T. N. Dale and H. E. Gregory (Bull. 484) describe the granites of Connecticut, with remarks (p. 17) on the composite origin of some of the associated gneisses. As is usual in such memoirs, examples are given of the monumental use of the quarried stones.

T. N. Dale also reports on the marbles of Vermont (Bull. 521), in which graphitic bands are ascribed to marine algæ of Ordovician age.

Bull. 492, by G. F. Loughlin (1912), contains some interesting examples of the effects of dynamic metamorphism upon gabbro in Connecticut, well illustrated in plates x. and xi.

C. W. Hayes and W. Lindgren edit the report on the developments in economic geology during 1910 (Bull. 470, 1911). Considerable attention is given (pp. 371-483) to the oolitic phosphate beds of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. R. W. Richards and G. R. Mansfield (p. 377) hope to show later that the Upper Carboniferous phosphatic deposits of Idaho were formed at a time of abnormal enrichment of the sea-water with phosphoric acid or its salts, and not by subsequent infiltration. In Bulletin 471, M. R. Campbell continues this report by extensive review of mineral oils, coals, and lignites in many districts now under exploration. W. T. Lee (Bull. 510) has explored the area of Cretaceous coals in north-west Colorado. These coals have been improved in calorific value by the influence of quartzmonzonite laccolitic intrusions, which are clearly shown in the published sections.

an

H. S. Gale (Bull. 523) reviews the nitrate deposits of the United States, none of which seem at present to be of commercial value. The sketch of the origin of nitrates in soils (pp. 31-5) is just what teachers of mineralogy and agriculture require.

The demands of agriculturists are further considered in Bulletins 511 and 512. The former, by B. S. Butler and H. S. Gale, deals with a newly found

a somewhat prophetic outlook, consider the future of the potash-bearing rocks of the leucite hills in Wyoming. The percentage of potash in these lavas is about the same as that in alunite, and may reach even 12 per cent. The greater portion of the potash occurs in the two minerals leucite and phlogopite, and the authors look forward to the possibility of the separation of these minerals and the extraction of potash and alumina from them, or even from the lavas

deposit of alunite in Utah, which is believed (p. 36) to result from the uprising of solutions from below. The mineral occurs in veins in andesite, the main one being 20 ft. thick. The purity of the mass is shown by analyses which yield respectively 10.46 and 9.71 per cent. of potash. Alunite may be converted into a soluble sulphate by calcination, and a useful review is given of its commercial use in Australia and other places. In Bulletin 512, A. R. Schultz and Whitman Cross, with

as a whole. The estimate of the alumina available in millions of tons (p. 35) seems premature, and any commercial process that may be devised will probably, so far as this substance is concerned, be applied also to common clay.

Petrographers as well as miners will find much of interest in Professional Paper 77, on the Park City District, Utah, by J. M. Boutwell. A novel and effective feature is the illustration of the ores and

associated rocks by photographs taken in the tunnels of the mines..

Mining districts in a hitherto unmapped region in Elko County, Nevada, are described by F. C. Schrader in Bull. 497 (1912). The gold ores of Jarbridge, which are here beautifully illustrated, are attributed (p. 63) to the rise of waters at a high temperature, following on the eruption of Miocene rhyolites. The metallic ores are sometimes referred to as "mineral" and sometimes as "metal values," terms which seem out of place in a scientific treatise. A. Knopf (Bull. 504, 1912) describes briefly the Sitka mining district, Alaska, where gold in quartz reefs and gypsum are the valuable materials. The gold, as well as certain copper ores, is regarded (p. 17) as connected with the uprise of intrusive diorite.

F. H. Moffit and S. R. Capps (Bull. 448, 1911) show very interestingly how slowly moving rock-glaciers succeed true glaciers where warmer conditions now prevail in Alaska. Snow-slides, of course, assist in

mineral resources of Alaska up to date. The review (pp. 45-88) of the possibilities of railway construction between the Pacific coast and the interior is of special interest, and the sketch-map provided, with "coal reported" marked on the seaboard of the north-east passage, is the sort of thing to captivate a Frobisher or a Cabot. The Cainozoic coal of the Bonnifield region is reported on in Bulletin 501, which also contains interesting notes on glaciation. Other economic papers on Alaska have been already noticed in NATURE (vol. xc., 1913, p. 659).

