GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY. 141 



numerous Intro-Pacific volcanoes. Only 46 analyses of the lavas of the 

 Hawaiian Islands have been published so far and of these only 27 are good. 

 The need of more intense and cooperative investigation is urged and some 

 suggestions are made for the practical collection of specimens and their 

 study. 



(444) Remarks on volcanoes. Henry S. Washington. Proc. Pan-Pacific Scientific Con- 



ference, 1920 (Spec. Pub. Bishop Museum, No. 7), pp. 361-368. 1921. 



A record of informal remarks at the conference. 



(445) The thermel. Walter P. White. Science, 55, 617-618. 1922. 



A single short name for the thermoelectric thermometer is desirable, since 

 it is inconvenient to call interchangeable instruments of identical use by 

 different names, such as thermocouple and thermopile, depending merely on 

 the number of their parts. The word thermoelement has been used to give 

 this single name, but it is somewhat objectionable and has been so treated 

 as to create considerable confusion. The fact that it has been quite gener- 

 ally used seems to indicate that a single term for the thermoelectric ther- 

 mometer is welcome. The word thermel is now suggested as a short and un- 

 equivocal word to take the place of thermoelement as more recently used. 

 Logically, it is an abbreviation of both thermoelement and thermoelectric 

 thermometer, and in meaning it is simply synonymous with thermoelectric 

 thermometer. 



(446) Change of the physical properties of materials with pressure. E. D. Williamson. J. 



Franklin Inst., 193, 491-513. 1922. 



It is only in recent years that it has been possible to make accurate measure- 

 ments of the physical properties of materials under high pressures. The 

 volume of results obtained is, however, already quite considerable and deduc- 

 tions of value have been made for both applied and pure science. 



This address presents a collection of the most recent results showing the 

 effect of pressure on the following properties: (1) electrical resistance of solids, 

 liquids, and solutions; (2) compressibility of liquids and solids, including a 

 number of metals and a few rocks; (3) viscosity of a number of lubricating 

 oils. The effect upon electrical theory of the results obtained is discussed 

 briefly in reference to the work of P. W. Bridgman, and possible applications 

 of the study of the other properties are indicated. The light shed by earth- 

 quake observation on questions of the elastic properties of rocks is also dis- 

 cussed and possible deductions pointed out. 



(447) On contact phenomena between gneiss and limestone in western Massachusetts. 



Pentti Eskola. J. Geol., 30, 265-294. 1922. 



Within the area of the igneous Becket granite gneiss in western Massachu- 

 setts there occur several tilted layers of crystalline limestone, called Coles 

 Brook limestone, older than the gneiss and metamorphosed by its contact 

 influence. In the vicinity of the limestone the gneiss contains considerable 

 quantities of lime-bearing silicates, especially of clinopyroxene (diopside- 

 hedenbergite) and titanite, apparently the result of assimilation of limestone 

 by the gneiss magma. 



The gneiss is markedly banded, with alternating darker and lighter bands. 

 It was found, by determining the refractive indices of the chief mafic minerals, 

 biotite, clino-amphibole, and clino-pyroxene, that the amount of their mag- 

 nesia compounds in proportion to their ferrous compounds increases with the 

 total quantity of the mafic constituents. At the same time the amount of 

 anorthite in the plagioclase increases. Thus, the dark bands behave like the 

 earliest separated rocks in a differentiation series. Some differentiation by 

 crystallization really seems to have taken place after the assimilation. In 



