Sept. 25, 1884] 



NA TURE 



53i 



Drift have been coloured tell us, as a rule, a very different tale 

 from the corresponding sheets in which the Drift is ignored, and 

 it is only these Drift maps that really give us a true idea of the 

 nature of the surface. Indeed in many districts a geological 

 map that does not show the Drift is comparatively useless for 

 most practical purposes, at all events in a populous country like 

 England. Moreover, it is not merely enough to mass Drift as 

 such, but its constituent members should be fairly distinguished, 

 not merely with regard to their classification or relative age, but 

 also as to their composition, whether of clay, loam, or gravel 

 and sand. To illustrate this there are exhibited copies of the 

 two versions of many of the Geological Survey maps of the 

 London Basin, with and without Drift, from which the following 

 important points will be at once seen : — (1) Large tracts, shown 

 as Chalk on one version, really consist, at the surface, of the 

 generally impervious Boulder Clay, whilst over others the Chalk 

 is covered by Brick-earth and Clay-with flints : all these beds 

 being such as give an aspect to the country very different to 

 what we find where the Chalk is bare. (2) Parts of the wide- 

 spreading area of the London Clay (of the Driftless maps) are 

 really quite altered and deprived of their clayey character, by 

 the sheets, long strips, and more isolated patches of gravel and 

 sand that occur so often, whether along the river- valleys or over 

 the higher plains. (3) The sandy, permeable Crags are in great 

 part hidden by Drift, which, though often consisting of sand and 

 gravel, is sometimes of Boulder Clay. Indeed, so widespread 

 is the Glacial Drift in the greater part of Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 that only a Drift edition of the Geological Survey maps of the 

 eastern parts of those counties has been issued ; a map without 

 Drift would necessarily be a work of fiction. To illustrate the 

 important bearing which these Drift maps have on a great ques- 

 tion, that of water-supply from the Chalk, the author also ex- 

 hibits some special maps, which he has made to show the areas 

 over which rain-water has access to the Chalk, as distinguished 

 from those over which the surface-water cannot sink down into 

 the Chalk, or can only do so very partially. These maps will 

 be more particularly noticed in Section G. 



Pennsylvania before and after the Elevation of th- Afpalachim 

 Mountains, by Prof. E. W. Claypole, B.A., B.Sc, F.G.S. 

 Lond. — The paper, of which the following notes are an abstract, 

 is intended as an attempt to handle, in a necessarily imperfect 

 manner, and only to first approximations, a difficult but important 

 and interesting geological subject. The method of treatment is, 

 in the writer's opinion, one that has not hitherto been employed 

 for the same purpose. The object in view is to form some esti- 

 mate, as near to the truth as possible, of the amount of com- 

 pression or shortening produced at the surface by the corrugation 

 of the upper layers of the coast into mountain chains, with 

 especial reference to the American Atlantic seaboard. In order 

 to confine the paper within due limits, certain propositions must 

 be taken as proved. The principal of these are: — (l) That 

 central contraction has developed tangential pressure in the 

 crust ; (2) that the tangential pressure has produced crumpling 

 of the crust ; (3) that to this crumpling are due long ranges of 

 mountains ; (4) that the Appalachian Mountains came into being 

 in this manner in the later portion of the Palaeozoic era. These 

 admitted, the conclusion necessarily follows that during the for- 

 mation of the Appalachian Mountains a considerable contraction 

 of the crumpled area ensued, in a direction at right angles to 

 that of the chain. The following points constitute the main 

 features of the paper : — (1) Short account of the great ranges of 

 Pennsylvania, in plan and section, with diagrams ; (2) situation 

 and account of the line of section adopted ; (3) limitation of the 

 field to a consideration of eleven great ranges — Blue Mountains, 

 Bower Mountains, Conecocheague Mountains, Tuscarora Moun- 

 tains, W. Shade Mountains, Black Log Mountains, Blue Ridge 

 Mountains, Jack's Mountain, Standing Stone Mountains, Tussey 

 Mountains, Bald Eagle Mountains ; (4) Discussion of the dif- 

 ferent parts of this section — (<;) the Mountain Region, {/>) the 

 Cumberland Valley ; (5) attempt to estimate or measure the 

 curved line of the crumpled Upper Silurian (Medina) sandstone ; 

 (6) inference that the sixty-five miles of the line of section repre- 

 sents about 100 miles of surface previously to the crumpling of 

 the crust and elevation of the mountains; (7) this result, for 

 several reasons, below rather than above the truth ; (8) geogra- 

 phical effects of this contraction ; (9) development of the fact 

 that such elevation of mountains by tangential pressure involves 

 not only elevation, but considerable horizontal movement ; (10) 

 diminution of motion to north-west ; (11) a few words on the 

 failure of attempts yet made to account for this contraction ; (12) 

 suggestions and conclusions. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