Professional Paper 71 (1912), constituting a large memoir on the stratigraphy of North America, by Bailey Willis, and accompanied by a coloured geological map of North America, on the scale of 1: 5,000,000, is of such wide educational importance that it has already received special mention (NATURE, vol. xci., p. 93). Changes in nomenclature are somewhat rapid in the United States, and, since this great index was published, C. D. Walcott (Smithsonian Miscell. Col

moving the material, but rock undoubtedly now predominates in the flow. The illustration here reproduced (Fig. 1) is one of several instructive plates. Gold is now the main product of the Nizina district, though chalcosine and native copper offer attractions.

Alaska claims continued notice. Bulletin 485, by G. C. Martin and F. J. Katz, describes the Iliamna region, where Triassic cherts are associated, as seems almost inevitable, with "green rocks" of volcanic origin. The same authors, in Bulletin 500, deal with the coal-bearing Lower Matanuska Valley, above Cook Inlet in lat. 62°. The coals are in Cainozoic strata, and are probably of Eocene age (p. 52). Basic lavas have intruded through these beds, and form conspicuous features on the bare hillsides (Fig. 2).

The development of Alaskan areas is also seen in Bulletins 449, 498, and 502. In Bulletin 467 (1911), W. W. Attwood deals with the coals and possible gold ores of the Alaska Peninsula, and furnishes several very interesting photographs of the coast. Bulletin 520, by a number of authors, brings our knowledge of the

lections, vol. lvii., No. 70, September, 1912) gives reasons for withdrawing his terms Georgian for Lower Cambrian and Saratogian for Upper Cambrian, and replacing them by Waucoban and St. Croixan respectively Both these new names offer puzzles in pronunciation for the stranger. "St. Croixan was first published by Walcott as a stratigraphical term in the preceding number of the Collections, p. 257. in which some very interesting tracks of Upper Cambrian trilobites are illustrated.

Four of the recent Professional Papers deal with western districts. No. 70, by A. H. Brooks, describes the difficult survey of the Mount McKinley region in Alaska in 1902, where almost all the geological systems are represented. From the historical summary on PP. 29-32, it doubtful if any

seems

ex

plorers had reached the summit of Mount McKinley (20,300 ft.) by the close of 1910. The decay of the upland is shown by the immense areas of post-Pliocene detritus recorded on the preliminary geological map. The maps add considerably to our knowledge of the topography of the divide between Cook Inlet and the Yukon system.

In No. 73 W. Lindgren discusses the Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California, well known as the scene of hydraulic gold-mining. The Great Valley of California has received detritus from the rising continental land ever since the opening of Cretaceous times, the shore-gravels becoming purely fluviatile during the Pliocene period (p. 28). J. M. Boutwell (p. 54) has had an opportunity of resifting the first-hand evidence as to the antiquity of the Calaveras skull, which at one time obtained a celebrity akin to that of the bones-also from Calaveras -which were found within a tunnel near the tenement of Jones."

64

Professional Paper 74, by W. H. Weed, describes the Butte District, Montana, and is bound in cloth, a mode of presentation which makes it far more corvenient than most of these large and

frequently consulted volumes. The Big Butte is a conspicuous rhyolitic hill rising above a somewhat dreary country of quartz-monzonite and andesite. The bare surface, however, allows the mineral veins to be traced over wide areas, and the district is now second only to the South African Rand as a producer of metals. The main ores are those of copper, containing 14 per cent. of silver. The volume includes a large number of vein-plans, and illustrations of the connection between separation-planes and ore-deposits in the crystalline igneous rocks. The ores were accumulated in these fundamental masses at some epoch prior to the eruption of the volcanic rocks at the close of the Cretaceous period. The conclusions as to their modes of origin may be compared with those of J. D. Irving and H. Bancroft for the district of Lake City, Colorado (Bulletin 478), where similar conditions

occur.

