49^ 



NATURE 



[April 1^, 1872s ^ 



England, to the Silurian uplands of Central Scotland on the 

 north, ami those of the Welsh and Cumbrian highlands on the 

 west, and possibly to tho-ie of the Scandinavian hills on the 

 north-cast. After the formation and consolidaiion of the Coal- 

 strata, the southern area of this great Carboniierous basin was 

 then subjected to that remarkable disturbance which, for a dis- 

 tance of above 800 miles, exercised that excessive lateral pressure 

 by which the older underlying strata were squeezed and farced up 

 into the series of sharp anticlinals forming the axis of the Men- 

 dips and Ardennes, while portions only of the Carboniferous 

 series were pre'.erved from the denudation which followed, in 

 deep synclinal troughs flanking the main axis. 



The central and northern portions of the great Carboniferous 

 basin, which were not raised by this disturbance, were then over- 

 spread by strata of the Permian series ; after which the norlhern 

 section of the original coal area was traversed by that other great 

 disturbance at nearly right angles to the former one, by wliich 

 fresh portions of the Coal Measures were brought up in our 

 central and northern counties, still leaving other deeper-seated 

 portions to be afterwards covered by Triassic and Jurassic strata. 



At a much later period the emerged southern area of Ta'aeozoic 

 rocks, including the westward prolongation of the greit coal- 

 trougii of Belgium, or portions thereof, was submerged and 

 covered over by the several formations of the Greensands, Chalk, 

 and Lower Tertiaries now forming the surface of the south east 

 of England. 



The trials to discover thes; possibly productive coal-basins 

 must necessarily be attended with consider ible uncertainty. We 

 shall have to feel our way. Of our hope of their ultima"e suc- 

 cess I have given you the reasons. Nor could such trials near 

 London scarcely fail of some important results; for, even if we 

 did not hit at first upon the Coal Meas'ires, it is probible that 

 the Lower Groensand wouid at some spots be reached, so that 

 the inestimable additional benefit of a large and steady supply 

 of pure water might also be obtained, and, with proper care to 

 prevent undue interference, might be maintained for all time. 



And now, gentlemen, in i-etiiing from the chair, wliich 1 have 

 had the honour to occupy during the last two years, allow me to 

 express the sincere satisfaction I have experienced in witnessing 

 the continued prosperity of the Society, and the unmimity and 

 oneness with which its labours are carried on. It was a post I 

 long hesitated to accept, but which your kind forbearance and 

 the Iriendly co-rperation of your officers, has not only rendered 

 easy, but as pleasant as it has been gratifying. I feel assured of 

 the continued prosprrily and uselulness of the Society when I 

 resign my trust into the hands of a nobleman so distinguished 

 as a statesman, so able as a writer, and so long known amongst 

 us an active and zealous geologist, as the Duke of Arg) 11. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Lens, a quarterly journal of microscopy and the allied 

 natural sciences, with the Transactions of the State Microscopical 

 Society of Illinois, edited by S. -A. Briggi. No. I, January 1S72. 

 Chicago, U.S. This long-promised journal has at length made 

 its appearance, and we learn from its first number that it was 

 printed and ready for the mail when the great fire occurred. 

 With the e.Kception of a few copies, the whole ediiion was de- 

 stroyed, and on recovery from that disaster had to be reprinted. 

 We have cause, therefore, to Ci^ngratulate the publishing com- 

 mittee on recovering themselves so speedily as to issue their first 

 number with the new year. Amongst its contents we note the 

 following : — " Conspectus of the families and genera of the Dia- 

 tomace;e," by Prof. H. L. Smith. This is an artificial key, and 

 like all such elTorts has its good and bad sides. As a help such 

 guides are useful, but they are seldom satisfactory. A table of 

 synonyms is promised in the next number. — " The Flora of 

 Chicago and its vicinity," by H. IL Bancock, is hardly such a 

 subject as we should expect to find in a m croscopical jounal, 

 since the list of Phanerogamic plants, with localities, here com- 

 menced, contains no single note of microscopical observation. 

 To the local botanist it will probably make amends for this by 

 its practical utility. — "()nthe preparation and preservation of 

 sections of soft tissues," bv Dr. |. N. Daiiforth, contains practi 

 cal otiservaiions on the preparatinn of mort-i-l aniriial tissues 

 without artificial hardtniUf;.- -" Microscopical Memoranda for 

 the use of Praciitioners ot Medicine," by Dr. J. J. Woodward, 

 U.S. Army, is the first portion of a more elaborate treatment of 

 the same subject, which is to be contained in succeeding num- 



bers. Dr. Woodward's reputation on this side the Atlantic 

 as a practical microscopist is a sufficient gu.arantee for these 

 memoranda. — "A new fossil Echinus," by O. S. Wescott, is 

 named by the author OUgoporus Groz'cri, and found in the lime- 

 stone region of Hancock County, Illinois. — "The Diatomacese 

 of Like Michigan," by S. A. Briggs, is simply a list of species. 

