Dec. 13, 1877] 



NATURE 



131 



tologically very distinct, inasmuch as the former is of 

 marine origin, while the latter, so far as is now known, 

 contains only brackish-water and fresh-water invertebrate 

 forms. He reports a similar obscurity or absence of a 

 stratigraphical plane of demarcation between the Laramie 

 and Wasatch groups, although it is there that the final 

 change from brackish to entirely fresh waters took place 

 over that great region. Furthermore, he finds that while 

 the three principal groups of the fresh-water tertiary 

 series, west of the Rocky Mountains, namely, the 

 Wasatch, Green River, and Bridger groups, have each 

 peculiar characteristics, and are recognisable with satis- 

 factory dist^nct^le^s as general divisions, they really con- 

 stitute a continuous series of strata, not separated by 

 sharply-defined planes of demarcation, either stratigra- 

 phical or palaeontological. 



During the progress of the field work, as above indi- 

 cated, large and very valuable collections of fossils have 

 been made, all of which will constitute standards of 

 reference in the future progress of the work, and quite a 

 large number of the species are new to science. These 

 are now being investigated,, and will be published in the 

 Usual paljeontological reports of the survey. 



NOTES 



At the moment of going to \ ress"we have received the report 

 of the Inflexible Committee. The impression a first glance over 

 it gives is that the Inflexible is a passable ship, but that the 

 Committee strongly urge the Admiralty not to proceed with any 

 more like it, which practically puts an end, we presume, to the 

 Ajax and Agamemnon, in their present form, as well as to the 

 fourth ship which the Admiralty proposed to build. It is proper, 

 however, to state that a closer perusal of the report shows the 

 hiflexible herself to be open to the gravest objections in several 

 respects, and that the Committee recommend considerable modi- 

 fications in her. In our next number we shall /uUy review the 

 report. 



Wk have received several letters 'from India, showing that 

 great interest is being taken in that country with reference to the 

 best methods of determining the amount and variation of solar 

 radiation. We may state that both Prof. Stewart and Mr. 

 Lockyer have recently devised instruments to secure these data. 

 The latter proposes to utilise Capt. Abney's method of obtaining 

 photographs of the red end of the spectrum, so that variations 

 in thermal and chemical intensity may both be recorded auto- 

 matically. 



Sir William Thomson has been elected a Foreign Associate 

 of the Paris Academy of Sciences, to fill the place vacated by 

 the death of von Baer. 



Prof. Sir Wyville Thomson has been created a Knight of 

 the Royal Order of the Polar Star by the King of Sweden. 



M. Tempel is^ to continue henceforth the publication of 

 Donati's Bollettino of the Arcetri Observatory, of which only 

 one number had been issued when Mr. Donati died. 



Gen. Nansouty, Director of the Observatory situated on the 

 top of the Pic du Midi has been nominated '* Officier de 

 rUniversite " by M. Faye, the new Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion. The General, as our readers know, spends his winters on 

 that precipitous mountain for meteorological observations. We 

 are glad to register such anacknowledgment of his devotion to 

 science. 



Dr. Burdon-Sanderson gives notice that the first of his 

 annual course of lectures on comparative pathology will be de- 

 livered at the University of London, Burlington Gardens, on 

 Saturday, December 15, at half-past five o'clock. The subject 

 of the lecture will be, "The Infective Processes of Disease." 



The succeeding lectures will be on the Monday, Wednesday, 

 and Friday of the following week, at the same hour, for which 

 days "The Nature and Causes of Septic Infection," "The 

 Germ Theory," and "The Theory of Contagium Vivum," are 

 among the topics to be discussed. 



The German postal department has issued a complete series 

 of regulations for the use of the telephone in the various offices 

 where it has been established. In § 15 we notice the rule that 

 the speaker shall pronounce each syllab e slowly and separately, 

 and make a pause at the end of evtry six words to give lime for 

 the receipt of the me.-sage. The receiver repeats the whole 

 message at the end at an ordinary rate of delivery. Proper 

 names and foreign messages are spelled. The Pontmasier- 

 General, Dr. Stephan, who wages an unmerciful war in his 

 department against all foreign words where a German equivalent 

 is possible, has christened the new invention as the Fernsprecher 

 (far-speaker), and excluded entirely tha^ Greek telephone ivoxa. 

 his regulations. 



In consequence of the large numbers who were unable to 

 obtain admission to the recent lecture at the Society of Arts on 

 the "Telephone," Prof. Bell, at the special request of the 

 Council of the Society, has consented to repeat his lecture on 

 Wedne-day, the 19th inst. As there is certain to be a large 

 attendance, it is suggested that those members who heard the 

 first lecture, should refrain from exercising their privilege of 

 being present on the second occasion. 



Prof. Kekuli^:, of Bonn, the originator of the present benzene 

 theory has been nominated for president of the German Chemical 

 Society for the coming year. The policy which the society 

 adopted at its last annual election of choosing its chief officer 

 from among the leading German chemists at a distance from the 

 headquarters of the society, seems to meet general favour, and 

 Prof. Wohler, the Nestor of organic chemistry, will certainly be 

 ably succeeded by Prof Kekule, whose classical researches and 

 theoretical deductions form the basis of the present atomistic 

 theory. The German Chemical Society would do well to copy 

 one of the customs of its sister society in London, viz., to require 

 an inaugural address from its newly-elected presidents. We 

 notice that the library of the society will be enriched by the 

 bequest of the extensive chemical library of the late Prof. 

 Oppenheim, an accession which will double the present number 

 of volumes. 



Dr. Vohl, of Cologne, has adopted an ingenious method of 

 determinin:^ the impurities in the Rhine, which consists ia 

 analysing the boiler incrustations of the river steamers, as well 

 as the concentrated residues i-emuning in the boilers after passing 

 over a certain distance. By this means he has detected the 

 presence of a large amount of arsenious acid in the river water — 

 resulting chiefly from the aniline and dyeing establishments— a; 

 well as other poisonous substances. An unusually high per- 

 centage of phosphoric acid showed that the sea waj daily absorb- 

 ing vast quantities of the most valuable fertilising material from 

 the soil of Germany. 



The Scientific Congress of France will meet at Nice from 

 January 10 to 20, 1878. The locality is likely to attract many 

 visitors at such a cold period of the year. 



Another sitting of the enlarged Council of the Observatory 

 of Paris was held on December 9. The councillors passed a 

 resolution for an increase of the salary of the astronomers and 

 auxiliary astronomers, the maximum pay of the former to be^ 

 10,000 francs instead of 8,000, and of the second 7,000 instead 

 of 6,000. They propose to the Government to place the 

 appointment of the director of the establishment partly in the 

 hands of the Academy of Sciences and partly in the hands of the 

 Council, the Minister to have only the privilege to choose 