Paper 75 is by F. L. Ransome, on the Breckenridge District, Colorado. Here gold is again the attraction, and the district has rapidly developed since 1909, when new dredges were introduced for dealing with the gravels. The glacial deposits show, as is so very general in America, two epochs of ice-advance and ice-retreat (p. 72). The fissures containing the sul phide ores and the gold from which the placer ores are derived were formed by earth-movements in early Cainozoic times.

The

It is impossible in a brief outline to do justice to the large volume (Monograph LII.) on the geology of the Lake Superior region, by C. R. van Hise and C. K. Leith. Much of the discussion on the preCambrian series concerns the Dominion of Canada also, and miners will find a comprehensive account (pp. 460-596) of the ores of iron, copper, gold, and silver in the district. The ferruginous cherts, with hæmatite or limonite, are held to have arisen from the oxidation of cherty iron carbonates and of the green silicate greenalite, (Fe,Mg)SiO,.nH2O. green oolitic ores with hæmatite of Dodge County, Wisconsin (pp. 567 and 536), which are regarded as having been deposited in a granular form in the sea, and the greenalite rocks of the Mesabi District (p. 165), invite comparison with the ironstones containing green oolitic grains in the Silurian rocks of North Wales (p. 509), concerning which the last word has by no means been said; while the red banded cherts remind us of similar stratified deposits in South Africa. The authors believe that the iron, whether hæmatite or magnetite, was largely introduced into the Lake Superior sediments from the adjacent basic igneous rocks, at a time when the latter were hot and capable of sending magmatic waters into the sea in which the sediments were accumulating (pp. 516 and 527).

In Bulletin 503, E. C. Harder indicates the development of the iron and steel industry on the Pacific coast of California.

Bulletin 505 (1911), by A. C. Veatch, is a summary of the mining laws of Australia and New Zealand, with testimony by practical miners as to their operation. The material of the bulletin was brought together for a report to Congress, to assist in framing regulations for granting leases of public coal-lands in the United States.

The Geological Survey of Alabama, working in cooperation with that of the United States, reports (Bulletin No. 10) on the Fayette Gas Field in the north-west of the State, where gas rises freely from small "gas-pools" in a coalfield of Upper Carboniferous age. Further explorations are recommended. The development of roads throughout Alabama by the use of selected material is discussed by W. F. Prouty in Bulletin No. 11, and there seems evidence that the lesson taught to Europe by the Romans, and

long neglected by their successors, is at last spreading in the United States. It will be many years, however, before these civilised communities will possess the advantages given by French rule to the Berbers of North Africa.

The Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey issues (1912) a neat volume on the sandstones of Lake Superior, by F. T. Thwaites. The Bayfield group is the centre of interest, and is placed (p. 104) below the Cambrian, representing a sandy terminal phase of the Keweenawan sediments, in a region where a basin had been established which became choked by alluvial fans from the surrounding hills. The Survey also issues a large geological wall-map of the whole State, with a view to the requirements of public education.

In continuation of its handsome series of clothbound volumes, the Maryland Geological Survey publishes a work by W. B. Clark (State geologist), A. B. Bibbins, E. W. Berry, and R. Swann Lull, on the Lower Cretaceous deposits of the State. Mr. Berry (P. 99) takes the opportunity to summarise, with specific lists, the Lower Cretaceous floras of the world. As regards British deposits, he points out that we are not yet in possession of all that may be expected from the work of Dr. Stopes. Vol. ix. of the reports of the Survey treats largely of highway construction, but includes a history and description of the iron industry in the State. Prince George's County has been described in the latest of the interesting county monographs, with complete topographical and geological maps on the scale of one inch to one mile. We can imagine nothing better for the information of teachers in the local public schools.

