NOTES AND COMMENT 



Dr. 0. D. Von Engeln, of Cornell University, has contri])uted two 

 papers to the Bulletin of the American deosraphical Society (April 

 and May, 1914) on the effects of continental glaciation on agriculture. 

 The modification of relief and deposition of soil which resulted from the 

 glaciation of the northeastern United States are shown to have been of 

 marked importance in increasing the agricultural value of that region. 

 Only in New England has glaciation left the surface bare of soil deposits 

 and strewn with boulders, whereas from New York to Wisconsin the 

 glaciated area possesses a diversity of valuable soils and also an abundance 

 of lakes which are often of horticultural value in lessening the amplitude 

 of temperature changes. 



Professor Emil Hatschek has collected a series of articles which he 

 published in The Chemical World and issued them as a small book en- 

 titled An Introduction to the Physics and Chemistry of Colloids (Phila- 

 delphia, Blakiston, 1913). Although primarily addressed to chemists, 

 the book will be a useful one to biologists who wish to acquaint them- 

 selves with the recent results in a field of work which is of increasing im- 

 portance for the advance of general physiology. The several chapters 

 discuss viscosity, adsorption, surface tension, emulsions, emulsoids, 

 suspensoids and gels. 



The fourth annual meeting of the Biological Society of the Pacific 

 Coast was held on May 22 in the Science Hall of the University of Wash- 

 ington at Seattle. The botanical papers presented were: The Present 

 Trend of Botany, by Professor T. C. Frye; The Life History of a new 

 Pear and Quince Rust, by Professor H. S. Jackson; Coryneum and 

 its Ascosporic Stage, by Professor J. G. Hall; and The Influence of 

 Preceding Seasons on the Growth of the Yellow Pine, by Professor 

 J. E. Kirkwood. 



221 



