y-iinc 6, 1 87 2 J 



NATURE 



"5 



able objects found in the Suffolk Crag, and simulating human 

 workmanship." Some time since the president had received 

 from the Rev. \V. Bird some perforated shark's teeth ; but it was 

 only an hour or two before the meeting that a bo.\ arrived con- 

 taining a further collection, including many remarkable fossils 

 from the red clay diggings of that district, the whole being speci- 

 mens of the admirable series of such objects in the possession of 

 Mr. Edward Charlesworlh, F.G.S. Theteeth were described as 

 belonging to the geneia Olodiis and Coirkarodoii, and each of 

 these teeth had a hole near its base, about a sixth of an inch in 

 diameter, like m foini and position to the holes which the South 

 Sea Islanders make in the teeth of sharks at the present day in 

 order to the formation of necklace ornaments. Of course, should 

 the perforations in tlie teeth from the Suffolk Crag prove to have 

 been the work of mar, it would suggest lliat he had existed on 

 our planet an immense time before that at present fixed as his 

 original appearance here. But though these holes are such as 

 might have been, and most jirobably were, made by human 

 agency ; they might, on the other hand, have been the work of 

 some boring sponge, \vorm, or mollusc, especially as there are 

 in this last class many species with a curious file of lingual teeth 

 composed of silex ; and even at the present day there is a com- 

 plete mystery as to the means by which some invertebrates bo:e 

 into and through very refraccory substances. However, the whole 

 evidence as to these holes in the shark's teeth 'preponderates in 

 favour of the view that they were made by man. But even 

 fully admitting that they were so iriade, it would not necessarily 

 follow that the perforations in the teeth were made by man co- 

 eval with the crag in which they were found. 



PuiLADELrHIA 



American Philosophical Society, February l6. — A memo- 

 rial to Congress was adopted, praying for an appropriation in aid 

 of astronomical expedition:;, especially for one to the Antarctic 

 region, for the purpose of observing properly the approaching 

 transit of \'enu3. — I'rof P. E. Chase read a paper " On Correla- 

 tions of Cosmical and .Molecular Force." From the hypothesis 

 that the entire energies of opposing attractive and repulsive forces 

 may be considered as concentrated in one of the foci of the re- 

 sulting oscillations, he deduced various interesting approximations 

 to the ratio between the respective amounts of heat required for 

 equivalent work under constant volume and under constant pres- 

 sure, to the change of specific gravity in the conversion of H., -I- O 

 into H„0, to the period of terrestrial rotation, and to the solar 

 and lunar masses. Some idea of his method may be formed 

 from the following approximation to the sun's mass and distance. 

 According to the mean result of experiments by Dulong, Hess, 

 Andrews, and Favre and Silbermann, one pound of H burned 

 with tight pounds of O liberates enough heat to lift the nine 

 7. 



feet. Such 



lift 



pounds H„0 vapour, in vacuo, ?1533_J 

 9 



would establish an oscillation, which would be perpetually sus- 

 tained, by terrestrial attraction, and elastic rebound, unless other- 

 wise counteracted. If chemicals vary as gravitating energies, 

 the mean height of the oscillating vapour : mean height of oscil- 

 lating earth :: earth mas; : sun's mass. Therefore, if ;« = ma.ss 

 of sun ~- by mass of eaith, d = distance of sun ~ earth's radius, 

 r — earth's equatorial radius in feet, // = mean height of oscil- 

 lating vapour, 7; = solar year in .seconds, 7"„ = time of satel- 

 lite revolution at the surface of the earth. 



III = 



^-^i©'=n^}- 



Hence we readily obtain the values 



(/= 233,772 = 92,639.500 miles 



III = 330,260. 

 — Benjamin Smith Lyman read a paper " (Jn the Topography 

 ofthePunjaub Oil Region." It aimed at a somewhat detailed 

 account of the topography of the Punjaub Od Region : its situa- 

 tion, genera! features, .special features, &c. The different places 

 are mentioned where each kind of topography is to be seen, and 

 its causes and simple laws pointed on', chielly in order to show 

 the great usefulness of crrelul topographical studies to geology. 

 A short sketch of the geology of the region, apart from structure, 

 is also added; as to the oil, from the writer's own "General 

 Report on the Punjaub Oil Lands, Lahore, 1870," and ;is to other 



points from older works. The general section of the rocks of 

 the region is as follows, belo\v the new and old alluviums : — 



Miocene (Sivalik), perhaps 3,000 feet. 



