H NATURAL SCIENCE. Jan , 



Stone have been made of slabs from the Lower Lias and White 

 Lias (Rhaetic) Beds, but not, so far as we know, with satisfactory 

 results. 



The new part of the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 

 contains an interesting account, by Mr. W. J, L. Abbott, of the 

 deposits and fossils found in excavations made for the foundation of 

 the new Admiralty buildings at Whitehall. Full lists of the fossils 

 are given, the most interesting finds being an undetermined species of 

 wacer-tortoise [Emys), and leaves of the Arctic birch {Betiila nana). 

 This is the first time any Arctic plant has been found fossil in the 

 Thames valley, and the water-tortoise in Britain was known only 

 from Norfolk. 



Geologists will be glad to learn that a series of unpublished 

 papers and notes by the late Professor Carvill Lewis, on the Glacial 

 Geology of Great Britain and Ireland, will shortly be published as a 

 small volume by Messrs. Longmans & Co. Dr. H. W. Crosskey is 

 preparing an introduction. 



A BIOGRAPHY of the late Sir Andrew Ramsay, who was for nine 

 years Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, is being 

 prepared by his successor. Sir Archibald Geikie. 



A NEW monthly journal of Ornithology, the Ovnithologischen 

 Monatsberichte, is announced by Messrs. Friedlander & Son, of Berlin. 

 The first number is to appear this month, and the annual subscrip- 

 tion is 6 marks. The editor is Dr. Ant. Reichenow, and the main 

 object of the journal appears to be the publication of brief preliminary 

 notes on new researches, with a detailed index to current ornitho- 

 losfical literature. 



The World's Fair at Chicago possesses an unusual interest from 

 a Hygienic point of view. The probability is that cholera will break 

 out again in Europe next spring. Whatever may be the vehicle of 

 the cholera germs, it certainly tends to spread along the route where 

 those who are affected have passed. It would certainly more or less 

 affect the success of the Fair if intending visitors had any suspicion 

 that dangers arising from this source were not entirely under control. 

 There is also some reason to suppose that Chicago is well suited to 

 become a sort of headquarter for this disease. In 1891 the typhoid 

 fever death-rate of Chicago was twelve times as great as that of 

 London. This state of the public health points to a water supply 

 contaminated by germs, and it is natural to expect that, if the cholera 

 germ by any means reaches Chicago, the water supply would be one 

 of the most efficient means of spreadmg it. 



