Major Allen Buell.-In September, 1870, a shade more than fifty years ago, the government took its first step toward the weather service in which farmers, merchants and seamen are now interested as it enlisted 32 men in the Signal Corps with the rank of sergeants, and, after a little, assigned them to duty in various parts of the country. They were to make observations of the weather and telegraph the approach of storms to headquarters at Washington. Within a short time, possibly a month, six more men were added, making 38 in all and, though this all took place 50 years ago, there is still one of the original number in the service, Allen Buell, who is in charge of the station at San Antonio, Texas. Until the recent civil service retirement became effective there were three others who entered the service in 1870. -Hartford Courant, November 5, 1920. * * -* At about the time the editorial from which the above quotation is taken was written, Major Buell retired on the completion of his 50 years of service. Lucius A. Welsh, Meteorologist.-Word has been received of the death of Mr. Lucius A. Welsh on October 27, 1920, at the age of 72. In 1873 he enlisted in the Signal Corps and was transferred to the Weather Bureau when it was organized, on July 1, 1891. Since that time he was almost continuously in charge of the Weather Bureau station at Omaha, Nebr., until his retirement last August. The "Colonel,” as he was popularly called, was possessed of a pleasing personality and, through his wide acquaintanceship during his long residence at Omaha, he made many friends for the Weather Bureau and its work among the business men of that city. RELIEF FOR AUSTRIAN METEOROLOGISTS. Notices of the plight of Austrian Meteorologists published in the Scientific American, Science, and the BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY have so far led to contributions sufficient for the purchase and transmittal of $120 in food drafts to the Secretary of the Zentralanstalt fur Meteorologie und Geodynamik, in Vienna. An additional fund of $70 was raised in San Francisco for Frau von Obermayer and her invalid daughters. Frau von Obermayer is the widow of Major General Albert Ebert von Obermayer, whose endeavors led in 1886 to the establishment of the Sonnblick meteorological observatory, at a height of more than 3000 meters, the highest in Europe. Early in the year a special appeal for funds to enable the Austrian Meteorological Society to maintain this observatory, and to keep the Meteorologische Zeitschrift from going under was generously answered by a grant of $200 from the Hodgkins Fund of the Smithsonian Institution and an additional private contribution from the Assistant Director of that Institution, Dr. C. G. Abbot. Recently, the following information concerning Dr. Julius von Hann, the famous Austrian meteorologist, has been received through the American Relief Administration. This was requested on account of the distressing reports received early in the year, and because word had failed to come from him concerning the $50 food draft sent him in January in the name of the SOCIETY. The food draft was honored in May. "Hofrat Professor Dr. Julius v. Hann is living with his wife and unmarried daughter, who is a teacher by profession, in Vienna XIX, Dollinergasse 10. He is 81 years old and has been pensioned eleven years ago. He formerly occupied the post of a director of the Central Meteorological Establishment. His flat is very nice, the yearly rent for it being 6000 kronen. It appears that he has no other revenues than his pension, amounting to 2000 kronen (less than $7.00) per month, and his wife is complaining of being compelled to reduce her expenses to manage the household. Recently Professor Hann's health has turned so very bad that even walking is very hard for him. He used to be accustomed to very good food, but in view of the present conditions he is unable to spend so much money for it. The housemaid states that only a short time ago Professor Hann has been allotted food from the Vienna University which is supposed to come from the first donation for the Intellectual Classes." INFORMATION EXCHANGE SERVICE. At a recent meeting of the Council of the Society the following action was taken on a suggestion by H. W. Richardson of the Duluth office of the Weather Bureau: (1) That the Secretary invite all those who desire information on any meteorological subject, or help in compiling data for or otherwise solving problems involving meteorology, to write to him; (2) that such questions or requests for help be published each month in the BULLETIN; and (3) that the ultimate disposal of the inquiries be published in the same or a later BULLETIN. Readers of the BULLETIN on seeing such requests for information or help are invited to communicate directly with the inquirer or write to the Secretary, who will either publish the replies in the BULLETIN or forward them to the inquiring parties. Address: "Sec'y. Am. Met'l Soc., Weather Bureau, Washington, D. C." MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, AUGUST, 1920. (Concluded from page 136 of November BULLETIN.) The principle of the conservation of angular momentum as applied to atmospheric motions. H. W. CLOUGH. Fig. Pp. 463-465. ["It is well-known....that the enormous velocities....called for by the principle of equal areas do not exist in the atmosphere, and since this principle is of rigorous application to all air motions, the problem is to account for the moderate velocities actually observed." Many authors are quoted, explaining this lack of enormous velocities as a result of the retarding effect of friction. "Moving air [i. e., air moving merely under the influence of an initial impulse] does not acquire the excessive velocities implied in the extracts given above, because it does not move over the required range of latitude. The increase in easterly velocity is checked when the limiting latitude is reached, hence friction is obviously not needed to reduce the excessive velocities." With an east-west pressure gradient, however, "it is obvious that allowing for an increase in gradient with increasing latitude the condition of steady motion is realized and the air particles move over