28 ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (AMEEICAN.) 



3. The extended influence of a sound engi- 

 neering practice. The teachers of engineering 

 are thus in the highest degree accountable for 

 the proper utilization of the forces and materials 

 of Nature's laboratories. Before the existence 

 of schools of engineering, progress in the corre- 

 sponding works and industries was comparative- 

 ly slow. The works requiring the engineer for- 

 merly were large buildings and road bridges, 

 where abundant material and rule of thumb took 

 the place of science. Less than one hundred 

 years ago the first civil engineering schools were 

 established, and but a few till within fifty years. 

 Later came the schools for mechanical engineer- 

 ing, and still more recently those for electrical 

 engineering. As a rule, demand for these schools 

 preceded them. Note the profusion of works of 

 engineering which have appeared since, such as 

 large bridges, buildings, machines. No doubt 

 all human progress was hampered by the dearth 

 of engineering science as existing one hundred 

 years ago. Admitting the importance of engi- 

 neering schools there is yet considerable confu- 

 sion of ideas in what should be embraced in 

 those schools, and standard courses representing 

 the united judgment of the engineering teachers 

 of the country would be hailed with satisfaction ; 

 not that all will adopt any one standard in en- 

 tirety, but that all may have standards with 

 which to compare in order to the attainment of 

 the highest ends in teaching, and on the part of 

 the engineering professions. 



" Test of Plant of the Hygeia Ice Company of New 

 York City," by Messrs. Hupfel, Griswold, and Kenne- 

 dy : " Experimental Determination of the Quickness 

 of Action of a Shaft Governor," " Tests of Automatic 

 Fire Sprinklers " and " An Accurate Method of Meas- 

 uring Heavy Liquid Pressure," by David S. Jacobus; 

 " On the Changes in the Dimensions of Metals which 

 may be due to Changes in Molecular Structure De- 

 pending on their Age," by William A. Rogers ; " Im- 

 proved Form of Transmission Dynamometer," by 

 Stillman W. Robinson ; " Economical Compression in 

 a Steam Engine," by J. Burkitt Webb ; and " A Me- 

 chanical Index," by C. Wellman Parks. 



E. Geology and Geography. This section was 

 presided over by Charles D. Walcott, who is 

 palaeontologist of the United States Geological 

 Survey with special charge of the palaeozoic di- 

 vision of invertebrate palaeontology. He chose 

 as the subject of his address " The Geologic Time 

 as Indicated by the Sedimentary Rocks of North 

 America." Dr. Walcott quoted the opinions of 

 eminent geologists as to the age of the earth. 

 Alexander Winchell held that the present rock 

 formation lasted 3,000,000 years. W J McGee 

 put the figure as high as 680,000,000 years, while 

 Charles Darwin estimated it to be 200,000,000 

 years. The general conclusion of all geologists 

 was that the globe is of vast antiquity, compared 

 with which man's age is insignificant. Maps 

 showing the appearance of the North American 

 continent at different epochs were produced, and 

 he gave the conclusions arrived at after the in- 

 vestigation of the rock formations in Nevada, 

 where the observations were conducted on an 

 area of rock of nearly 40,000 square miles and 

 having a thickness of 21,000 feet. Of this mass 

 of rock 6,000 feet in thickness is limestone and 

 1,500 feet sandstone and shells. It required 

 1,200,000 years, the lecturer said, to deposit the 

 sands and shells, and 16,500,000 years for the 



formation of the limestone deposit, this being 

 based on the present rate of deposit of limestone 

 in the ocean. With this as unit of geological 

 measurement the total time required for the for- 

 mation of the North American continent was 

 about 45,140,000 years, which, added to the un- 

 known time required for the formation of the 

 crystalline rocks, about 10,000,000 years, would 

 make over 56,000,000 in all. Geologic time, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Walcott, must be measured by 

 tens of millions of years, although some have 

 taken hundreds of millions of years into consid- 

 eration in their calculations, while others, the 

 physicists particularly, have refused to accept 

 such long periods. 



The following-named papers were then read 

 and discussed before the section : 



"Gravels of Glacier Bay, Alaska" (with lantern 

 illustrations), by Henry F. Reid ; " Use of the name 

 1 Catskill,' " by John J. Stevenson ; " Section Across 

 the Coastal Plain Region in Southern North Carolina," 

 by Joseph A. Holmes; "Notes on Further Observa- 

 tions of Temperature in the Deep Well at Wheeling, 

 W. Va.," by William Hallock ; " Recent Investiga- 

 tions in the Cretaceous Formation on Long Island, 

 N. Y.," and " Northward Extension of the Yellow 

 Gravel in New Jersey, Staten Island, Long Island, 

 and Eastward." by Arthur llollick ; " Character or 

 Folds in the Marquette Iron District," by Charles R. 

 Van Hise ; " TheTossil Sharks of Ohio," by Edward 

 W. Claypole ; " Hillsdale County Geology," by Hora- 

 tio P. Parmelee ; " Exhibition of Trilobites snowing 

 Antenna? and Legs," by Charles D. Walcott; "Re- 

 marks on the Genus Arthrophycus Hall,". "On the 

 Value of Pseudo-algae as Geological Guides," and 

 " Studies in Problematic Organisms. The Genus fu- 

 coides," by Joseph F. James ; " Some Questions Re- 

 specting Glacial Phenomena About Madisonj" by 

 William Hollick " Amount of Glacial Erosion in the 

 Finger Lake Region of New York," by David F. Lin- 

 coln; "Ice-sheet on Newtonville Sandplain," by 

 Frederic P.Gulliver; "Additional Facts oearing on 

 the Question of the Unity of the Glacial Period," by 

 G. Frederick Wright ; " Changes of Drainage in Rock 

 River Basin in Illinois," by Frank Leverett ; " Graphic 

 Comparison of Post-Columbia and Post-Lafayette 

 Erosion," by W J McGee ; " An Illustration of the 

 Effect of Stagnant Ice in Sussex County, N. J.," and 

 " A Phase of Superficial Drift," by Rollin D. Salis- 

 bury ; " Tertiary and Quaternary" Stream Erosion of 

 North America," by Warren upham ; and " The 

 Emergence of Springs," by Thomas C. Hopkins. 



F. Zoology. The presiding officer of this sec- 

 tion was Prof. Henry F. Osborn, of Columbia 

 College, who chose as the subject of his address 

 " The Rise of the Mammalia." In discussing 

 this topic, he dwelt especially upon the methods 

 employed by palaeontologists, and upon the broad 

 generalizations that had been made by students 

 of fossil mammals. Among these was the gen- 

 eralization of Marsh, that all early types of mam- 

 malia had small brain cavities. Cope has shown 

 by the growth of the feet that all early types had 

 five toes upon both the fore and hind feet, and 

 that the foot rested upon the sole. He had also 

 shown that while the primitive types possessed 

 cone-shaped teeth, the more differentiated they 

 became the more complex the teeth were. An 

 interesting statement in regard to the dental 

 formulas of various orders was given. Without 

 going into details, it may be said that the speaker 

 argued for the three great groups of mammals 

 monotremes, marsupials, and placentals a 

 common origin far back of Jurassic times, for 



