extremely energetic and in a stream of offshoot cyclonic areas which impinged on the northern Alaskan coast, prevented the formation of anticyclonic conditions, and passing first southeastward, finally moved eastward as dispersing areas across the western provinces, there giving most persistent gradients for southerly and southwesterly winds with unseasonably high temperature. I shall not go into details regarding the various months, contenting myself with this general outline.

The problem which has then first to be solved would appear to be that concerning the centres of action in the North Pacific and North Atlantic-why in some years so much more pronounced than in others?

An important point will be-what conditions appear most favourable for the development of low areas? In an address before the Royal Society of Canada in 1914 the writer said, "We do know, however, something of the conditions which are very obviously connected with the development of cyclones, perhaps indeed we have more certain knowledge regarding this than of any other meteorological activity, e.g., in the colder seasons when cold continental winds in the rear of a shallow trough of low pressure reach the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico or the middle Atlantic, there is almost certain to be a marked storm development, with heavy precipitation. Moist warm air of the Gulf Stream on the one side and cold continental air on the other, lead to a rapid cyclonic development and the greater the contrast in temperature, the more pronounced will be the storm". It is clear that warm moist air is a most important factor, and the warmer and moister it is, the better are the conditions for cyclonic development.

The writer believes that the time now is when increased investigation should be carried on regarding the changes, both in the position and temperatures of the great ocean currents. If it can be shown that the great Japan current in some years carries its warm waters further north than in other years, it may not improbably be subsequently shown that in such years cyclonic conditions are more intense near the Alaskan coast, and we shall at once have valuable information regarding the probable distribution of barometric pressure in Northwestern America, and this appears to be a dominating factor in the character of our winter seasons.

In the bulletin of the Scripps Institution for biological research of the University of California, November 8th, 1918, Mr. Geo. F. McEwen reviews the various theories of the cause of oceanic circulation from ancient times to the present and urges concerted' action by the governments in a survey of the ocean currents and their variation in position in different years.

While it would appear probable that conditions that would increase the temperature and the flow of ocean currents would act simultaneously in both hemispheres, it does not necessarily follow that the effect on the northern coast of Europe would occur simultaneously with the effect on the northwest coast of America. One would surmise that as the source of the Gulf Stream is nearer the British Isles than is the source of the Japan current to Alaska that Europe would be affected before America and quite possibly this is the case. The whole question is complex but well worthy

of study.

METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE, TORONTO.

W

BY ALBERT DURRANT WATSON.

'HEN the merchants of northern Europe heard that Captain Columbus, a sailor of Genoa, had found a western searoad to India, they feared the failure of their trade in the markets of Spain as a result of the inflow of products from the new Eldorado. One youth of twenty-one years viewed the discovery from a different angle. He had recently returned from Krakau (Cracow) where, under the inspiring tuition of Albert Brudzewski (1445-1497), his studies in mathematics had given him new and permanent impulse and direction, and fitted him for his astronomical career.

This youth was Nocolai Koppernigk, or as we know him, Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543). He saw that the most effective bar to the world's progress was not the ocean vastness, nor the threat of the hurricane that drives the courageous ship to its doom. He perceived that, though the mind is man's greatest instrument of freedom, yet in the mind are man's real barriers. The fixed idea, the closed incident, imitation that kills initiative action, the unchangeable creed and the unoriginal method,-these he recognized as our most insuperable limitations,-in a word, those selfparalyzing mental attitudes of inertia, ultra-conservatism, fear and skepticism which lure the indolent to Circean Isles of unreality.

Ptolemy, a learned Alexandrian of the second century, as interpreted by Johann Müller of Königsberg, (1436-1476) (or, as he styled himself, Joannes de Monteregio, but now known as Regiomontanus), was the acknowledged authority in that world that Copernicus knew, in all things astronomical. From a very early date in the career of the young mathematician, he distrusted the findings of his mathematical mentors. He was not willing to accept the poetry of the Scriptures,

"The earth also is established that it cannot be moved,"

as the working principle in the science of a new age. The heavens were telling him a different story from which a poetry of even more sublime significance would yet be inspired.

