856 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



f:^x 



of Permanent Secretary, which he had held 

 for about twenty- five years, and L. 0. How- 

 ard, of the Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, was chosen to succeed him. The of- 

 ficers elect for the next meeting, which is to 

 be held in Boston, are : President, Prof. F. 

 W. Putnam ; Vice-Presidents, Mathematics 

 and Astronomy, E. E. Barnard ; Physics, 

 Frank P. Whitman ; Chemistry, Edgar F. 

 Smith ; Mechanical Science and Engineering, 

 M. E. Cooley ; Geology and Geography, H. L. 

 Fairchild ; Zoology, A. S. Packard ; Botany, 

 W. F. Farlow ; Anthropology, J. McKen 

 Cattell ; Economic Science and Statistics, 

 Archibald Blue (Toronto, Canada). The Sec- 

 tional Secretaries are : Mathematics and 

 Physics, Alexander Zirvet ; Physics, E. B. 

 Rosa ; Chemistry, Charles Baskerville ; Me- 

 chanical Science and Engineering, William 

 S. Aldrich; Geology and Geography, Warren 

 Upham ; Zoology, C. W. Stilles ; Botany, 

 Erwin F. Smith; Anthropology, M. H. Sa- 

 ville ; Economic Science and Statistics, Mar- 

 cus Benjamin. D. S. Kellicott, Columbus, 

 Ohio, was elected General Secretary, to suc- 

 ceed Prof. Hall ; and Frederick Bedell, of 

 Cornell University, was made Secretary of 

 the Council. 



The Age of the Earth. In a recent lec- 

 ture at the Victoria Institute on the Age of 

 the Globe as an abode fitted for Ufe, Lord 

 Kelvin maintained that if heat had been uni- 

 formly conducted out of the earth at its 

 present regular rate, the globe twenty thou- 

 sand miUion years ago would have been a 

 molten if not a gaseous mass. A further 

 argument against the huge lengths of time 

 required by the older geologists was sought 

 in the constantly diminishing velocity ia the 

 earth's rotation resulting from tidal action. 

 The earth was revolving faster a thousand 

 million years ago than now, and consequent- 

 ly centrifugal action was greater. If the 

 globe had become consolidated while it was 

 traveling at a faster rate, it would have pos- 

 sessed greater oblateness and the length of 

 the equatorial radius would have been six 

 and a half kilometres more than it is. Judg- 

 ing from the properties of rocks and by un- 

 derground temperatures, the date of the 

 solidification of the earth was probably twen- 

 ty or thirty million years ago. As to the 

 origin of the atmosphere, at the time of 



solidification there could have been no free 

 oxygen, so far as could be determined, and no 

 chemical reaction by which it could be liber- 

 ated. Vegetable life and sunlight must have 

 come into play to prepare our atmosphere in 

 the course of a few hundred or thousand 

 years. A serious geological question was 

 the mode of production of the ocean depths 

 and of the eminences of the continents. 

 Many phenomena were doubtless due to 

 strain on cooling, but that did not afford a 

 sufficient explanation in this case. The au- 

 thor thought the cause was change of density 

 by crystallization. Perhaps the strongest 

 argument against unlimited geological time 

 was afforded by the heat of the sun, which 

 may have illuminated the earth for some- 

 where about twenty million years. The latest 

 geological estimate of the time required for 

 the formation of all strata since the be- 

 ginning of the Cambrian rocks was seventeen 

 million years, and the author could hardly 

 be spoken harshly of when he said that this 

 earth could not have been a habitable globe 

 for more than ten million years. 



The Mn8('e Social. The 3fusee Social is 

 a vigorous institution organized in Paris, in 

 1894, to furnish the public, besides informa- 

 tion and discussions, with the documents, 

 models, plans, and statutes of organizations 

 and social institutions intended to ameliorate 

 the material and moral situation of working- 

 men. It has established a permanent exhi- 

 bition of social economy, a library of about 

 nine thousand volumes, French and foreign, 

 documents on important questions, and pe- 

 riodicals ; and has made provision for com- 

 municating to those interested whatever in- 

 formation may be desired concerning social 

 enterprises. For the collection of informa- 

 tion it sends deputations to make personal 

 observations of social facts, events, and in- 

 stitutions, and has correspondents abroad, of 

 whom Mr. W. F. Willoughby, of the Depart- 

 ment of Labor, represents the United States, 

 to furnish news of the course of the social 

 movements in their respective countries. 

 The results of its inquiries are given to the 

 public through stated conferences held at its 

 rooms in Paris ; through " circulars " very 

 respectable documents in size published 

 and distributed at short intervals, and 

 through a series of publications known as 



