FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



141 



The exposure is about fifteen miles long, 

 from two to four feet thick, from forty to 

 fifty feet high, rests on a bed of clay, and is 

 overlaid by a bed of yellow marl. At the 

 lowest point the dust is well assorted and 

 stratified ; at the higher points it shows signs 

 of having been deposited in shallow water. 

 It is composed chiefly of silica, with small 

 proportions of ferric and aluminum oxides, 

 protoxide of manganese, water, lime, and 

 traces of other substances. The microscope 

 shows it as consisting almost wholly of micro- 

 scopic, transparent, silicious flakes of various 

 irregular forms. 



Geological Society of America. The 



seventh summer meeting of the Geological 

 Society of America was held at Springfield, 

 Mass., Prof. N. S. Shaler presiding. A paper 

 was read by C. H. Hitchcock on the Cham- 

 plain Glacial Epoch, which was regarded as 

 corresponding with Prof. James Geikie's 

 Mecklenbergian Epoch. In a paper on the 

 Glacial Genesee Lakes, H. L. Fairchild ex- 

 hibited the relations of the Genesee River 

 drainage basin to surrounding river systems, 

 and endeavoured to determine the glacial 

 history of the region. In his paper on the 

 Bearing of Physiography on Uniformitarian- 

 ism, W. M. Davis maintained that the suc- 

 cess in the interpretation of Nature by means 

 of the physiographic study of land forms 

 confirmed the correctness of the postulates 

 of uniformitarianism and brought to its sup- 

 port a series of facts not in the beginning 

 of the study supposed to bear upon it. J. C. 

 Branner described the decomposition of rocks 

 going on in Brazil as being more profound 

 there than in temperate regions. The chief 

 mechanical agency promoting it is the daily 

 change of temperature to which rocks exposed 

 to the sun are subject, which causes exfolia- 

 tion and the admission of a number of de- 

 structive agencies and reactions. Among 

 these agencies are rain, bringing down cor- 

 rodmg acids, insects, and plants. Many 

 papers of more special interest were read on 

 subjects of stratigraphical, glacial, and eco- 

 nomical geology, and paleontology. A com- 

 mittee which had been appointed in 1898 to 

 secure the expropriation of the region about 

 Mount Rainier as a public park reported 

 that it had presented the case to a committee 

 of the United States Senate, but had failed 



to have a bill recommended. The committee 

 was continued, to make another effort. 



Tlie French Scientific Association. The 



French Association for the Advancement of 

 Science met for 1895 in Bordeaux, where its 

 first meeting was held in IS'Z'i. The maire, 

 in welcoming the association, referred to the 

 changes which had taken place in the city 

 since then all for good, and largely for the 

 diffusion of knowledge and the promotion 

 of public comfort. The number of primary 

 schools had been tripled ; the Lyceum, in 

 whose halls the sectional meetings were held, 

 had been built, and faculties of law, science, 

 letters, and medicine and pharmacy had been 

 established and an observatory erected ; all 

 attracting an attendance of more than two 

 thousand students, and giving the place all 

 the privileges of a university except the 

 name. Museums also and art galleries had 

 been founded, and benevolent institutions 

 brought into existence. All these, the maire 

 intimated, were the results of the scientific 

 activity which began with the meeting of 

 1872. The president, M. Emile Trelat, took 

 salubrity as the subject of his address, in 

 which he gave a felicitous description of the 

 ideal city of health. The work of the pre- 

 vious meeting of the association, which was 

 held at Caen, and the history of the associa- 

 tion during the year, were reviewed by the 

 secretary, M. Livon. The association lost 

 many of its distinguished members during 

 the year, among whom were Baron Adolphe 

 d'Eichthal, one of the founders, a benefactor, 

 and president in 1875 at Nantes; Verneuil, 

 the eminent doctor, president in 1885 at 

 Grenoble; Gustave Cotteau, several times 

 president of the Geological Section ; Al- 

 phonse Guerin, Ferdinand de Lesseps, Re- 

 cipen, and Armand Lalande, founders; Vic- 

 tor Duruy, and others ; and among the for- 

 eign associates the Russian mathematician 

 Tchebichef and Carl Vogt, who had attended 

 a number of the meetings. It appears from 

 the financial reports presented by M. ifimile 

 Galante, treasurer, that the year's receipts 

 of the association were 86,244 francs. 



Infectiousness of Milk. The Massachu- 

 setts Society for Promoting Agriculture has 

 issued a report of work done under its aus- 

 pices on the above subject. It being already 



