334 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



distilled water, the vessels employed in distillation were accountable 

 for the fatal effects. 



Kiver, lake, or niarsh waters were neutral, but were rendered 

 oligodynamic by the immersion of coins, and again could be 

 neutralised by the addition of some substance, such as sulphur, wool, 

 cellulose, &c., which would expose a large surface, and so attract the 

 copper molecules. 



The paper is prefaced by Schwendener, who informs us that 

 Niigeli intended to name the newly-discovered power Isagitat, but 

 later he changed it to Oligodynamic. 



Professor Cramer, of Zurich, repeated the experiments, and in a 

 most interesting paper gives us his results, which confirm those 

 arrived at by Niigeli. 



There is a brief and succinct account of the Sandgate disaster, 

 by Mr. William Topley, in the April number of the Geographical journal, 

 which contains some curious references to earlier landslips in the 

 same area, 1716, 1725, 1786. Mr. Topley delivered an interesting 

 lecture on the subject to the Geologists' Association on April y. 

 A Report of this will be printed in the May number of the 

 Pyoceedinss. 



In the Amevican Geologist for March, Charles Schuchert writes on 

 the classification of the Brachiopoda. The genera (author and date 

 quoted) are arranged in families, many of which are new, and there is 

 one new genus, Drt//i';w(Beecher), founded on Waldheimiaseptigeva, Loven. 

 Following the classification, is a " Geological Distribution of the 

 Brachiopoda," a most useful list, but which would have been of 

 more service if arranged alphabetically, for the alphabet is stable, 

 while systematists have their idiosyncrasies. Dr. C. E. Beecher has 

 assisted Mr. Schuchert in his work. 



We have received, from the University Press of Chicago, the 

 first number of a new " Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and 

 Related Sciences," called the Journal of Geology. It is excellently 

 printed on hot-pressed paper, and has seven editors and thirteen 

 associate editors. The first article is one on the Pre-Cambrian 

 Rocks of the British Isles, contributed by Sir Archibald Geikie ; 

 most of the remaining space is devoted to questions relating to the 

 glacial geology of America. 



A PARAGRAPH has appeared in the daily Press reporting the 

 discovery of coal in Essex. We understand that the report is without 

 foundation, though it is by no means improbable that Coal-measures 

 may occur at a moderate depth in that county. 



