Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1913-12-13
HOLES IN THE AIR
Smithsonian Report Includes kd-
vice to AViatorS.
Speed Helps but Does Not Insure Safe
ty-Life After Death Is Theme of
Dr.. Schaefer-Treats Of
Ether and Matter.

Washington. 49, Subjects ranging
from life after death to experiments
in soap bubbles are treated in the
Smithsonian report for 1912, just is
sued by the government printing Of
fee
Of the IS separate scientific papers
in the report. one of the most inter
estinE as we'll as timely is an original
article by W J. Humphreys, professor
Of meteorological physics in the United
states weather bureau. which is of
practical value TO aviators and TO stu
dents OF mechanical fight. The title
of the article is Holes in the Air"
which means the various places in the
atmosphere where conditions, so far
as flying is concerned, resemble &C
tual holes or yacuumS.
Actual holes could not exist, the
writer says, as the cir surrounding
such places. would rush in and fill
them with a velocity of about 80
miles an hour After explaining the
nature of the nine known types of at
mospheric conditions with which avi-
ators have to contend, which he
groups under two heads, the vertical
to the dangers attending each cOndi-
ton the writer concludes as follows:
An these sources of danger. wheth-
er near the surface like the breakers,
the torrents, and the eddies, or well
up like the bellows and the wind
sheets, are less and less effective as
the speed of the aeToplane is in
creased.
But this does not necessarily mean
that the swiftest machine is the fast
est. There are numerous other fac
tors to be considered and the problem
Of minimum danger or maximum safe
ty, if the aeronaut insists, can only be
solved by proper combination of the
DRY and practice, of sound reasoning
and intelligent experimentation"
'Icebergs and Their Location and
Navigation" is the title of a paper by
Prof Edward T. Barnes, of McGill uni
versity. Montreal, Canada. The dan
gers of North Atlantic ice to navga-
ton are described, and a system is
presented whereby the presence of ice
bergs can be detected by a most SEN
sitive microthermOmeter, which auto
matically records one-thousandths of
a degree in temperature as readily as
an ordinary instrument of this sort
detectseone-tenth of a degree.
NJ. r. Legendre, of the Museum of
Natural History, Paris, Franc. dis
cusses the survival of organs aud the
culture of living tissues. Many re-
markable experiments are cited. which
resulted in the preservation of living
tissues in cold storage and grating
them to living bodies.
The general trend of bio-chemical
inquiries regarding the nature and or
igin of living material and the manner
in which the life of higher animals
and man is maintained are told in
nontechnical language by DR.. K. A.
Schaefer. He discusses the phenome-
ma of life after death. Natural death
he says unaccelerated by disease.
should be a quiet, painless phenome-
non, unattended by violent change.
An article by Sir William Ramsay
discusses the measurement of infinite
sinai quantities, and details some re-
cent efforts of scientists Ito see the in
visible, to touch the intangible, and
to weigh the imponderable."
A paper by Emile Borel deals with
molecular theories and mathematics,
and another by the late Henri Poin-
care treats of the connection between
ether and matter, first read before the
French Physical society in 1912. The
report also includes a biography of
Poincare. There are three articles
on astronomy and astrophysics Two
are by NJ. P Puiseux, of the French
Academy Of Sciences, and one by an
American, c. G. Abbott, director of
the Smithsonian astrophysical obser-
vatory. Ronald Amundsen, the emf
nent explorer, tells of his expedition
to the south pole, and Pierre Clerget
gives a historical. geographical, and
economic study of the evolution of
cities.
Frank A. Perret's article on the re-
cent eruption of the volcano of Strom-
boil is illustrated with nine plates,
showing views of the eruption and the
effects. A. Lecroix describes a trip to
Madagascar, Ellsworth Huntington
tells of the fluctuating climate of
North America. S. Zaborowski, of the
School of Anthopology. Paris, writes
of the slave population of ancient
Greece, Willy Pastor Discusses the
music of primitive peoples and the
beginning of European music, and c.
V. Boys recounts his experiments with
soap bubbles.
The United States army has pretty
nearly as many titled men in it as