The Iowa Geological Survey, in a massive volume issued at the close of 1912, includes its annual reports and papers for 1910 and 1911. More than 1100 pages are devoted to a thorough study of the underground waters of the State, including (p. 268) several mineral springs.,

In The American Journal of Science, vol. xxxv. (1913), p. 1, J. W. Goldthwait, whose Canadian work has been already mentioned, describes cirques in New England, which, as seems natural, were occupied by small glaciers both before and after the great extension of continental ice. On p. 139, F. A. Perret carries us to "The Lava Fountains of Kilauea," which may now be fairly styled American. The mobility of the lava is ascribed (p. 143) to its being highly charged with an inflammable gas. The blue, and therefore highly actinic, cloud due to the combustion of this gas is here shown in photographs. It is well to learn, in view of the great interest aroused by Brun's researches, that the evolved gases are being carefully studied on the spot. The author regards those emerging from a lava-surface, that is, from a mass subject to oxidation, as quite distinct from the far purer gas of a great paroxysmal eruption. We must admit, in spite of all the work done on fumeroles, that we are still on the verge of this great question. In the same volume of the journal, p. 611, Mr. Perret directs attention to the evidences of occasional explosive action during the past history of Kilauea.

This

the astronomical notes contained in the volume. analysis is especially valuable on account of the way in which the astronomical notes in the "Adversaria are mixed up with others on hydraulics, statics, the construction of thermometers (the scale known as Fahrenheit's is due to Römer), numismatics, &c. These notes all date from the last eight years of Römer's life (1702-10), although several refer to investigations made during his stay in Paris (1672-81).

The authors dwell particularly on the various discussions of the work done from 1704 in Römer's private observatory a few miles west of Copenhagen, which show him as a great practical astronomer, to whom the principal modern instruments of precision and methods of observing are due. Thus it is shown that it was Römer, and not his pupil Horrebow, who invented the method of determining latitudes by altitudes observed north and south of the zenith and nearly at the same time, now known as the HorrebowTalcott method. In this the result is independent of refraction, and a micrometric measure takes the place of the reading of graduated circles. Horrebow has certainly the merit of having recognised and published the advantages of the method, but there is now no longer any doubt that the idea was due to Römer. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the method of determining time by observing equal altitudes of the sun east and west of the meridian was still in general use. Römer constructed an instrument for this purpose, in which the telescope was attached to a bar suspended vertically from a crook at the upper end, and he prepared tables and formulæ for reducing the observations. By degrees the use of the transit instrument, as regards which he was himself the pioneer, superseded the observations of equal altitudes in fixed observatories.

Römer also examined the problem of time-determination in the vertical of the pole-star; he did not arrive at a simple solution, but tried to get over the difficulty by constructing extensive tables for twentyseven selected stars. How much he was in advance of his time is shown by his having employed the formula for correcting transit observations for instrumental errors proposed fifty years later by Tobias Mayer. The transit instrument in the prime vertical, introduced by Römer, was employed by him to determine the time of the equinoxes by a method which was a modification of one which he had described to the Paris Academy in 1675, but which, like most of his other investigations, never was published.

The authors give a detailed examination of his preparations for determining the vernal equinox of 1702 by this method. In the original method (described by Horrebow) the declination of the sun at its upper or lower meridian transit was deduced from the intervals of time between the transits over verticals near the prime vertical, employing an approximate value of the latitude of the place of observation. In the method of 1702 the declination of the sun does not enter, nor the latitude. The principal reason why Römer wished to eliminate the latitude, was, that he, like Picard, thought it was subject to an annual variation. Without knowing it, these two eminent practical astronomers had, in fact, perceived the effect both of aberration and of nutation on the apparent place of the pole star. Römer's method of determining the equinoxes is more ingenious than useful, since it not only assumes that the clock rate and instrumental errors do not change, but also requires that the sky should be clear for at least three consecutive approaches of the sun to the prime vertical as well as for time determinations.

It might have been expected that the man who had discovered the gradual propagation of light, and even foreseen the existence of aberration as its necessary

consequence, would in his private notebook have left evidence that he continued to be interested in the discovery. There is, however, only an examination of the question, whether it would be possible to deter mine the velocity of light by means of lunar eclipses. He found, of course (as he had already done in 1677), that the velocity is far too great to become perceptible

in observations of that kind.

