January 24, 1907 | 
NAT ORE 305 
Wim. M. Wheeler, 
Insects.” 
On Saturday, December 29, a general meeting and 
luncheon was given at the College of the City of New 
York, where lectures were given on ‘‘ The Effort to Save 
Niagara,’’ by Dr. John M. Clarke, and ‘‘ On the Indus- 
tries of Niagara,’’ by Prof. C. F. Chandler. In the after- 
noon a general meeting was held at the American Museum 
of Natural History to attend the ceremonies connected 
with the unveiling of the busts of American men of science 
presented to the museum by Mr. Morris K. Jesup. Five- 
minute speeches of presentation were made by Dr. H. C. 
Bumpus, Hon. Joseph H. Choate, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, 
the representative of the German Ambassador, Dr. C. 
Hart Merriam, Dr. N. L. Britton, Dr. R. S. Woodward, 
Dr. Arthur T. Hadley, Dr. Hugh M. Smith, Dr. W. K. 
Brooks, and Dr. H. F. Osborn. A reception was given at 
the museum in the evening by the trustees of the museum 
and the New York Academy of Sciences, with an exhibi- 
tion of scientific progress by the academy, including a 
demonstration and short addresses. 
The most important actions taken by council and by 
the association at the New York meeting were as 
follows :—(1) The addition of a new section to the associ- 
ation, viz. L—Education; (2) the change of the title of 
Section H from “‘ Anthropology ’’ to ‘*‘ Anthropology and 
Psychology ”’; (3) a standing committee of fifteen on 
seismology was appointed; (4) a Darwin memorial com- 
mittee of ten was appointed to consider the manner in 
which the association may suitably commemorate the 
fiflieth anniversary of the publication of the first edition 
of ‘“‘ The Origin of Species,’ and this committee was 
authorised to make overtures to the British Association 
in order to ascertain whether joint action in this matter 
on ‘The Polymorphism of Social 
cannot be taken; (5) the permanent secretary was 
authorised to publish hereafter in the official programme 
of the association all the programmes of all the 
affiliated societies, whether holding joint sessions with the 
sections of the association or not; (6) Section E and other 
sections desiring to do so were authorised to hold a summer 
meeting during the summer of 1907; (7) a memorial was 
presented to Congress urging the passage at the present 
session of the Bill creating forest reserves in the White 
Mountain region and in the Lower Appalachian region. 
In accordance with the policy adopted of recent years, 
the general committee chose as the place of next meeting 
the city recommended by the last general committee, 
namely, Chicago, and recommended to the next general 
committee that the meeting of 1908-9 should be held in 
Baltimore. A cordial invitation was received from the 
president of the University of Chicago, from the Field 
Columbian Museum and from the Mayor of the city, and 
also from the president of Johns Hopkins University, of 
Baltimore. The alternation of eastern and mid-western 
meetings appears to be, on the whole, satisfactory, although 
the eastern meetings have been much more largely attended. 
Chicago, however, is a great scientific centre, and is so 
easily accessible by rail that the next meeting bids fair to 
be a large one. 
The officers elected for the Chicago meeting were as 
follows :—President, Prof. E. L. Nichols, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, N.Y.; vice-president and chairman of Section A 
(Mathematics and Astronomy), Prof. E. O. Lovett, 
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.; vice-president and 
chairman of Section B (Physics), Prof. Dayton C. Miller, 
Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio; vice- 
president and chairman of Section C (Chemistry), Prof. 
H. P. Talbot, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
Boston, Mass. ; vice-president and chairman of Section D 
(Mechanical Science and Engineering), Prof. Olin H. 
Landreth, Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.; vice-presi- 
dent and chairman of Section E (Geology and Geography), 
Prof. J. P. Iddings, University of Chicago, Chicago, III. ; 
vice-president and chairman of Section F (Zoology), Prof. 
E. B. Wilson, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; 
vice-president and chairman of Section G (Botany), Prof. 
