October 7, 1915] 



NATURE 



157 



as that they are insufficient to satisfy the require- 

 ments of psychology. 



Both these papers are too materialistic, and take 

 no notice of modern psychological research, which 

 has demonstrated the paramount importance of 

 experience in determining modes of reaction. This 

 is especially remarkable in a publication issued in a 

 series of "Psychological Monographs" by the 

 •Psychological Review Company," of Princeton, 

 N.J. 



GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 



ASSOCIATION. 



'T^HE address of the President, Prof. Grenville A. J. 



■*■ Cole, was a brilliant and stimulating commence- 

 ment to the proceedings of this section. Following it came 

 an interesting address by Dr. George Hickling on the 

 geology of Manchester and district, in which he 

 pointed out the excellent position of Manchester, both 

 geographically and geologically, situated at the junc- 

 tion of the red beds and the coal measures, with a great 

 variety of opportunities for field-work in the neigh- 

 bouring Pennine Chain. Prof. E. J. Garwood followed 

 with a paper on the discovery of Solenopora and 

 Sphasrocodium in the Silurian rocks of Britain. Up to 

 the delivery of his presidential address at Birmingham 

 these organisms had not been found in Silurian rocks, 

 but careful . search has now proved that Solenopora 

 occurs both in the Wenlock and Woolhope lime- 

 stones. In areas on the borders of Herefordshire and 

 Radnorshire had been found crystalline limestones, 

 upwards of 80 ft. thick, containing remarkable develop- 

 ments of these and similar algal growths, amongst 

 which were the remains of Girvanella and Sphaero- 

 codium, the latter genus being now recorded for the 

 first time from rocks in Britain. 



Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins contributed two papers. 

 The first was on the classification of the Tertiary strata 

 by means of the Eutherian mammals, based on their 

 evolution. The most important break in the succession 

 of life-forms occurs at the close of the Oligocene 

 period, since when there is a marked continuity show- 

 ing that the present face of the earth is merely the 

 last in a long succession in the Tertiary period. His 

 second paper dealt with the geological evidence in 

 Britain as to the antiquity of man. He agreed with 

 Prof. Boule in regarding the evidence of the rostro- 

 carinate eoliths found in East Anglia as of doubtful 

 value. The Ipswich skeleton was obtained from a 

 shallow pit of decalcified boulder clay (not boulder 

 clay in situ) into Glacial sands, and was, he believed, 

 a case of interment which might be of any age from 

 neolithic to modern times. In the case of the Pilt- 

 down skull, he fully accepted Dr. Smith Woodward's 

 opinion that the find belongs to the early Pleistocene 

 period. The evidence indicated that man appeared in 

 Britain and the Continent at the period when he might 

 be expected to appear from the study of Tertiary 

 mammalia — at the beginning of the Pleistocene age, 

 when the existing Eutherian mammalian species were 

 abundant. He may be looked for in the Pliocene, but 

 in the older strata he can only be represented by an 

 ancestry of intermediate forms. 



On September 9 a joint discussion was held with 

 Section E on the classification of land forms, which 

 will be reported in the records of that Section. After- 

 wards Canon Bonney gave some notes on new sections 

 in Charnwood Forest. Considerable quarrying had 

 thrown light on sections previously described, which 

 had caused him to modify his previous views. He 

 was now convinced that the dominant Bardon breccia 

 was really a very exceptional case of fluxion breccia. 

 Prof. W. W. Watts followed with notes on the 



' granite surfaces of Mount Sorrel. It had been sug- 

 gested that some of the ground and polished surfaces 

 known in this area and in certain other Midland 

 I localities might be due to wind action in Pleistocene 

 times. A recently discovered section at Mount Sorrel 

 showed glacial striae crossing wind grooves at a high 

 angle, proving that the Triassic wind grooves had 

 survived actual glaciation. 



^ Dr. A. H. Cox and Mr. A. K. Wells contributed 

 an account of investigations on the Ordovician 

 sequence in Cader Idris. Re-examination of the area 

 had shown that the older views of the igneous rocks 

 of this area, as all of Arenig age, must be modified. 

 Four distinct volcanic centres in the Ordovician series 

 had now been discovered. Prof. W. G. Fearnsides 

 presented a preliminary account of investigations to 

 prove the underground contours of the Barnsley seam 

 of coal. The sites were plotted on a half-inch map, 

 the depths to the coal were corrected for height above 

 sea-level, and contour lines had been drawn among 

 the spot-levels so obtained. From an analysis of the 

 underground contours of the Barnsley bed, it is found 

 that its strike lines generally range from N.E.-S.W. 

 or N.W.-S.E., it being difficult to find either a N.-S. 

 or E.-W. strike constant over more than a few miles 

 of country. The greatest structural division of the 

 coalfield basin is by the equivalent of a N.E.-S.W. 

 anticline, of which the southern limb is along the line 

 of the Don faults from Sheffield to Doncaster. North 

 of this fine there is some evidence of a syncline with 

 its axis central near Frickley. The inclination of the 

 Barnsley bed is steepest near the outcrop, the measures 

 flattening out when the central line of the syncline 

 is approached. The map indicates the interdependence 

 of underground structure and topographical relief. 



On September 10 both morning and afternoon meet- 

 ings of the Section were required to complete the pro- 

 gramme. The morning session commenced by a 

 description by Prof. J. W. SoUas of reconstructions of 

 fossils by serial sections, illustrated by several remark- 

 able models of restorations of a graptolite, a primitive 

 fish, the skull of a reptile from the Karoo, and the 

 skull of Ichthyosaurus communis, from Lyme Regis. 

 The last-named was 520 mm. in length, and had been 

 studied in 520 sections taken at equal intervals apart^ 

 and revealed in remarkable detail the internal struc- 

 ture of the head. Prof. R. C. Wallace, of Manitoba, 

 described the brine springs of that area, which issue 

 from the Middle and Upper Devonian limestones, and 

 circulate in the Dakota limestone at the base of the 

 Cretaceous, depositing salt at certain dolomitic hori- 

 zons. The salt flats where the springs reached the 

 surface were devoid of vegetation and studded with 

 ice-carried boulders, granite, gneiss, etc., which haye 

 suff'ered intense chemical disintegration. Ferromag- 

 nesian minerals have been most intensely affected. 

 The causes of this special disintegration, as compared 

 with that of sea-water, were discussed. The boulders 

 were partially submerged and films of liquid were 

 maintained on the surface, in contact with atmospheric 

 oxygen. Owing to partial adsorption by colloids an 

 acid residual solution was produced, which is a power- 

 ful corrosive agent. 



Dr. Albert Wilmore dealt with the Carboniferous 

 limestone zones of N.E. Lancashire, describing the 

 sequence found in the neighbourhood of Clitheroe and 

 the Knoll district. Mr. H. Day referred to observa- 

 tions on a collection of fossils from Treak Cliff and 

 Peakshill, Castleton, and discussed the value of the 

 brachiopods and corals as zonal determinations, when 

 compared with those of the Bristol area. He con- 

 cluded that any system of zonal indices could be of 

 local value only, and not of general application. Dr. 

 Arthur Vaughnn, who was recovering from a serious 



NO. 



2397, VOL. 96] 



