered 

 are those of the year 1903, and they are 

 grouped by seasons and by good and bad days, 

 the temperatures being summarized for differ- 

 ent altitudes. It is to be noted that the as- 

 cents were made at different morning hours, 

 between nine and twelve, and, therefore, the 

 mean obtained is not to be regarded as ac- 

 curately representing the conditions during 

 the twenty-four hours. The vertical tempera- 

 ture gradients for the four seasons show a 

 very slow decrease up to 2,000 meters in 

 winter, and a rapid decrease in spring and 

 summer. The average rate of temperature 

 decrease for the year is about 1.3° per 100 

 meters near the surface, but decreases aloft, 

 up to about 2,000 meters (0.9°), and then in- 

 creases with altitude. The mean decrease of 

 temperature for May, June and July between 

 the surface and 500 meters is more rapid than 

 the adiabatic rate of 1.8° in 100 meters. 



BAD WEATHER, GOOD ROADS AND FARilERS. 



Professor A. P. Brigiiam, in tlie Bulletin 

 of the American Geographical Society for De- 

 cember, emphasizes the need of good roads in 

 the United States, and points out how great is 

 the handicap of bad roads to farmers and to 

 railroads. In this connection, the weather is 

 an important factor, for when the roads are 



SCIENCE. 