C, E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb. ; 
vice-president and chairman of Section H (Anthropology), 
Dr. Franz Boas, American Museum of Natural History, 
Central Park, New York, N.Y.; vice-president and chair- 
NO. 1943, VOL. 75] 
| are well touched on. 
man of Section I (Social and Economic Science), Dr. John 
Franklin Crowell, c/o The Wall Street Gazette, New 
York, N.Y.; vice-president and chairman of Section K 
(Physiology and Experimental Medicine), Dr. Ludwig 
Hektoen, University of Chicago, Chicago, IIl.; vice-presi- 
dent and chairman of Section L (Education), Hon. Elmer 
Brown, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Washington, 
DIG. 
SOME RECENT WORK OF GEOLOGICAL 
SURVEYS: 
HE Summary of Progress of the Geological Survey of 
the United Kingdom for 1905 (London: H.M. 
Stationery Office, 1906, price 1s.) contains new information 
regarding the granites of Cornwall and the results of sub- 
terranean vapour-action on their flanks. The associated 
elvan-dykes are now recognised as cutting the granite, 
and not as offshoots from the more coarsely crystalline 
mass. The Ordovician beds of South Wales are being 
divided into zones, under the care of Mr. Strahan. We 
may note that the spelling ‘‘ Llandilo’’ is _ officially 
accepted. At the same time, the Coal-measures of South 
Wales continue to receive close attention; and Messrs. 
Gibson and Cantrill describe the progress of the search 
for coal beneath the Permian and Trias of the English 
Midlands. Mr. Flett’s account of the Lewisian rocks that 
have been recognised within the area of the Moine gneisses 
in northern Scotland shows that the ancient intrusive 
gneisses are accompanied by still older rocks of sedimentary 
origin, which have been metamorphosed by them. Follow- 
ing Dr. Peach, the occurrence of an unconformity between 
this older complex series and the Moine gneisses is re- 
garded as extremely probable (pp. 103, 166, &c.)... Mr. 
Howe furnishes a summary of the work done in the 
museum at Jermyn Street on the samples of road-metal 
tested in Mr. Lovegrove’s machines’ at Hornsey. The 
full results are now available in a separate work (see 
NaTuRE, vol. Ixxv., p. 220). 
The Geological Survey also issued in 1906 a colour- 
printed edition of Sheet 110 of the English map, with the 
superficial deposits represented, and an accompanying 
memoir of 138 pages on ‘‘ The Geology of the Country 
around Macclesfield, Congleton, Crewe, and Middlewich ”’ 
(price 2s. 6d.). The only things that, we miss in this 
memoir are photographic illustrations to show the contrast 
between the drift-covered plain of Cheshire and the scarped 
and broken country leading northwards from Mow Cop. 
Even a vignette of Moreton Hall, and another of the 
spoil-heaps of a coal-mine, might express the social and 
industrial contrast, which is so well. known to road- 
travellers between Chester and the Pennine Chain. The 
““seneral description,’’ however, makes good amends from 
the point of view of structural geology. The details of 
the superficial deposits are the newest feature in the 
memoir, and the glacial beds are regarded as the product 
of an ice-sheet about 1100 feet in thickness (p. 79). The 
marine shells found in the high-level gravels “‘ may well 
have been caught up by the ice in its passage over the 
Irish Sea.’’ Examples of these occur east of Maccles- 
field at a height of 1200 feet above the sea. But Mr. T..1. 
Pocock, who treats of this area in the memoir, believes 
that the shelly sands formerly to be seen under Maccles- 
field itself (p. 84), at a height of about 450 feet, may have 
been deposited in a shallow sea. The perfect state of 
preservation of large numbers of the molluscan remains, 
and the absence of glacial indications in the beds, influence 
him in this opinion, which is quite in accordance with 
what is admitted in countries outside the British Isles. 
At home, however, it is certain to be questioned, as is 
also the dim suggestion of an inter-Glacial epoch in the 
succession of events tabulated upon p. 88. The economic 
geology of the area is dealt with in chapter ix. 
Earlier in the year, Mr. G. Barrow’s memoir on ‘‘ The 
Geology of the Isles of Scilly ’’ (price 1s.) was issued, to 
accompany a convenient map which includes the whole 
group in a single sheet. Here photography has freely been 
called in, and the relations of the isles to human interests 
Mr. Flett’s petrographic notes appear, 
