October 2, 



1919J 



NATURE 



91 



such knowledge and methods as by their general- 

 isation may increase the efficiency and thereby the 

 prosperity of the nation as a whole. The next 

 few years will be marked by the introduction of 

 one legislative measure after another directed to 

 this end, but probably in many cases ill-conceived 

 from lack of acquaintance among law-givers and 

 people with the intimate character of the problems 

 involved. To those problems which affect the life 

 of the individual this series of lectures will serve 

 as an interesting and authoritative introduction. 



SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GEOLOGY. 



The Geology of South .Australia. (In two 

 divisions.) Division i, An Introduction to 

 Geology, Physio graphical and Structural, from 

 the Australian Standpoint. Division 2, The 

 Geology of Soiith ^.Australia, with Notes on the 

 Chief Geological Systems and Occurrences in 

 the other Australian States. By Walter How- 

 chin. Pp. xvi -f- 543. (Adelaide : The Education 

 Department, 1918.) Price 105. 



iPOLLOWING the example of Mr. Chapman's 

 -'• Australian fossils — an outline of paleonto- 

 logy based on Australian examples for Australian 

 students — Mr. Howchin, of the University of 

 Adelaide, has prepared a general text-book of 

 geology based on Australian illustrations, followed 

 by an account of the geology ,of South Australia, 

 with shorter summaries of that of the other Aus- 

 tralian States. The book should be very useful, as 

 it fills a gap in Australian educational literature, 

 while it supplies geologists in general with ,an 

 excellent and up-to-date compendium of the geo- 

 logy of South Australia. Mr. Howchin is excep- 

 tionally qualified for the work ; he is well known 

 for his discovery of the Australian Cambrian 

 glacial deposits, his researches on fossil foramini- 

 fera, and his text-book on the geography of South 

 Australia. The first ,division of the work gives 

 a clear summary of the general outlines of geo- 

 logy ; it is especially good in the physiographic 

 portions. The petrology ,is comparatively ele- 

 mentary, since the book, being published by 

 the South Australian Education Department, 

 is probably intended more for secondary 

 schools than for university students. Aus- 

 tralian petrologists may consider that there is 

 inadequate notice of the alkaline igneous rocks ; 

 and in an effort at simplification " pyroxene 

 (augite) " is included in the hornblende group, a 

 step which would lead students to overlook the 

 important distinction between the pyroxenes and 

 the amphiboles. The parallelism of these series is 

 also not indicated in the statement as to the com- 

 position ,of augite. There is not much informa- 

 tion about econ6mic geology ; for example, the 

 author tells us nothing about the oil-fields of 

 South Australia and their prospects. He follows 

 those ..who extend the petrographic use of the 

 word "mineral " for mineral species into general 

 geology, although mineralogists, such as Miers, 

 adopt the more commonsense practice which does 

 NO. 2605, VOL. 104] 



not refuse the term "mineral " to most economic 

 minerals. The author, of course, cannot be con- 

 sistent, for the term is not used in the latter part 

 of the book in accordance with the restricted 

 definition. Tn regard to the Australian artesian 

 water, the author adduces evidence that the supply 

 is dwindling from the reduction in size ,of the 

 mound springs ; but those who hold that plutonic 

 water is largely influential in the uplift ,of the 

 water in the wells do not consider, as is twice 

 stated, that most of the water is plutonic in 

 origin. 



Mr. Howchin makes the interesting suggestion 

 that the word "scree," of which the etymology is 

 doubtful, comes from "screed," a fragment; but 

 is it not more probably from "screen," owing to 

 the resemblance to the sloping sheet of angular 

 fragments on a ,road metal screen? The most 

 important chapter is that on the Lower Cambrian 

 glacial deposits, which extend northward from 

 Adelaide for about 450 miles to a latitude as low- 

 as 29^. The author, to vi'hom is due most of 

 the existing knowledge of these beds, shows that 

 they were probably laid down at sea-level. The 

 occurrence of this great sheet of subtropical low- 

 level glacial deposits at the very beginning of the 

 fossiliferous rocks is one of the most significant 

 facts in geological history. Mr. Howchin also 

 tells us the latest information from the trans- 

 continental railway .bores as to the extension into 

 Australia of the Cretaceous sea, and shows that 

 in all probability it did not extend across the 

 continent. The book is illustrated by numerous 

 well-selected and excellent illustrations. 



J. W. G. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



Annual Reports on the Progress of Chemistry for 

 1918, issued by the Chemical Society. Vol. xv. 

 Pp. ix4-240. (London: Gurney and Jackson, 

 1919.) Price 45. 6d. net. 



These important volumes have been issued 

 annually by the Chemical Society since 1905. 

 Their object is to present an epitome of the 

 principal definite steps in advance which have 

 been accomplished in the preceding year for the 

 benefit of workers or students in pure or applied 

 science. They are not popular in any sense of 

 the word. During the war there was neces- 

 sarily some slackening in the production of results 

 bearing chiefly on purely scientific problems, and 

 the volume for 1918 is somewhat thinner than 

 the volumes issued in previous years. Neverthe- 

 less, some advances can be recorded. For very 

 many years the mass of the atom has been re- 

 garded as determining its chief properties. This 

 is embodied in Mendeleeff's periodic scheme 

 familiar to every chemist. It is therefore not 

 surprising to find that the new doctrine which 

 assumes some knowledge of the internal constitu- 

 tion of the atom should be rather slowly accepted. 

 But chemical physics or physical chemistry is a 

 department of knowledge which is undergoing 