Römer was the only observer who succeeded in seeing Mercury on the sun's disc on May 6, 1707. just after sunrise; the authors have computed the particulars of the transit by Newcomb's tables, and find that the observation agrees perfectly with modern theory. The doubts thrown on Römer's observation by Halley and Baily have thus been shown to be base less, while Sharp's supposed observation must be rejected altogether. There are many other points of interest in this paper, which it is to be hoped will become widely known, as it gives a valuable survey of the varied activity of a man, who but for his reluctance to put his researches into shape and publish them would be reckoned among the greatest astro J. L. E. D.

nomers.

UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL

INTELLIGENCE.

CAMBRIDGE.-Mr. D. G. Reid has been appointed junior demonstrator of human anatomy for five years in succession to Dr. Rogers, who has resigned the office.

The prize of 5ol. from the Gordon Wigan Fund for a research in chemistry was awarded in the year 1913 to Mr. H. V. Thompson, for investigations on "Some Reactions of Diiodoacetylene," Acetylenic Carbon," and "The Molecular Weight of Cellulose."

To the detailed report on the work of the score of men who have held John Lucas Walker studentships at Cambridge University, which occupies many pages in the present number of The Cambridge Reporter. the governors of the trust have added these words :"During the twenty-seven years since the John Lucas Walker studentship, one of the earliest studentships in pathology, was established, the candidate who appeared most likely to carry out pathological inves tigations successfully, whether a Cambridge graduate or from some other school, British and Colonial, has always been appointed. While the work accomplished by the later holders of this studentship is perhaps too recent to be appraised, there has been ample time for that accomplished by the earlier students to manifest its worth and influence, not only upon the future careers of the students and upon the Cambridge Medical School, but upon the science of medicine. Moreover, it is now possible to form a fair estimate of the value of this foundation in particular and of graduate research studentships or fellowships in pathology in general. It would be difficult to cite any one position within the Empire which, in the same period, has been occupied by a succession of men so able, and who have attained such eminence in medical research."

LEEDS.-Mr. Henry Rutson, of Newby Wiske, Northallerton, has made a donation of 5ool, to the funds of the University. It is only a short time since Mr. Rutson made a similar donation to the fund for new agricultural buildings.

Mr. Godfrey Bingley, an accomplished photographer, who has been connected for many years with the Leeds and Yorkshire Geological Association, has presented a collection of lantern slides, illustrating architecture, archæology, geology, and scenery in all parts of England, but especially in Yorkshire. There are about ten thousand slides of exquisite workmanship, and the collection is admirably arranged and cata

logued. The section which deals with the geological and geographical aspects of Yorkshire is believed to be unequalled.

An anonymous donor has presented the sum of 201. to be used for the purchase of a unique collection of fossils from the Marine Bands of the Coal Measures of Yorkshire, made by the late Mr. Henry Culpin, of Doncaster. The University has also received the conchological collections and library of the late Mr. William Nelson. Mr. Nelson was a working man who accumulated a collection of land and fresh-water shells of extraordinary variety and great interest. On his death a memorial committee was formed to acquire his collection and library, which will now be handed to the zoological department of the University, where they will be a valuable addition to the resources for zoological research.

OXFORD.-On Tuesday, January 27, Convocation passed a decree giving the consent of the University to the establishment of three professorships, in anatomy, chemistry, and experimental philosophy. These will be styled Lee's professorships, and the provisions relating to them "will not come into effect until there is a vacancy in the existing Lee's readerships in the three subjects respectively." The readership in chemistry is now vacant. The holder of each of the first two professorships will receive 900l. from Christ Church annually; the holder of the last-named will receive the same amount, provided mainly by Christ Church, but partly from other sources, including a grant from Wadham College. The Lee's professorship in chemistry will be an actual addition to the present staff; the other two will be ultimately merged in the existing professorships of human anatomy and experimental philosophy. Christ Church will retain the power of appointing Lee's readers in anatomy, chemistry, and physics, in addition to finding nearly the whole emolument of the Lee's professorships. It is to be hoped that the University funds set free by the action of Christ Church will continue to be applied to scientific objects.

the

Congregation has made. some progress in amendment stage of the statute proposing extensive changes in Responsions, but it is doubtful whether the statute will reach a final reading.

