1892.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 355 



justly said of him that there is scarcely a paper prepared by his 

 pen during this period which does not possess more than ordinary 

 merit. To a mind richly stored with facts is added a perceptive 

 and reasoning faculty which is as broad and far-reaching as it is 

 brilliant, and from which have emanated many of the more lumi- 

 nous conceptions which inseparably belong to the " new geology." 

 The Suess-Neumayr theory of mountain construction, which rec- 

 ognizes a one-sided thrust as the dominant motor of orographic 

 flexures — a view, however, that has not yet been accepted by all 

 geologists — is principally the creation of his mind ; to him, like- 

 wise, must be credited the conception, or at least the elaboration of 

 the hypothesis, that the earth is undergoing a process of continuous 

 sectioning ( Verstuchelung), i. e., of having its superficial parts 

 dropping in blocks toward the planetary center. Prof. Suess is a 

 firm non-believer in secular movements of elevation and depression 

 of the continental areas, and an equally firm upholder of the doc- 

 trine of oceanic instability, recognizing that the relative changes in 

 the position or levels of the land and water are due primarily to differ- 

 ential movements of the oceanic surface. This conception, which 

 has only recently been entertained by English and American geolo- 

 gists, has long since served as a starting point with many of the 

 foremost geologists of the continent of Europe. 



Among Prof. Suess' numerous papers may be mentioned 

 "Bohmische Graptolithen " (1852); "Der Boden der Stadt Wien" 

 (1862) ; " Ueber den Losz " (1866) ; " Charakter der Ostreichischen 

 Tertiarablagerungen " (1866); "Ban der Italienischen Halbinsel" 

 (1874) ; " Die Entstehung der Alpen " (1875) ; "Die Zukunft des 

 Goldes" (1877). Prof Suess' most extensive work is the " Antlitz 

 der Erde," of which two volumes have thus far appeared (1885- 

 1888). This work shows the impress of the master on almost 

 every page, and for breadth of scholarship can find a fitting place 

 only between the " Cosmos " of Humboldt and the " Origin of 

 Species" of Darwin. 



Angelo Heilprin, Chairman. 



Persifor Frazer, 



J. P. Lesley, 



Wm. B. Scott, 



Benj. Smith Lyman, 



Committee. 