Eocene (Nummulitic), with oil ... 1,950 ,, 



Mesozoic, perhaps ... ... ... 700 ,, 



Carboniferous, without oil, about . , 1,800 ,, 



Devonian, with salt and plaster ... 2,850 ,, 



The oil or asphalt (dried oil), or rock tar (melted asphalt), is 

 found at a dozen different places, and, in veiy small traces, at 

 half a dozen more, all witliin a space of a hundred miles square. 

 They are all in Nummulitic rocks, except one in Carboniferous. 

 The deposits all seem of very small horizontal extent — sometimes 

 only a few feet, seldom a hundred yards, once only as much as 

 half a mile. In this case, too, the oil-bearing bed is a hundred 

 feet thick, in one other forty, in two others twenty, and in the rest 

 much less. The oil comes in some places from lime rock, in 

 others from sand rock, or shales. The yield of one well was at 

 first fifty gallons a day, but grew quickly less, like the ordinates 

 of a parabola, and seems likely to reach 3,000 gallons in all 

 within a year and a half. At a rough guess, a hundred such 

 wells might be bored in the region, with a whole yield, then, of 

 hardly 7,000 barrels. The natural springs (five) yield from a 

 gill to three quarts a day. The oil is dark green and veiy heavy 

 (25° B. or less). There is nothing whatever in the Puniaub oil 

 deposits to bear out a belief in the distillation of oil from one 

 bed to another, or in its emanation from below, or in its gradual 

 passage from the lower parts of abed to higher parts of the same 

 bed, or in its origin from any source but the decomposition of 

 organic matter in the locks. Neither is there anything here (or 

 anywhere else) to justify wild hopes of finding large quantities 

 of oil by boring into cavities below the oil-bearing bed. The 

 occurrence of salt, gypsum, and alum shales in large quantities 

 is noticed, as well as that of sulphur, saltpetre, brown coal, and 

 good in small quantities, and that of traces of copper, iron, and 

 lead. — I'rof. E. D. Cope read a paper en Batliiiiodoii, a genus of 

 extinct Ungulates. It was presented as Perissodactyl in general 

 characters, but with peculiarities of dentition of a combined 

 ruminant and suelline character. There was on I he outer side of 

 the molars but one crescent, and before this a tubercle. The 

 inner portion of the crown a ledge. Besides the species Bath- 

 iiiodon radians, a second form, Loxolophodoii sciiiidiutiis was 

 referred to the group. The former animal was large as the 

 rhinoceros, the second equal to the tapir. — A memoir on the 

 "Geology of Western Virginia" was presented by Mr. J. J. 

 Stevenson. 



March i. — Mr. B. Smith Lyman presented for publication a 

 topographical map of West Virginia. — Prof Cope read a paper 

 on two new species of Ornithosamians from the Kansas Creta- 

 ceous. They were descril ed as Ornilhocliinis iiiiil>rosiis and 

 O. harpyia. The I'ormer was regarded as one of the most 

 gigantic of the pterodactyles, extending probably 25ft. from tip 

 to tip of the wings. The other was two-thirds the size. — Prof. 

 Cope read a paper on Praloslii^a, a genus of extinct Testudinata. 

 A detailed account of the Osteology of P. gi^as from the Cretaceous 

 was given, by which it appeared that the genus had separate ribs 

 as in Spliaiigis, and that the only carapace %\'as formed by large 

 radiating plates of bone in the skin. Two other species were 

 described, /'. lubirosiis and /'. iupliiniiis—\\\& last, the largest 

 known marine turtle. — Mr. Eli K. Piice read a paper on " Some 

 other Phases of Modern Philosophy," in which he combatted 

 the views of Huxley and others as to the physical basis of life. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, M.iy 20 — M. Becquerel read a ninth 

 memoir on the means of increasing the effects of electro-capillary 

 actions in inorganic bodies, and on the effects of the same kind 

 prcduced in living organised bodies. — M. Sainte-Claiie Deville 

 presented a note by M. t;. Gucroult on the relations exi.sting 

 between the numbers of vibrations of musical sounds and their 

 intervals, and on a scale-rule for acoustic c.ilculatirns invented 

 by him. — M. Jamin communicated a note by M. J. M. Gaugain 

 on the electro-moiive forces developed by the contact of nielaU 

 with inactive liquids, in continuation of a former paper by the 

 same author ; and M. T. Du Moncel presented a note on the 

 induced currents resulting from the action of magnets upon in- 

 duction coils normally to their axes. — A memoir was read by 

 M. Le Verrier on the theories of the four superior planets, 

 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, containing an investiga- 



