674 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



us to suppose them formed under the then existing atmospheric pressure — some 

 300 atmospheres — at the surface. 



And if we accept the great Deluge as the first act in the drama of geological 

 history, we must give up the idea of an originally saltless ocean. For the chlorides, 

 and other haloid salts, in the primitive nebula would condense and be precipitated 

 before the water. According to M. Belot, they would form a deposit round the 

 South Pole. Then the hot water falling would dissolve them and give us a 

 saturated ocean from the beginning. If this be accepted, then Prof. Joly's 

 ingenious attempt to estimate the age of the Earth from the amount of salt in the 

 ocean fails. 



M. Belot gives us much food for thought. 



Le premier de tous les Deluges. Lois de repartition des mers et des continents 



primitifs. Extrait du volume des Comptes Rendns. 

 L'Origine cosmique des formes de la Terre, Revue scientifique, May 27 to June 3, 



1916. 

 Les volcans expe"rimentaux et les lois de la volcanicite, Comptes Rendus, August 



1916. 

 Contribution a l'etude des causes du volcanisme, ibid, April 191 6. 

 L'hypothese satellitaire et le probleme orogenique, ibid. January 191 7. 

 Trace provisoire de la courbe decrite par le Pole magnetique boreal depuis 1 54 J > 



ibid. January 191 7. 

 Sur l'origine possible du magnetisme terrestre, ibid. April 1916. 



ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN INDIA, by J. T. Jenkins, D.Sc. : on 

 First Annual Report on the Zoological Survey of India for the Year 

 1916-17. [Pp. xliii.] (Calcutta : Superintendent Government Printing, 

 India, 1917. Price 1 rupee, or is. 6d.) 



Although there has been a great change in the attitude both of the India Office 

 and the Central and Provincial Governments in India during the last few years 

 towards the organisation of scientific research in India, there still remains much to 

 be accomplished before the best advantage can be obtained from the systematic 

 investigation of Indian resources. India is no longer practically the sole country 

 capable of turning out products of a peculiarly tropical kind, and consequently she 

 is, and in the immediate future is likely to be still more, subject to the competition 

 of other tropical countries. Until quite recently India produced tropical products 

 in abundance which were exported in exchange for manufactured goods. Of 

 recent years the opening up of tropical Africa and Java, and the remarkable 

 development of the Philippines, have challenged the ancient supremacy of India in 

 a striking manner. The development of European science has also, in by no 

 means a minor degree, adversely affected Indian products, of which indigo and 

 sugar are two examples. 



This serious competition necessitates the immediate facing of the problem of 

 the organisation of science in India, and at the outset two alternatives suggest 

 themselves : 



(1) Either the application of science to Indian conditions is of no practical 

 value ; or 



(2) Science can be applied in India to the study and improvement and conser- 

 vation of Indian products, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. 



