558 



NATURE 



{Oct. 3, 1889 



features, knobs and basins, swells and says, smooth ridges of till 

 and boulder belts, may be included (though such topography and 

 ■features are under some conditions non-morainic), but the till 

 plain, "or ground moraine," is not included. 



The moraines here discussed are terminal to the ice but not 

 to the drift- covered portions of these States. Four evidences of 

 advances in the production of later moraines are cited: (i) 

 buried soils in. situ between till sheets ; (2) changes of direction 

 in fijw as shown by striae ; (3) change in form of ice-lobe as 

 indicated by the distribution of the moraine belts and shiftings 

 •of the re-entrant and lobate portions ; (4) evidence of push or 

 advance in the moraine itself. 



The number of distinct moraines varies because of partial 

 coalescence or of local obliteration of portions of certain 

 moraines by later advances. For this reason correlation is 

 difficult. Aside from the difficulty cited there is an increase in the 

 complexity in passing from older to newer moraines. In the older 

 ones the interlobate portions are short, and the moraines can be 

 traced around continuously from one lobe to another through 

 the re-entrant portions. But in newer moraines the terminal 

 loops meet on opposite sides of large interlobate moraines, and 

 ■correlation is made only after critical study of their connections, 

 over-riding, overwash, &c. 



Suggestions are made upon the subject of progressive lobation, 

 but caution is urged against advancing general schemes too early. 

 The study has not been carried far enough to make it possible to 

 •draw conclusions of that high order to which future extension of 

 the work will lead. 



Before the leading time-intervals in this district can be properly 

 outlined, wider correlations must be made and erosion studies 

 must be carefully prosecuted by competent investiga tors of 

 •erosion phenomena. 



Section of Economic Science and Statistics. 



Not the least interesting of the papers of this Section was one 

 on " Food Moulds the Race," by Mrs. Nellie S. Kedzie, of the 

 Department of Household Economy and Hygiene in the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College. Mrs. Kedzie traced Irish discontent 

 to the fact that, as she states, whereas "the population of 

 England take on an average 45lbs. of meat per day," the Irish- 

 man eats but 2| oz. per week. " A hungry man is an angry 

 man," Mrs. Kedzie affirmed, and added, " What wonder that the 

 Irish have grown rebellious, suspicious, and lawless " ! 



A more serious and important paper in this Section was that 

 of Mr. F. Lester Ward on " The Sociological Position of 

 Protection and P'ree Trade." The author advocated a protective 

 tariff, and his arguments may be briefly summed up thus : — A 

 protective tariff is a means employed by the State to encourage 

 ■ activities beneficial to that State. The principle is that of in- 

 ducing certain individuals to put forth energies resulting in 

 benefit to the community at large. Against the argument that 

 public money should not thus be given to private individuals, 

 Mr. Ward urged that the public funds thus spent were analogous 

 to the moneys spent in salaries to Government officials — the end 

 was the same in both cases, viz. the public welfare. A protective 

 tariff tended to make the State self sustaining. The statesman 

 is not a humanitarian ; his duty is the weal of his own country. 

 He is justified, therefore, in advocating measures of self-defence. 

 But as with individuals, so with States : those acts which are 

 performed for the object of self-defence conduce to the welfare 

 •of the collective whole. There is no such thing as free com- 

 petition. The term itself implies friction. It requires intelligent 

 interference to preserve competition free. Competition left to 

 itself promotes monopolies. The protective tariff prohibits the 

 unnecessary transportation of commodities. This results in 

 economy. 



But the paper that attracted the largest amount of attention 

 in this Section was that of Mr. B. E. Fernow, chief of the 

 Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture of the 

 United States. A graduate of a Forestry Academy of his own 

 country, Germany, where, as he himself said, the preservation 

 ■of fore>ts is traditional, Mr. Fernow is astonished at the careless — 

 in many cases, indeed, deliberate — wastefulness with which the 

 New World utilizes its treasures of timber, and he looks to the 

 •Government to remedy the evil. "As far as the forest yields 

 material for thearts,"he said, "it is an object of private industry; 

 but when, by its position on a watershed, the forest becomes an 

 influential factor in the water conditions of the plain, it may 

 still serve the purposes of gain and wealth, which are the objects 

 of private industry, but its indirect significance for society at 



large exceeds the private interest, and this class of resources, 

 being in the direction of a social gain or gain for a larger num- 

 ber, must become an object of public economy by the State or 

 community." 