At King's College Prof. W. Grylls Adams, F.R.S., will 

 deliver a course of lectures on Electricity and Magnetism and 

 their applications to Electric Lighting, Transmission of Power, 

 &c, during the academical year 18S4-5. A course of practical 

 work in electrical testing and measurement, with especial refer- 

 ence to electrical engineering will also be carried on under his 

 direction in the Wheatstone Laboratory. Tne lectures will be 

 given once a week — on Mondays at 2 p.m. — and the Laboratory 

 will be open on Wednesdays and Fridays from I to 4. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, September 15. — M. Rolland, Pre 

 sident, in the chair. — Address delivered at the inauguration of 

 1I1. Fresnel Monument at Broglie, by M. Jamin. — Remarks on 

 algeb/aic equations, in connection with a communication from 

 M de Jonquieres on the application of geometry to algebra, by 

 M. Leon Lalanne. — Note on the two methods, proposed by 

 Hamilton and Sylvester, for resolving the linear equation in 

 quaternions, by Prof. Sylvester. — On the composition and 

 properties of the light emitted by insects of the Pyrophore genus, 

 by MM. Aubert and Raph. Dubois. Examined under the 

 spectroscope, the spectrum of this light appeared very beautiful, 

 c mtinuous, and destitute alike of very bright and dark bands. 

 It occupied about seventy-five divisions of the micrometer, ex- 

 tending on the red side to the centre of the interval separating 

 the A and B rays of the solar spectrum, and on the side of the 

 blue a little beyond the F ray. When its intensity diminishes, 

 the red and orange disappear altogether, the spectrum being then 

 reduced to the green with a little yellow and red, the green 

 persisting longest. The reverse takes place when the insect 

 begins to glow. Thus the least refrangible rays are the last to 

 be emitted, a result hitherto observed in the spectrum of no 

 other luminous body, except to a limited extent in that of the 

 sulphide of strontiu 11. Examined to ascertain its photo-chemical 

 properties, this light showed a feeble display of the phosphor- 

 escence of the sulphide of calcium. — Remarks on a singular 

 case of deformation in the images observed through telescopes, 

 by M. < lovi. 



Berlin 

 Physiological Society, August 1. — Dr. A. Auerbach had 

 made experiments to ascertain which of the constituents of flesh 

 exercised the acid, alkali-abstracting effect on the blood wit- 

 nessed in the reaction of the urine of flesh-eating animals com- 

 pared with that of the urine of plant-eating animals. He found 

 that the acid phosphoric potash increased the ammoniacal con- 

 tents of the urine in a manner similar to that of the administra- 

 tion of acids. A dog fed on flesh having been brought into 

 nitrogenous equilibrium, and kept in this state for some days, 

 had a portion of acid phosphoric potash given to it in addition 

 to the meat. The nitrogenous excretion remained the same as 

 before, but the quantity of secreted ammonia had considerably 

 increased, and this increase continued for some days after the 

 dog was put back to the former flesh diet without the salt. The 

 quantity of secreted ammonia corresponded, to the utmi >^l nicety, 

 witli the quantity necessary for the conversion of the salts which 

 had been taken, P0 4 KHH, into P0 4 KN0 4 H.— Prof. Kronecker 

 gave a report of a series of experiments conducted during the 

 m now ended in the department of the Physiological 

 Institute under his care. He first recounted the experiments of 

 Mrs. Dr. Boll, who investigated whether asphyxiated fishes 

 could recover animation without a supply of oxygen, and simply 

 by withdrawing the carbonic acid from them. Goldfishes wen 

 left in boiled water free of air till the symptoms of asphyxia be- 

 came distinctly manifest, and then a somewhat diluted caustic- 

 lye was added to the water without the admission of air. In 

 every such case the fishes soon recovered their lively movements, 

 and swam about freely in the water. It might therefore be 

 concluded that, with the discharge of the surplus of carbonic 

 acid, the symptoms of asphyxia would also disappear. — Prof. 

 Kronecker then reported on the experiments ol I h. Kianzfeld, 

 which had for their subject the movements of the stomach. In 

 the stomach of each of the animals examined, the cardiac part, 

 the pyloric part, and the middle had to be discriminated. Of 

 these three parts the last was in most cases immovable, while 

 the two other parts displayed lively movements. In the act ot 



