292 

5 2 i 
pend simply upon the nitric element, but likewise on the | 
nature of the salt. 
In the discussion which followed, some curious facts were 
elicited with respect to the action of sugar on metallic on. 
It is well known that hitherto it has not been possible, on 
account of this action, to convey sugar in iron ships; but Dr. 
Calvert stated that he had discovered a very simple method, 
which entirely prevented the action, and he had no doubt that 
henceforward sugar would be as safely carried in iron ships as 
in wooden bottoms. 
Mr. Thos. Ainsworth then read a paper On Facts Developed 
by the working of Hematite Ores in the Ulverstone and 
Whitehaven districts from 1844-1871. The communication 
was exceedingly well illustrated by diagrams and specimens ; 
but the conclusions arrived at by Mr, Ainsworth were pretty 
generally combated. 
On Friday the proceedings commenced with a paper by Prof. 
Wheeler, of Chicago, Ox the Recent Progress of Chemistry in the 
United States. Mr. Henry Deacon gave an account of his Chlorine 
Process as applied to the Manufacture of Bleaching Powder on the 
larger Scale. A note On Regianic Acid, a product derived from 
walnuts, was then communicated by Dr. Phipson. It was 
followed by a paper by Dr. Calvert Ox the Estimation of Sulphur 
in Coal and Coke. Thesulphur found in coal or coke often exists 
in two states, partly as sulphuric acid combined with lime, and 
partly as sulphur combined with iron ; it is only the latter com- 
bination which lessens the commercial value of the fuel. By 
boiling the powdered coal with a solution of carbonate of soda, 
the lime composed is decomposed, and by washing the sul- 
phuric acid may be removed ; in the residue is contained the 
sulphur, combined with iron, which is estimated by any of the 
methods familiar to chemists. Mr. E. C. C. Stanford next gave 
the results of Some Preliminary Experiments on the Retention of 
Organic Nitrogen by Charcoal ; these he intends to prosecute still 
further, and to communicate his observations to the next meeting 
at Brighton. Mr. I. Smyth gave’an account of Some Jmprove- 
ments in Chiorimetry. In his opinion the use of the milky solu- 
tion of bleaching powder as employed in the usual methods of 
chlorimetry is unsatisfactory, and he accordingly recommends that 
the chloride of lime be decomposed by a solution of car- 
bonate of soda and filtered from the precipitated carbonate 
of lime when the amount of available chlorine may be 
determined in the filtrate by any of the usual methods. 
Professor Delffs, of Hiedelberg, exhibited some splendid Crystals 
of Sorbin, This body was discovered nearly twenty years ago 
by Pelouze, but hitherto nobody has succeeded in preparing it 
from the source indicated by the distinguished French chemist. 
Dr. Delffs attributed the want of success to the fact that it was 
usual to combine the preparation of malic acid with that of 
sorbin, and he showed that it is only when the production of the 
former substance is dispensed with that sorbin is obtained. By 
strictly following the method given by Pelouze, Dr. Delffs ob- 
tained a large quantity of fine crystals of Sorbin, but on searching 
for malic acid in the residue, he found that not a trace was 
present. He attributes its absence to its combination with the 
radical of alcohol (the malic acid being contained in the alcoholic 
extract of the berries of Sorbus Aucuparia, the source of the body), 
whereby malate of ethyl is formed, while by assimulating two 
atoms of water is converted into sorbin. It would appear there- 
fore that no sorbin is contained ready formed in the fruit of 
Sorbus Aucuparia. 
Dr. Emerson Reynolds gave an account of his experiments Ov 
the Action of Aldehyde on Sulpho- and Oxygen Ureas,and exhibited 
a variety of preparations of these compounds, 
Mr. W. Chandler Roberts, chemist of the Mint, read a short 
paper Ox the Molecutar Arrangement of the Alloy employed for 
the British Silver Coinage. The paper proved that the homo- 
geneous character of the alloy of silver and copper is destroyed 
by the cooling of the molten mass, the silver being concentrated 
in the centre. 
Dr. Moffatt read.a paper on Ozonometry, in which he stated 
that ozone test papers do not become permanently coloured in 
the neighbourhood of cesspools, and that the brown coloration 
when found is removed by the products of putrefaction. He also 
stated that light, the humidity of the atmosphere, and the direc- 
tion of the wind, influence the colouring of the test paper, 
moisture with heat accelerating chemical action, while strong 
wind causes a great quantity of ozone to impinge upon. the 
test paper in a given time. To counteract the effects of 
these, he recommended the test paper to be kept in a box. He 
next described a tube ozonometer which he had had in use, and 
NATURE 