The following passage from Mr. Fernow's paper is worthy of 

 quotation, showing as it does his perspicacious views on this 

 difficult problem of forest conservation : — 



"Whatever tends to stimulate private activity is to be 

 promoted. Whatever retards development of intensive methods 

 is to be removed by Government. Industrial education, cultural 

 surveys, organization of national irrigation systems, fish commis- 

 sions, bureaus of information, experimental stations and other 

 aids to private enterprise will constitute the chief methods of 

 expressing State interest with regard to these resources. The 

 three great sources upon which mankind is most dependent, 

 which demand first the attention of the State, are the soil, as 

 food producer, the water, and climatic conditions. A rational 

 management of the water capital of the world in connection 

 with the agricultural use of the soil will become the economic 

 problem of the highest importance, as the necessity for increased 

 food production calls for intensive methods. In the United 

 States the action of the Government on economic and cultural 

 questions is apt to be fitful and the result of per.-onal influence 

 rather than a logical analysis of conditions and principles. 

 While our Government is ready to go to war in order to protect 

 its fi>heries, it has never even known the value as food supply of 

 the game which has been killed. Whole races of animals have 

 been extirpated before there were population enough to require 

 the meat. While with one hand we pay exorbitant prices in 

 land and wasted energy to get the plains re-forested, and that 

 with poor success, with the other hand we offer a premium for 

 forest destruction in mountains by leaving them without proper 

 administration. And now we propose to establish irrigation 

 systems, neglecting to provide first for those conditions which 

 a'isure a regulated water supply — namely, by forest preservation." 



This paper led to the adoption by the Association of three 

 resolutions : one, that Congress be memorialized on behalf f'f 

 a proper administration of the forests of the western mountain 

 ranges ; a second, that legislative enactments were necessary for 

 the development of natural resources ; and a third, appointing a 

 committee to urge the importance of these matters on the 

 President and Congress of the United States and on the 

 Premier and Parliament of Canada. 



Section of Chemistry. 



The Vice-Presidential address in this Section was read by 

 Prof. William L. Dudley, of Vanderbilt University, who gave 

 a resume of the more important researches on the nature of 

 amalgams, to which was appended a very complete index to 

 the literature on the subject. Prof. Dudley confined himself 

 almost wholly to the historic aspect of his theme, taking occasion 

 only to remark that the results of previous experiments seem to 

 prove that amalgams are chemical compounds more or less 

 unstable. 



Mr. Charles Munro spoke on the explosiveness of the cellu- 

 loids. He gave the results of experiments for testing their 

 stability, flashing-point, &c., and maintained that the opaque 

 varieties were insensitive to detonation at ordinary temperatures, 

 but that the translucent readily exploded. 



Mr. John W. Langley, of Pittsburg, read a paper on 

 "International Standards for the Analysis of Iron and Steel." 

 He stated that a system of international standards had been 

 arranged for between England, France, Germany, Sweden, and 

 the United States. He gave a description of the system, and 

 asked the Section to name one chemist to act with six others to 

 conduct the analysis on behalf of the American Committee on 

 the International Standards, and to co-operate regarding the 

 same with European analysts. The meeting appointed Mr. 

 Thomas M. Brown, of Boston, with Prof. F. A. Gooch, of Vale 

 College, New Haven, Conn., as alternative. 



Section of Mathematics and Astronomy. 



In the Section of Mathematics a paper — which resulted in an 

 important resolution being adopted by the Association at large 

 — was read on the Peruvian arc. The two meridional arcs, the 

 one in Peru and the other in Lapland, measured a century and 

 a half ago, were examined by Mr. E. D. Preston, of the United 

 States Coast and Geodetic Survey, with reference to the degree 

 of accuracy attained, and a comparison was made between the 



