POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



137 



ward filed an application which interfered 

 with it. This application was amended in 

 order to avoid the interference, and patents 

 were granted on both ; but that Greenough's 

 is the parent of the modern machine, while 

 Gallahue's " did not contain a single feature " 

 of it, except the pegging-awl and driver ; 

 while " there is not an essential feature in 

 the present shoe-pegging machine which is 

 not found " in the Greenough claims. The 

 details of the dispute, as Mr. Greenough 

 gives them, are intricate, and we can do no 

 more than fairly state the substance of his 

 claim. 



The American Association, 1893. — The 



next meeting of the American Association 

 (1893) will be held in Madison, Wis. The 

 following are the officers-elect: President, 

 William Ilarkness, Washington ; vice-presi- 

 dents, A, Mathematics and Astronomy, C. 

 L. Doolittle, South Bethlehem, Pa. ; B, Phys- 

 ics, E. L. Nichols, Ithaca, N. Y. ; C, Chemis- 

 try, Edward Hart, Easton, Pa. ; D, Mechan- 

 ical Science and Engineering, S. W. Robinson, 

 Columbus, 0. ; E, Geology and Geography, 

 Charles D. Walcott, Washington ; F, Zool- 

 ogy, Henry F. Osborn, New York ; G, Botany, 

 Charles E. Besscy, Lincoln, Neb. ; H, Anthro- 

 pology, J. Owen Dorsey, Tacoma, Md. ; I, 

 Economic Science and Statistics, William H, 

 Brewer, New Haven, Conn. ; permanent 

 secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge (office, 

 Salem), Mass. ; general secretary, T. H. Nor- 

 ton, Cincinnati, 0. ; secretary of the council, 

 H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, N. Y. Secretaries 

 of the sections : A, Mathematics and Astron- 

 omy, Andrew W. Phillips, New Haven, Conn, ; 

 B, Physics, W. Le Conte Stephens, Troy, N. 

 Y. ; C, Chemistry, J. U. Nef, Chicago, 111. ; 

 D, Mechanical Science and Engineering, D, 

 S. Jacobus, Hoboken, N. Y. ; E, Geology and 

 Geography, Robert T. Hill, Austin, Tex. ; F, 

 Zoology, L. 0. Howard, Washington; G, 

 Botany, F. V. Coville, Washington ; II, An- 

 thropology, Warren K. Moorehead, Xenia, 

 (). ; I, Economic Science and Statistics, Nel- 

 lie T. Kedzie, Manhattan, Kan. ; treasurer, 

 William Lilly, Mauoh Chunk, Pa. 



Prehistoric Copper Implements. — In a 



paper at the American Association, on Sin- 

 gular Copper Implements from the Hopewell 

 Group, Ross County, Ohio, Prof. F. A. Put- 



nam emphatically denied the statements that 

 these copper implements were fashioned by 

 white men and given to the Indians in trade. 

 "It must be," said lie, "that these imple- 

 ments were made by the native Americans. 

 In all cases where implements and orna- 

 ments are found in these mounds, there 

 are found also on the altars nuggets of 

 copper. So it is with the silver imple- 

 ments and those made of meteoric iron. 

 Now, is it likely that the trader would fur- 

 nish the Indian with nuggets of the natural 

 material V There is conclusive proof that the 

 original settlers of the Ohio Valley worked 

 the metal into these implements and orna- 

 ments. Again, these mounds, many of them, 

 have trees growing on them that are between 

 four hundred and five hundred years old. 

 This carries back beyond the time of trading." 

 Prof. Putnam explained that round holes 

 could be cut in the sheet copper which had 

 been hammered out by the Indian, by sim- 

 ply placing the sheet of copper on the trunk 

 of a tree and pounding into it one end of an 

 oak limb squared. He was unable to de- 

 scribe the probable mode adopted by the In- 

 dians in cutting edges shaped like the teeth 

 of a saw, but thought it was done by the use 

 of an instrument made of meteoric iron. 



Sir Archibald ileikie on the Age of the 

 Globe. — The address of Sir Archibald Gei- 

 kie, as President of the British Association 

 in Edinburgh, included a historical review of 

 the Huttonian and Wemerian theories of the 

 origin and processes of geological changes, 

 and closed with an examination of the pres- 

 ent state of opinion and evidences concern- 

 ing the age of the globe. While the speaker 

 regarded the demands of the earlier geolo- 

 gists for unlimited time for the formation 

 of the earth's strata as extravagant, he was 

 equally of the opinion that the limitations 

 which the physicists seek to impose on the 

 duration of the processes need to be revised. 

 The rate of degradation of the land under 

 atmospheric influences is capable of meas- 

 urement, and from this it is concluded that 

 the geological deposits, if they were all made 

 at the most rapid rate witnessed, would re- 

 quire seventy-three millions ol years ; if at 

 the slowest rate, six hundred and eighty 

 millions of years, for their accumulation. 

 But it may be argued that all kiuds of ter- 