| dug. 10, 1871 

gave results obtained by an aspirator ozonometer, and concluded 
by stating that the results obtained by the aspirator ozonometer 
were not satisfactory. 
SECTION C. 
On the Progress of the Geological Survey in Scotland, by Prof. 
Geikie. 
When the British Association last met.in Scotland, I had the 
honour of bringing before this Section a report upon the progress 
of the Geological Survey, from the time of its commencement 
here in 1854 by Professor Ramsay, under the direction of the 
late Sir Henry De la Beche, up to the year 1867, under the 
supervision of the present Director, Sir Roderick Murchison. 
During the four years which have since elapsed, considerable 
advance has been made in the survey of the southern half of 
Scotland, and I propose now, with the sanction of Sir Roderick, 
to present to you a brief outline of what has been done, and of 
the present state of the Survey. 
At the time of my previous report rather more than 3,000 
square miles had been surveyed. Since then we have completed 
2,700 square miles additional, making a total area of nearly 
6,000 square miles. Of this area 3,175 square miles have been 
published on the one-inch scale, and three sheets, representing 
in all 632 square miles, are now in course of being engraved. 
The whole country is surveyed upon the Ordnance Maps on the 
scale of six inches to a mile, and from these field-maps the work 
is reduced to the one-inch scale, which is the scale adopted for 
the general Geological Map of the country. In addition to that 
general map, however, maps on the larger or six-inch are pub- 
lished of all mineral tracts. In this way five sheets of the six-inch 
maps have now been published, embracing the whole of the coal- 
fields of Fife, Haddingtonshire, and Edinburghshire, with a large 
portion of the coal-fields of Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, 
and Dumfriesshire. 
The area over which the field-work of the Survey has extended 
lies between-the mouths of the Firths of Tay, Forth, Clyde, and 
Solway, eastwards to the borders of Roxburghshire and the 
mouth of the Tweed. It includes the counties of Fife, Kinross, 
the Lothians, Lanark, Renfrew, Peebles, Ayr, Wigton, Kirk- 
cudbright, Dumfries, and Selkirk, with parts of Stirling, Dum- 
barton, and Perth. 
Of the geological formations examined, the Lower Silurian 
rocks of the southern uplands cover a considerable space upon 
the published maps. Until three years ago the mapping of these 
rocks continued to be most unsatisfactory, owing to the want cf 
any continuous recognisable section from which the order of 
succession among the strata could be ascertained, and to the great 
scarcity of organic remains. Our more recent work among the 
Leadhills, however, has at last given us the means of unravelling, 
as we hope, the physical structure and stratigraphical relations of 
the uplands of the south of Scotland. The rocks there are 
capable of division into several well-marked groups of strata, 
characterised by distinct assemblages of fossils. We have a lower 
or Llandeilo series with a suite of graptolites, and forming proba- 
bly an upper part of the Moffat group, and a higher or Caradoc 
set of beds, with a considerable assemblage of distinctive fossils. 
This higher group we believe to be on the same general horizon 
as the limestones of Wrae and Kilbucho in Peeblesshire. 
The Lower Old Red Sandstone has now been mapped com- 
pletely over the whole of its extent between Edinburgh and the 
south of Ayrshire. Fossils have only been met with at one 
locality in the latter county, where Cefha/aspis occurs. The 
most characteristic feature of the formation is the enormous 
development of its interbedded volcanic rocks. Between Edin- 
burgh and Lanarkshire, also, there occurs in this formation a 
local but violent unconformability, connected probably with some 
phase of the contemporaneous volcanic activity of the region. 
Most of the detailed work of the Survey has lain upon 
Carboniferous rocks. In the lowest formations of this system, 
known as the Calciferous Sandstones, the Survey has now 
been able to trace a twofold division completely across the 
country, from sea to sea, viz. a lower group of red sandstones, 
and a higher group of white?sandstones, green, grey, and dark 
shales, cement-stones, limestones, and occasional coal-seams. 
All these strata lie beneath the true Carboniferous Limestone. 
They are becoming daily more important from their containing 
in some places highly bituminous shales, from which]paraffin oil 
can be made. The Carboniferous Limestone series, with its 
valuable coals and ironstones, has been mapped, and in great 
part published, for the eastern and south-western coal-fields, 
and this is also the case with the Coal-measures. Much addi- 
—— ee ee SO ee 
