SEPTEMBER 25, 1913]| 
NATURE ILl 
right in the mouth. Hence, there seems now to be 
definite proof that the front teeth of Eoanthropus 
resembled those of an ape, and its recognition as a 
genus distinct from Homo is apparently justified. 
The association of such a mandible with a skull of 
large brain-capacity is considered by Dr. Woodward 
most improbable, and he has made further studies of 
the brain-case with the help of Mr. W. P. Pycraft, 
who has attempted a careful reconstruction of the 
missing base. Dr. Woodward now concludes that the 
only alteration necessary in his original model is a 
very slight widening of the back of the parietal region 
to remedy a defect which was pointed out to him by 
Prof. Elliot Smith when he first studied the brain- 
cast. The capacity of the brain-case thus remains 
much the same as he originally stated, and he main- 
tains that Prof. Keith has arrived at a different result 
by failing to recognise the mark of the superior longi- 
tudinal sinus on the frontal region and by unduly 
widening that on the parietal region. 
It is understood that Mr. Dawson and Dr. Wood- 
ward will offer an account of the season’s work to the 
Geological Society at an early meeting, and Prof. 
Elliot Smith will include a detailed study of the brain- 
cast of Eoanthropus in-a memoir on primitive human 
brains which he is preparing for the Royal Society. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT 
BIRMINGHAM. 
SECTION C. 
GEOLOGY. 
OpeninG Appress By Pror. E. J. Garwoop, 
PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 
Ow the last occasion when members of the British 
Association met in Birmingham, in 1886, this section 
was under the able presidency of my friend Prof. 
T. G. Bonney, who at that time occupied the chair 
of geology at University College, London. Fifteen 
years later I succeeded him on his retirement from 
that post, and to-day I succeed him as president of 
this section, at the second meeting of the Association 
at Birmingham; and again I feel the same diffidence 
in following him as I did on the former occasion. 
In his address in 1886 Prof. Bonney discussed the 
‘Application of Microscopic Analysis to Discovering 
the Physical Geography of Bygone Ages.” 
Strangely enough, this title might apply almost 
equally well to the subject of my address to-day; but 
whereas Prof. Bonney employed for his purpose the 
evidence obtained from observations on mechanical 
sediments, I propose to deal with certain organically 
formed deposits with the same object. 
More than twenty. years ago, whilst engaged in the 
study of the lower carboniferous rocks of Westmor- 
land, I noticed the occurrence of certain small con- 
cretionary nodules of very compact texture, in the 
dolomites near the base of the succession in the neigh- 
bourhood of Shap. 
Shortly afterwards, when examining the Bernician 
rocks of Northumberland, I again met with similar 
compact nodular structures. It was obvious, how- 
ever, even at that time, that the Northumberland 
specimens occurred here at a much higher horizon 
than those which I had observed in Westmorland. 
More recently, whilst studying the lithological 
characters of the lower carboniferous rocks of the 
North of England and the Border country, I have 
been still further impressed by the abundance of these 
nodular structures at several horizons, and the large 
tracts of country over which they extend. An 
examination of these nodules in thin sections showed 
NO. 2291, VOL. 92] 
their obvious organic character, and I was at first 
inclined to refer them to the Stromatoporoids. Dr. 
G. J. Hinde, who was kind enough to examine my 
specimens from the Shap district, reported, however, 
that they were probably not Stromatoporoids, but 
calcareous algz, and referred me to the descriptions 
of Solenopora published by the late Prof. Nicholson 
and Dr. Brown. 
Since then I have examined a large number of 
nodules collected from difierent horizons in the lower 
carboniferous rocks of Britain and Belgium; and the 
examination has convinced me that the remains of 
calcareous algz play a very much more important part 
in the formation of these rocks than has hitherto been 
generally realised. 
The majority of geologists in this country have 
been slow to recognise the importance of these 
interesting organisms, and, with the notable excep- 
tion of Sir Archibald Geikie’s text-book, we find but 
scant allusion in English geological works of refer- 
ence to the important part played by calcareous algz 
in the formation of limestone deposits.* 
From the more strictly botanical standpoint, how- 
ever, we are indebted to Prof. Seward for an admir- 
able account of the forms recognised as belonging to 
this group, up to the date of the publication of his 
text-book on fossil plants in 1898; while in an article 
in Science Progress, in 1894, he has also dealt with 
their importance from a geological point of view. 
Since these publications, not only have several new 
and important genera been discovered in this country 
and abroad, but the forms previously known have 
also been found to have a very much wider geological 
and geographical range than was formerly suspected. 
For these reasons I venture to hope that a summary 
of our knowledge of the part they play as rock 
builders, more especially in British deposits, will serve 
to stimulate an interest among geological workers in 
this country in these somewhat neglected organisms. 
Previous to 1894, in which year Dr. Brown first 
referred Solenopora to the Nullipores, with the excep- 
tion of the Jurassic and Tertiary Characez, we meet 
with little, if any, reference to the occurrence of fossil 
calcareous algz in British deposits. 
Indeed, in this country the subject has attracted but 
few workers, and they can almost be counted on the 
fingers of one hand. When we have mentioned the 
late Prof. H. A. Nicholson and Mr. Etheridge, jun., 
Mr. E. Wethered, Dr. Brown, Dr. Hinde, and Prof. 
Seward, we have practically exhausted the list of those 
who have contributed to our knowledge of the sub- 
ject. To these we may add the name of Mrs. Robert 
Gray, whose magnificent collection of fossils from the 
Ordovician rocks of the Girvan district has always 
been freely placed at the disposal of geological 
workers, and has furnished numerous examples of 
these organisms to Prof. Nicholson and the officers 
of the Geological Survey. 
It was Nicholson and Wethered who first recog- 
nised the important part played in the formation of 
limestones by certain organisms, which, though 
referred at the time to the animal kingdom, are now 
generally considered to represent the remains of cal- 
careous algze. 
The presence of these organisms in a fossil state, 
especially in the older geological formations, has only 
been recognised in comparatively recent years; though 
it was suggested as long ago as 1844 by Forch- 
hammer? that fucoids, by abstracting lime from sea- 
water, probably contributed to the formation of 
Palzeozoic deposits. When we remember that it was 
1 Geikie. ‘‘ Text-book of Geology.” 4th ed., ‘vol. i, pp. 605 and 6rr. 
1993. 
2 British Association, 1844, p. 155+ 