 — " A New Mcthodof Illuminating Opaque Objects under high 

 powers," by Dr. II. A. Johnson. This new method consists 

 in sending a beam of light down the oblique body of the bi- 

 nocular up;)n the prism, by means of a plane mirror or rectangular 

 prism ; by this arrangement objectives as high as J, in. have 

 been u;ed .successfully by daylight and lamplight. — ^A reprint 

 from the Monthly Microscopical yonnial and some notes com- 

 plete the present number. The losses which the Academy of 

 Sciences of Chicago sustained by the late destructive fire ate 

 detailed, in so far as the natural history collections and lilorary 

 are concerned. All British n.ituralists will sympathise with those 

 of Chicago at their irreparable mis''ortune in such losses as the 

 Smithsonian collection of Crustacea, which filled 10,000 jars, 

 and the invertebrates of the U.S. North Pacific Exploring Ex- 

 pedition, besides the thousands of specimens, zoological, botani- 

 cal, and mineralogical, in the general collection. 



Journal of the Chemical Socictv,]s.n. 7, 1S72.— Dr. Gladstone 

 has continued his experiments on various essential oils ; amongst 

 others he has examined four new oils, those of citron, lign aloes, 

 pimento, and vitivert ; the author has separated the hydro- 

 carbons containel in most essential oils into three polymeric 

 groups to which the formulae Ci„Hie, Cisll.^j, and CojH.,,,, h.ave 

 been as igned. The two bodies first mentioned have the vapour 

 density required by theory, the third has not been examined, the 

 three bodies also differ in their solubility in alcohol, and in their ex- 

 pansibility by heat. The physical properties and chemical compo- 

 sition of several oils have been studied in detail, and are here de- 

 scribed. Dr. Armstrong contributes a third paper on the nitrochlor- 

 phenols, the resuhs obtained, however, are not suitable for useful 

 abstraction. Amongst the abstracts there is one by E. Budde 

 "on the action of light on Chlorine and Bromine." The author 

 has exposed chlorine to the action of various parts of the solar 

 spectrum, he f lund that when the bulb of gas was exposed to the 

 violet and ultra-violet rays, there was from six to seven times as 

 great expansion as took place in the red and yellow part of the 

 spectrum. An ordinary differential air thermumeter and also one 

 charged with carbonic anhydride and ether, [..laced in the blue 

 and violet parts of the spectrum, showed no increase in tempera- 

 ture. The author is ol opinion that the hypothesis which he 

 has advanced in explanation "that the chemically active light 

 actually decomposes the chlorine molecules into chlorine atoms " 

 is not a little supported by the fact that the rays which cause the 

 expansion of chlorine coincide with those which are known to 

 render it chemically active. The author believes that the light 

 causes the separation of the molecules into atoms, and that the 

 isolated atoms combine again with the production of heat, and 

 thus lead to an increase of temperature which would account for 

 the expansion of the gas as observed. 



The articles of most general interest in the Journal of the 

 Franklin Institute for January are by Mr. F. A. Genth, on 

 the Mineral Resources of North CaroUna ; and by Mr. G. W. 

 Baird, U.S. N., on the Absorption of Gases by Water, and on 

 the organic matters contained therein. The latter contains a 

 series of experiments on the volume of different gases capable 

 of being dissolved in a unit volume of water, and on the amount 

 of oxygen necessary to oxidise the organic matter contained in 

 the water. — The editorial notes contain descriptions of a number 

 of novelties in mechanics and physics. — Mr. J. Farrand Henry 

 continues his series of papers on the Flow of Water in Rivers and. 

 Canals, and Mr. J. H. Cooper his article on' Belting Facts and 

 Figures. — There is also a report by Mr. W. M. Henderson on 

 some experiments on the explosion of steam-boilers, carried out 

 by a committee of the Franklin Institute at the instance of the 

 engineers of some of the American railways. 



The American Journal of Science and Art for February is mainly 

 geological. It commences, however, with some observations by 

 Pro'. C. A. Young on Encke's comet, at the Dartmouth College 

 Observatory, accompanied by drawings. He identifies the spectrum 

 with that of Comtit II. 1 868 (Winnecke's comet) described by 

 Mr. Huggins in the Philosophic Transactions for that year. — 

 Prof. J. D. Whitney has a note on the occurrence of the " Primor- 

 dial Fauna" of Nevada, which he considers indicates most un- 

 equivocally the Potsdam period of the Silurian age, and carries 