a wide range of latitude with uniform velocity. The principle of the preservation of areas is not thereby invalidated nor is it necessary to assume that retarding or damping influences operate to reduce the increased velocities called for by the change of latitude. The increase of relative easterly velocity due to increase of latitude is exactly neutralized by the increase of westerly velocity due to the gradient."] The section of the Review on "Notes, abstracts, and reviews," (pp. 463-470) contains the following: Meteorological influences of the sun and the Atlantic, Services of a vessel-reporting station of the Weather Bureau, First scientific conference, Pan-Pacific Union, Atlas of typhoon tracks (with Jan. and Feb. maps), Charles W. Hendel, Color of the night sky, Hot winds and "northers" at Tampico, Mexico, Variability of temperature and departure from the monthly mean, The laws of approach to the geostrophic wind, Tectonic earthquakes and variations of latitude. The rest of the Review, pp. 470-493, 9 charts, contains the usual monthly bibliography, summary of solar and sky radiation measurements during August, 1920, solar constant measurements at Calama, Chile, the weather of the month, and seismological reports. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1920. (Issued December 8, 1920.) The current issue of the Review is featured by a group of papers on physiological aspects of weather and climate. Separates of this group will be published in time for distribution before the SoCIETY holds its symposium on this subject at the Chicago meeting. Copies may be had on application to the Secretary, and a supply will be available for distribution at Chicago. Aeronautical meteorology also is discussed in several papers and notes. Much space is devoted in both the section on contributions and that on weather of the month to the tropical hurricanes of September, 1920. *Some further uses of the climograph. B. M. Varney. Pp. 495-497, 5 figs. [The climograph as developed by Dr. Griffith Taylor, but in a modified form in which data for air temperature and relative humidity are used in place of those for wet-bulb temperature and relative humidity, is believed to be useful in many ways beyond the simple showing of monthly averages of climatic conditions as heretofore. In demonstration of this, four climographs (in addition to one using monthly averages) are given, three of them in a comparison of certain details regarding the climates of San Francisco and Fresno, Calif., the fourth to illustrate the climographic representation of a hot wave. Suggestions are made as to the usefulness of the climograph in depicting non-periodic weather changes in general. The emphasis is on its value as a supplement to the conventional curve, as a help to the visualizing as far as possible of the effects of climate and weather on organic life.-Author's synopsis.] The katathermometer: an instrument to measure bodily comfort. R. A. Jacob. Pp. 497-498, photo of katathermometer. [Discusses the measurement of the effect of the atmospheric conditions of the body. Gives a brief chronological history of experiments made to determine such meteorological conditions; also a description of the instruments, especially the katathermometer, designed to secure such measurements.] The science of ventilation and open-air treatment. Leonard Hill. Pp. 498-499. [Abstract of 2 volumes recently issued by the British Medical Research Council on the relations between atmospheric conditions, health and comfort.] Climate and its relation to acute respiratory conditions. Estes Nichols. Pp. 499-501. [A study of the weather conditions at a New England station was made for the period September 2 to November 9, 1918, when the Spanish influenza was epidemic. The data thus obtained were compared with the average for the corresponding months for the last ten years in an effort to learn, if possible, to what extent meteorological conditions furthered the great epidemic. While admitting that climate, so far as seasons go, does play a great part in the incidence of acute respiratory diseases, especially pneumonia, the writer is convinced that housing conditions-particularly overcrowding and lack of sufficient heat, due to war-time restrictions on fuel-were of greater moment than climatic factors.] The contral of pneumonia and influenza by the weather. Ellsworth Huntington. (Review and discussion by J. B. Kincer and rebuttal by author.) Pp. 501-507. [In the January, 1920, issue of Ecology Prof. Ellsworth Huntington interestingly discusses the relation of temperature and humidity to the death rate from pneumonia in New York City from April, 1917, to March, 1918, as dis* Starred articles indicate publication of separates. closed by an investigation conducted by him. He makes comparisons with the day as a unit, instead of the month as has heretofore been done. His results apparently confirm former conclusions, where the month was used as a basis, that deaths are more numerous with low temperature and low relative humidity, and decrease more or less systematically as these weather elements rise, at least on the minus side of the indicated optimum temperature values. In the discussion of this paper a number of inherent basic difficulties in the prosecution of studies of this character are pointed out, which make it difficult to link up definitely cause and effect. This is due to the fact that a number of weather elements have similar and marked seasonal phases, and it is hard to fix responsibility for a given physical condition on any single one, or combination, of them. There are additional pitfalls in attempting to make comparisons on a dayof-death basis, as Prof. Huntington has done. The prevalence of the disease in question and its virulence, due obviously to conditions, weather or other factors, prior to the day of death must be largely disregarded, while these undoubtedly have a more or less direct relation to the death rate. In addition, the comparability of outdoor and indoor weather conditions, and changes therein, must be assumed, as patients necessarily are influenced solely by conditions obtaining in the sick room. The observational data available in this connection, while scanty and perhaps inconclusive, show little or no relationship between outdoor temperature and relative humidity and those usually prevailing in our artificially heated houses in cold weather.