Abstract
American Journal of Science, December.—The highest aim of the physicist, by H. A. Rowland. Physics is the science above all sciences which deals with the foundation of the universe, with the constitution of matter from which everything in the universe is made, and with the ether of space by which alone the various portions of matter forming the universe affect each other, even at the greatest distances. He who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is the benefactor of mankind; but he who obscurely works to find the laws of such growth is the intellectual superior as well as the greater benefactor of the two.—Notice of an aerolite that recently fell at Allegan, Michigan, by H. L. Ward. The mass in question, about 20 inches long and 10 or 12 inches thick, was seen to fall, and dug up a few minutes alter it was buried. It was reported to be hot all through, and not cold at the centre as might have been suspected. The stone is very chondritic in structure. It is of a light ash-grey colour, and exceedingly friable, with a black crust averaging 1 mm. in thickness. Optical examination reveals the presence of enstatite, chrysolite, felspar, troilite and iron, the two last being distributed evenly and thickly as small irregularly shaped grains.—A new meteoric iron found near Iredell, Bosque County, Texas, by W. M. Foote. The meteoritic iron in question was not seen to fall. The three best instances of cleavage are exhibited in one specimen. These are three pairs of perfect adjacent planes forming angles of 120°. The fracture presents a glistening tin-white finely crystalline surface. Grains and plates as much as 2 mm. thick, of a brittle magnetic mineral of pyritiferous aspect are common. A qualitative examination showed the presence of iron, phosphorus and nickel, indicating it to be schreibersite.—Some of the results of the international cloud work for the United States, by F. H. Bigelow. The penetration of ordinary cyclones into the higher regions of the atmosphere is slight. They are only two or three miles deep. Hurricanes are five or six miles deep. The anticyclonic and cyclonic areas are hardly to be considered as centres of motion except in the very lowest strata, since currents of air blow directly across them from west to east, even in the cumulus region of the Rocky Mountain districts. The ordinary circulation theory does not hold good. In each stratum from the surface to the cirrus level about as much air moves north as south, for there are enormous counter currents passing by each other at the same level, and not over one another at different elevations. This puts a new aspect upon the entire problem of the general circulation.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 61, 190 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/061190a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061190a0