IN ADIL CMe 
492 [Marcu 24, 1904 
been communicated to the Royal Society, and Dr. | colleague in such a domain of research. Fouqué had 
Harker is now engaged in carrying the investigation 
further—up to temperatures between r1oo0o® C. and 
20002 C. This research includes an examination of 
the thermoelectric force of various platinum and 
platinum-alloy junctions, and of the effects of small 
percentages of impurity. The results of this work 
should be of high value to a great number of 
industries. 
We have referred more especially above to the worl 
which is being done in the physics department, but we 
might equally have quoted from the work of the other 
departments. For example, in the engineering de- 
partment important, work is in hand in connection 
with wind pressure, with the specific heat of super- 
heated steam, and He the determination of the 
physical properties of a series of nickel-steel alloys 
prepared for the iaboratiey by Mr. Hadfield. Similar 
examples might be taken from all the other depart- 
ments, but space does not permit us to enter into further 
detail, and we must refer those particularly interested 
to the report, which is itself very condensed. 
Sufficient has been said, we trust, to give some 
of the importance of the work which the laboratory is 
carrying out and of the progress which has been made. 
It seems that the value of the institution is likely to 
be fully recognised by the technical public if one may 
judge by the steady increase in the number of tests 
which have been carried out. In 1902, during nine 
months’ working, 269 tests were made; last year this 
number increased to 
1330, Which is equivalent to an 
increase of nearly 
300 per cent. 
MatricE SOLOMON. 
FERDINAND FOUOQUE. 
BY the death of this illustrious geologist and 
mineralogist the ranks of science have lost one 
‘of their most notable chiefs. Half a century has 
passed away since he began that remarkable series of 
investigations which have contributed in so large a 
Measure to the progress of vulcanology and _petro- 
graphy. In 1854, associated with St. Claire Deville, 
he published his earliest experiments on the losses 
effected by heat on minerals, but he was soon led into 
the domain of volcanic geology by studying the com- 
bustible gases given off from the flanks of. Vesuvius. 
The eruption of Etna on January 31, 1865, furnished 
him with opportunities of inv estigating the phenomena 
of a voleano in full activity, and the series of com- 
munications to the Paris Academy of Sciences record- 
ing his observations and deductions established his 
reputation as an accurate and accomplished chemist 
and mineralogist. The following year came the 
famous outburst of Santorin, and Fouqué, who had 
now taken enthusiastically to the subject, hastened to 
profit by the rare opportunities which this eruption 
afforded for the detailed study of voleanic phenomena. 
For several years he continued to publish the results 
of his visit and of his analyses of the rocks and gases 
which he had collected, finally embodying the whole 
elaborate investigation in his great monograph 
“ Santorin et ses Eruptions, ”? which appeared in 1879, 
and was at. once hailed as one of the most important 
treatises that had yet been written in the domain of 
vulcanology. 
While these studies were in progress he applied the 
modern microscopic methods to the investigation of 
volcanic rocks. After some years of successful 
labour in this field he associated himself with M. 
Michel-Lévy, whose powers in the determination of 
the optical characters of minerals and the minute 
structure of rocks pointed him out as an admirable 
NO. 1795, VOL. 69] 
idea | 
given himself with the utmost ardour to the investi- 
gation of the optical characters of the felspars, a re- 
search in which he employed all the resources of 
modern chemistry and microscopy, which engaged his 
time and thought for some twelve years, and on which 
he justly prided himself as his most original contribu- 
tion to science. 
In the course of these inquiries his attention and that 
of his fellow-worker were directed to the importance 
of endeavouring to imitate the processes of nature by 
reproducing minerals and rocks artificially. In 1878 
he published his ‘‘ Synthesis of the Felspars,’? and in 
subsequent years the experiments were continued. by 
the two observers through a series of trials in which 
they successively produced, by fusion and cooling, 
artificial compounds which, alike in chemical composi- 
tion and minute structure, precisely resembled basic 
igneous rocks. From pyroxenic labradorite they were 
led to obtain in succession artificial leuco-tephrites, like 
the lavas of Vesuvius, basalts, diabases, dolerites and 
ophitic meteorites. The results of these researches 
memorable ‘* Synthese des 
were collected in the \ 
Minéraux et des Roches,’’ the appearance of which in 
1882 marked an epoch in experimental geology. Up 
to the end, however, it was found impossible to re- 
produce artificially the acid rocks of granitic type. 
MM. Fouqué and Michel-Lévy, while engaged in 
these inquiries, found also time for a detailed study 
of the minute structure and composition of the crystal- 
line rocks of France, and embodied the results of this 
laborious investigation in the great quarto monograph 
‘“Minéralogie Micrographique: Roches éruptives 
Frangaises,’? which, with one volume of text and 
another of admirable coloured plates, was published 
by the Geological Survey of France in 1879. 
The eminent petrographer was not merely one who 
relied on all the resources of a well equipped modern 
laboratory. He studied his subject in the field also. 
One great element of value in his voleanic investi- 
gations arose from personal acquaintance with the 
phenomena of active voleanoes. His knowledge of the 
eruptive rocks of his native country was _ likewise 
widened by prolonged examination of them on the 
ground. To him we owe some of the most interesting 
sheets of the map of the volcanic region of central 
France, where he traced the relations ‘and order of 
sequence of the volcanic eruptions which give that 
part of the Continent such absorbing and perennial 
interest. 
In his early years he had given some attention to the 
phenomena of earthquakes. Hence when the French 
mission was dispatched to study and report on the 
phenomena of the Andalusian earthquake of December 
25. 1884, Fouqué was placed at its head as director, 
associated with some of the ablest geologists in France. 
The massive quarto memoir containing the report of 
this mission is specially notable for the record of the 
experiments made by MM. Fouqué and Michel-Lévy 
to determine the rapidity of the propagation of waves 
of shock in different kinds of rocks. Fouqué likewise 
showed his continued interest in this subject by con- 
tributing in 1888 a little popular treatise, ‘‘ Les 
Tremblements de Terre,’’ to the Bibliotheque Scien- 
tifique Contemporaine. 
ae many years past the professor had given courses 
lectures at the Collége de France, w there also he 
ee on his chemical and petrographic researches. 
He lectured with his usual clearness and earnestness 
on Saturday, March 5. On the following evening he 
seemed in his usual health, and discussed petro- 
graphical subjects with his son-in-law, Prof. Lacroix, 
but next morning (March 7) he passed away in his 
sleep at the age of seventy-five. 