-J. B. K. Professor Huntington's rebuttal adds much interesting detail to the discussion of how to determine the effect of weather on pneumonia patients. He indicates the inconclusiveness of some of the data used by Mr. Kincer, and, above all, points out the lines along which further investigations should be laid.] Relations between the meteorological elements and the number of deaths from inflammatory diseases of the respiratory organs, at Paris. Louis Besson. P. 507.-Abstract. Colds and their relation to the physics of the atmosphere. C. M. Richter. P. 507. Author's conclusions reprinted. Note on two early papers on the pathological aspects of climate. Guy Hinsdale. Pp. 507-508. [Discusses two papers by Dr. I. M. Cline.] The influence of infinitesimal traces of nutritive substance in the humidity of the air upon contagion. A Trillat. P. 508. Abstract. Effects of the weather on human health. P. 509. Note reprinted. Sunshine and health in England. P. 509. Abstract. Municipal weather service of Paris. L. Besson. P. 509. The above miscellaneous notes close the group on physiological aspects of meteorology. Irregular atmospheric refraction at high altitudes. Eric R. Miller. Pp. 509-511, fig. [Irregular atmospheric refraction is assigned as the cause of distortion and extinction of the image of the pilot balloon in the observing telescope after the balloon passed through a surface of velocity-discontinuity at altitudes of seven to ten thousand meters.-Author's synopsis.] The relation of telescopic definition to cold waves. W. H. Pickering. P. 511, fig. [Telescopic definition or "seeing" depends mainly on the currents located in our atmosphere up to an altitude of 3 or 4 miles, variations in temperature forming the controlling influence. In middle latitudes a high barometer and cold wave are most injurious to the seeing; in the tropics, the vicinity of a hurricane.] *Cloud nomenclature. C. F. Brooks. Pp. 513-519. [This paper is a revised edition of that presented at the April meeting. of the SOCIETY (see May BULLETIN, pp. 53-54). The following additional points are presented: "Particular emphasis is placed on the desirability of confining the name cirro-cumulus to ice clouds in order to prevent its present indiscriminate application to both the true, high cirro-cumulus and the appreciably lower, thin alto-cumulus. Differentiation of thin alto-stratus from cirro-stratus, and of nimbus from other rain clouds is also discussed. Revised wordings of parts of the International descriptions are suggested for consideration. Photographs are not presented, for it is desired to place emphasis on the fact that the definitions form the ultimate basis for differentiation of forms."-From author's synopsis.] An unusual lunar halo phenomenon. E. W. Woolard. Weather and literature. R. E. Horton. *Life history of tropical storm in Louisiana, September 21 and 22, 1920. Isaac M. Cline, Pp. 520-524, 3 figs. [The tropical storm which appeared in the Caribbean Sea, September 18, crossed the Gulf of Mexico during the 19th and 20th, and moved northward over Louisiana during the 21st and 22d, presents several features of unusual interest. It followed a course out of the ordinary for storms that move over Yucatan, and advanced with unusual rapidity. The storm was not of great intensity except near the center. We have more complete cloud, wind, and pressure records in the area traversed by this storm than have been available for study in any previous storm and these make its life history important in our search for knowledge of tropical storms. The lowest barometer reading after the storm passed inland was 28.99 inches at Houma, La. The depression began to decrease in intensity immediately afterwards. The observed tides were in conformity with the movement of the storm. Warnings were distributed which were instrumental in saving lives and property. There was one death, and property damage was about $1,450,000.] Typhoon in Philippines. José Coronas, S. J. Pp. 524-525. Climatological factors governing the selection of air routes and flying fields. C. LeRoy Meisinger. Pp. 525-527. [Although the averages of weather conditions usually differ radically from their current values, they nevertheless are important in the selection of aerial routes and flying fields. For the preliminary selection of aerial routes, the normal values of the following elements are the most important: 1. Speed and direction of the wind. 2. Frequency of low clouds and fog. 3. Frequency and intensity of thunderstorms. 4. Vertical temperature distribution and its diurnal changes. For the selection of flying fields there are needed, in addition to the above values, the normal values of precipitation.-Author's synopsis.] Meteorology and aeronautics. [Excerpts from Air Service Information Circular (heavier than air).] Flying over clouds in relation to commercial aeronautics. [Discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of flying above and flying below the clouds.] The effect of barometric pressure upon altitude readings. Abstract. [The point of this paper is that while the aviator is in flight he must be cognizant of the expected changes in barometric pressure and make the proper allowances in reading his altimeter. This is especially true where his view of the earth's surface is cut off by stratus clouds or fog, and the pressure change is rapid even during a brief flying period.] Meteorological aspects of the recruiting trip of the NC-4. Lieut. J. B. An derson. [The Navy Department, during the months September to January, 1919-20, detailed the naval seaplane NC-4 to make a recruiting trip along the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida, thence westward to New Orleans, up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Cincinnati and return, ending the flight at Pensacola. The meteorological officer based his forecasts upon the daily weather map combined with the local conditions, and frequently consulted with Weather Bureau officials along the route. Much of the trip was made in unfavorable or |