THE December number of The Central, the journal of the old students of the Central Technical College, South Kensington, continues to display those features which make it one of the best of the old students' magazines. Of the scientific article and the technical articles on chemical and electrical subjects respectively, little need be said, as they do not differ materially from corresponding articles which might be found in the technical Press. The article on "Ambitions-Commercial v. Technical," by a young sales manager, is well worth the careful consideration of technical students. It puts very clearly the advantages of a commercial career for those who have any doubts as to their capabilities as constructional engineers. The problems which confront a commercial engineer are as interesting, and may often be solved by the same methods as those a technical engineer encounters, while the rewards of success are both larger and come more swiftly. The rest of the number is devoted to the events of the past session, including changes in the staff, with photographs and views of the new buildings, and to the changes of positions of a large number of old students. It is the last characteristic which makes the journal so invaluable to all old Centralians.

A SHORT account of the work and objects of the Sutherland Technical School, built several years ago

by the late Duke of Sutherland and Mr. Andrew Carnegie, near Golspie, in Sutherland, is given in the issue of The Times for January 23. In a letter to The Times of January 26, the Duchess of Sutherland makes an appeal for 20,000l. as a partial endowment for the school, and points out that 10,000l. has been raised among a few of her friends, and that it should not be difficult to secure the remainder. The aim of the school is to give boys from the small farms and fishing villages of the Highlands an opportunity to continue their school life in conditions which shall enable them to develop their special aptitudes and to learn the essentials of appropriate industries. The pupils are drawn from primary schools, and begin the course at the age of thirteen. The boarding-house attached to the school has room for forty-eight boys, and bursaries are provided to the number of forty. The secretary of the Scotch Education Department has spoken of the school as one of the most interesting educational experiments in recent times in Scotland. This successful attempt to provide a muchneeded link between schooldays and the years of wageearning is, in fact, worth the study of those education authorities now contemplating the inauguration of junior technical schools in rural districts.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
LONDON.

Royal Society, January 22.-Sir William Crookes, O.M., president, in the chair.-Dr. R. T. Glazebrook and D. W. Dye: The heat production associated with muscular work: a note on Prof. J. S. Macdonald's paper, Proc. R.S., B, vol. lxxxvii. Prof. Macdonald's results are analysed graphically by plotting, equations being obtained from curves connecting the various quantities-heat produced, work done, mass of individual.-M. Wheldale and H. L. Bassett: The chemical interpretation of some Mendelian factors for flower colour. These researches deal with the Mendelian factors for flower-colour in varieties of Antirrhinum majus. Two varieties, ivory and yellow, are chiefly considered. Ivory is a simple Mendelian dominant to yellow and contains a factor "I," which is absent from yellow. The authors have previously identified the pale yellow pigment of the ivory variety with a flavone, i.e. apigenin. In the present paper it is shown that the yellow variety contains, in addition to apigenin, another flavone pigment, i.e., luteolin, which is present in the epidermis and accounts for the deeper yellow colour of the flower. Hence the dominant ivory factor may be expressed as the power to inhibit the formation of luteolin in the epidermis.-Prof. G. Dreyer and Dr. E. W. A. Walker: The determination of the minimum lethal dose of various toxic substances and its relationship to the body weight in warm-blooded animals, together with considerations bearing on the dosage of drugs. In warm-blooded animals of some species but different weights, dosage must be calculated in relation to body surface.-Prof. R. Kennedy: Experiments on the restoration of paralysed muscles by means of nerve anastomosis. Part ii., Anastomosis of the nerves supplying limb muscles.—Dr. F. Norman White Variations in the sex ratio of Mus Rattus following an unusual mortality of adult females.

Geological Society, January 7.-Dr. Aubrey Strahan, president, in the chair.-C. I. Gardiner and Prof. S. H. Reynolds The Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Lough Nafooey area (county Galway). The Lough Nafooey area forms a ridge about four miles long and slopes steeply down to Lough Nafooey on the north. The rocks are of Arenig, Llandeilo, and Silurian age, together with intrusive felsites, bostonites, labradorite