Was Nicholas Copernicus a Teuton or a Slav, a German or a Pole? His father was a Pole, his mother a German. His allegiance was Polish, his language was German. A German citizen, but a Polish subject, his education was cosmopolitan. As Shakespeare was "not of an age but of all time," so Copernicus was not of one race only, but of all humanity.

Born February 19, 1473, in the fortress town of Thorn, one of the bridge-heads of the Vistula in Prussian Poland, Copernicus was destined by his father for a commercial career, but Destiny itself intervened, the father died when his boy was only ten years of age, and his mother's brother, Lucas Watzelrode, became the faithful, wise and efficient guardian of Nicolai and his elder brother Andreas.

Lucas Watzelrode was an eminent scholar, having studied at the universities of Cracow, Leipsic and Prague. In his guardianship of the young Koppernigks, their mother's dearest hope was realized. She rightly esteemed her brother, rising, as he was, through his scholarship, to eminence and great influence, as a most desirable foster-father of the orphaned boys. This feeling was greatly strengthened when, six years later, he was advanced to the vacant Bishopric of Ermland.

At the university of Cracow (1491-1494), Copernicus had probably the best mathematical teacher in Northern Europe. But eminent as was the teacher, the scholar was far greater, and to-day we hear of Brudzewski only because, over four hundred years ago, for three seasons, he had for a scholar, a boy named Nicolai Koppernigk.

For leisure, Copernicus, at this time, practised drawing, and even made a portrait of himself, using a mirror the while to demonstrate his subject. This portrait was preserved for many years, by those who cherished his memory and his fame, but it perished long ago with many other important matters pertaining to his life and fortunes. Its last owner was Tycho Brahe. It was destroyed by fire in 1597.

It appears that Copernicus never intended to take his degree at Cracow. Just why he returned to his home in 1494 does not transpire. A canonry of Frauenburg Cathedral was vacant at this time, and an effort was made to have him appointed, but the

Roman curia named another for the office, and Copernicus entered the University of Bologna as a student of canon law, attending also the lectures of Novara in astronomy.

Here, with his brother Andreas, he was compelled to borrow money on the security of his uncle's name, and at ruinous rates of interest. These loans were honourably secured and as honourably and promptly paid. This loan seems to have been necessary in view of the circumstances; indeed, Copernicus is almost monotonously noble. He deliberately determined that his life should exclude all that was unworthy, and the resolution was rigidly kept.

In 1497, the recently appointed canon of the Frauenburg, conveniently vacated the office, having died that year, and Copernicus was nominated and appointed to succeed him. From this time, while still pursuing his studies in Italy, he gave occasional lectures on mathematics to brilliant Roman audiences. In 1501, he obtained further leave to pursue his studies, and turned to Padua where he entered the medical school and sought diligently to master the healing art.

Thus was Copernicus a mathematician, a doctor of canon law, a doctor of medicine, a secular canon of the church, and incidentally, though most important of all, an astronomer. It is interesting to note how some men find roads to greatness through many avenues of expression. We think of Michelangelo, of Leonardo da Vinci, of Goethe, of Lorenzo de Medici, and wonder if it is not true that the higher the mountain, the wider its base and the greater the number of rivers flowing from their sources in it's slopes and canyons.

The medical skill of Copernicus was ever at the command of the poorest in his town. Occasionally he was called to attend the rich, and once, at least, his services were called into requisition at court, where, we are told, the patient recovered. An early and curious law forbade the practice of medicine by ecclesiastics. This canon law was now obsolete as to the medical part of the doctor's duties. It was not permitted, however, that any sacred office should be exercised by one who engaged in the use of the scalpel or the cautery. These practices were adjudged to have the effect of hardening the heart, hence the prohibition.

The astronomical attainments of Copernicus were supposed to fit him peculiarly for the practice of the healing art. The common