204 



NA TURE 



[January 2, 1902 



development of a triiU' scientific mind. This as a ^'eneral 

 statement may peiliaps be .-idmilted, lliouyli it must be 

 at once pointed out that tlie difference between the intel- 

 lectuality of a schoolboy aged sixteen and of a medical 

 student ajjed seventeen qua age is not great, if it exists 

 at all, and postponement of the leaching in these sub- 

 jects beyond seventeen or eighteen would certainly be 

 impossible. 



All are agreed that the attainment of scientific methods 

 of observation and reasoning is a quality of the first 

 importance to the future medical man, especially as the 

 ultimate result of his education, viz. the practice of medi- 

 cine or surgery, is essentially an inexact science, one in 

 which the data for the formulaiinn of conclusions are 

 extraordinarily inconstant and ephemeral, often demand- 

 ing for their detection the most irained observation, and 

 for their elucidation the most careful reasoning. 



The medical ruriculum is, however, filled to the burst- 

 ing, and unless we want the student to emerge from it 

 partially insane, some depletion must take place. It 

 should also be remembered in this connection that intel- 

 lectual attainments are not the sole requirements of the 

 medical man. Manipulative s-kiU, and, further, physical 

 training, rendering him capable nf enduring physical 

 strain, are also practically essential. This and the fact 

 that the actual subject-matter of medicme and surgery 

 has increased enormously during tlie last few years, 

 not merely in the direction of biology, chemistry and 

 physics, but also in that of the actual accumulation of 

 clinical fact, render the intellectual burden to he laid, 

 according to the present arrangements, upon the medical 

 student more than he can bear. 



Further, the student of medicine stands in a peculiar 

 position with regard to chemistry, biology and physics, 

 for while it is not to be denied that a clear understanding 

 of them is necessary to his education, yet nevertheless 

 it is not only from them that he receives training in the 

 methods of pure science. .-Xfter having mastered the 

 essential principles of these he still spends two years or 

 more in the study of science, preparatory to entering upon 

 the subject-matter proper of his profession. The first, 

 second, and often third year are devoted to physiology, 

 anatomy and pharmacology ; all subjects which tend, not 

 only to store the mind with fact, but also to educate it in 

 scientific method. If the training of the medical student 

 in scientific method depended solely upon the teaching in 

 chemistry, physics and biology, referred to in the memorial 

 we have received, we confess that we should view with 

 concern the relegation of these subjects to the schools ; 

 clearly, however,'this is not the case, and since something 

 must be done to relieve the overwhelming mass of know- 

 ledge to be acquired by the average student in five short 

 years, we feel that the (leneral Medical Council are acting 

 wisely in demanding more of the schools. It is, however, 

 to be hoped that it will see that the school teaching 

 in these subjects is efficient and that the student comes 

 up to the medical school thoroughly grounded in them. 



F. W. T. 



SUMMARY OF PROGRESS OF THE GEOLO- 

 GICAL SURVEY. 



THE publication of the Summary of Progress of our 

 British Geological Survey for the year igoo has 

 evidently been delayed, for we have long ago received 

 and noticed the annual reports of the Canadian and 

 Indian Geological Surveys, and we have likewise referred 

 to the retirement of Sir Archibald (Jeikie, who in this 

 publication issues his last official report on the work which 

 for so many years he directed. It is a report which, as 

 usual, provides material of sufficient diversity to interest 

 students of all branches of geology. Thise who cultivate 

 a knowledge of the oldest rocks will find ample material 



NO. 1679, VOL. 65] 



for consideration in the accounts of the Moine schists 

 and Muscox itebiotite gneiss of Koss-shire, and in the 

 fuller descriptions of the Dalradian or younger schists 

 of the central Scottish Highlands. Thrust-planes and 

 the phenomena of thermo-metamorphism and contact- 

 metamorphism are dealt w ith, as well as the relations of 

 the schists to the older and newer granites and other 

 igneous rocks. Outside the great granite masses of 

 Lochnagar and the Cairngorm Mountains there is an 

 exceptional extension of cordierite-hornfels, due to the 

 alteration of aluminous black schist ; while impure lime- 

 stones are characterised by the development of silicates, 

 of garnet, idocrase, malacolite and wollastonite. -Special 

 attention is drawn to the distinction which it is sought 

 to make between the band of schists known to the sur- 

 veyors as the " Green beds," originally sedimentary rocks, 

 and the Epidiorites, which occur as sills of much-foliated 

 igneous rock. The " Boulder bed " also forms an impor- 

 tant horizon in the mass of Dalradian schists. In some 

 places it affords evidence of having been in part a true 

 conglomerate before any movement such as shearing or 

 crushing took place ; elsewhere it appears as a crush 

 conglomerate, or it presents an " augen-structure ' on a 

 gigantic scale. In Ireland attention was mainly given to 

 the Silurian rocks of Waterford and Wexford and their 

 associated intrusive and volcanic rocks, which are de- 

 scribed in some detail. In the south-west of England 

 work was carried on among the Lower Devonian rocks 

 of Looe in Cornwall and on the various subdivisions of 

 the " Killas " near Falmouth, the "greenstones," and 

 the granite of Penryn. 



In the great South Wales coal-field work has been 

 vigorously prosecuted in the district around Swansea. 

 There the Old Red Sandstone and the Lower Carboni- 

 ferous rocks are of especial interest in connection with 

 their Devonshire equivalents, and it is of the highest 

 interest to learn that radiolarian chert has been recognised 

 in the Cower series described long ago by De la Beche 

 and compared by him with the Coddon Hill beds of North 

 Devon. 



The Gower series occurs on top of the main mass of 

 Carboniferous Limestone and belongs to the group of 

 " Upper Limestone shales " These are represented on 

 the north crop of the South Wales coal-basin by " Rotten- 

 stone shales,'' in which also bands of radiolarian chert 

 have been discovered. The upper part of the Goxver 

 series consists of a mass of dark shales m which 

 GoniatitL-s iGlyp/iioieras) biliiii^iiis and PosiJonoiiiyii 

 have been found. .-Vt a higher horizon come the 

 hard sandstones and conglomerates of the Millstone 

 Grit. The discovery of these radiolarian cherts is 

 thus an important link in the correlation of the strata 

 in Devonshire and South Wales, for it had been held 

 that the Coddon Hill chert beds might represent the 

 mass of the CarI)oniferous Limestone. As the work of 

 the Survey proceeds westward further interesting results 

 may be anticipated, especially with regard to comparisons 

 between some of the underlying Lower Carboniferous 

 strata and the Upper Devonian. The Old Red Sand- 

 stone has been studied as far north as Caithness, where 

 some of the flags and shales are so bituminous as to 

 become impure oil-shales, while albertite or mineral pitch 

 is found distilled out into the faults and cracks of the 

 strata over large areas. In .■\rgyllshire the relation has 

 been worked out between some of the younger granites 

 of Ben Cruachan, Blackmount and the \Ioor of Rannoch, 

 and the vents of the Lome volcanic region. As these 

 vents belong to the time of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 

 the granites which invade them probably belong to the 

 remarkable scries of granite extrusions which in the 

 British Islands intervened between the close of the Upper 

 Silurian and the beginning of the Upper Old Red Sand- 

 stone periods. 



Details are given of the various coal-seams and of 



