362 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 168 



to this last point, and that in the neighboring 

 districts there was a violent thunder-storm with 

 heavy rain and hail. On consulting the daily 

 weather-maps for April 14 and 15, a well-marked 

 ' area of low pressure ' is found moving north- 

 eastward from Wyoming, over Dakota, into the 

 Winnipeg district ; a veiy abnormal turn of the 

 isotherms shows how the winds on the south- 

 eastern side of this ' area ' carried warm air far 

 up the Mississippi valley, and brought about the 

 strong contrasts of temperature and moisture that 

 generate violent local storms. These tornadoes 

 were therefore normal, or like the average of 

 their class, hi every respect — except, perhaps, 

 in occurring farther north than is usual at this 

 time of year. 



In review of this, there seems to be ground 

 for the desire so generally expressed that the 

 signal service should give some warning of the 

 probable occurrence of tornadoes, at least in such 

 a way that the inhabitants of towns in the ex- 

 posed districts may be on the lookout for the ap- 

 proach of the dreaded funnel-cloud. The reports 

 state that in the open country there was little loss 

 of life, as the storms came by day, and persons 

 generally saw them in time to take refuge in the 

 tornado-cellars with which nearly every farm in 

 that region is provided. But in the towns, where 

 persons remain more indoors, and where clouds 

 near the horizon are not easily seen, tornadoes too 

 commonly arrive unperceived till the roar of 

 their winds tells that there is no time for escape ; 

 and here some early intimation of the impending 

 danger should be given. The warnings based on 

 the conditions shown in the morning weather-map 

 might be announced as experimental for a season, 

 so that a public trial of their value could be made. 

 Towns at least could be reached by telegraph and 

 telephone in all parts of the Mississippi valley by 

 noon on the days of danger ; and the saving of 

 lives in some places would compensate for a good 

 deal of needless anxiety caused by warning towns 

 that escape destruction. There seems to be no 

 way whatever of saving property that lies in the 

 path of the storm. 



One has only to glance at a bibliography of 

 astronomy during the present century to become 

 impressed with the fact of two very marked im- 

 pulses to investigation in that science, given by 

 the discovery, first, of the planet Neptune in 1846, 



and, second, of the satellites of Mars in 1877. The 

 latter has given rise no less to a series of popular 

 and educational books and treatises on astronomy, 

 in many languages, of which, it would seem, the 

 end is not yet. These have had all degrees of 

 worth, as their production has been participated 

 in by authors of all degrees of information and 

 capacity, from those who have the scantiest of 

 reason for writing any thing whatever, to astron- 

 omers of the maturest experience, both as teach- 

 ers and as investigators. The author of the work 

 to which we call attention in a subsequent col- 

 umn is not unknown in our country. His early 

 years as an astronomer were spent at Parsonstown, 

 Ireland, in charge of the mammoth reflecting 

 telescope of the Earl of Rosse, to which post he 

 was appointed in 1865, at the age of twenty-five 

 years. Dr. Ball became astronomer royal twelve 

 years ago ; and he has attained no little fame as 

 a lecturer, having appeared before the leading 

 learned institutions of Great Britain. Also in 

 1884 he lectured before our own Lowell institute, 

 Boston, and in January last the honor of knight- 

 hood was conferred upon him. 



In view of these facts, the developments in re- 

 gard to his unacknowledged appropriation of the 

 work of others assume the greater importance. 

 In the Nation a fortnight or two ago, attention 

 was directed to certain passages in 'The story of 

 the heavens,' which Dr. Ball had borrowed bodily 

 from Professor Newcomb's ' Popular astronomy/ 

 with evidently no intention of ever making a 

 proper return ; while, in our present issue, it be- 

 comes apparent that he has paid a like compli- 

 ment to Professor Young's admirable treatise on 

 ' The sun.' Every one who reads it must thank 

 Dr. Ball for a fascinating book, a very accurate 

 one too, and he has made excellent use of his 

 pilferings ; but it seems as if he might have made 

 a freer use of inverted commas, or confined him- 

 self, if we may borrow from Mr. Lowell, to 

 ' pillaging the dictionary.' And this leads us 

 further to an uncompromising denunciation of a 

 reckless, extempore sort of book-making, too 

 common nowadays, and which cannot be too 

 strongly condemned. The publishers, in their 

 st niggle to meet the insatiate cry for something 

 new, something that will sell because it is new, 

 are as much to be blamed as authors ; and the 

 people even more, for creating a demand for these 

 loosely woven fabrics. It is, however, a demand 



