444 NATURE 

The salient features of geological structure west of 
the Rhine and the influence of this structure upon 
surface topography are described. Special attention 
is given to the Rhine graben and the strong contrast 
between the steep eastern and gentle western slope 
of the Vosges; the maturely dissected peneplane of 
western Germany and the Ardennes, trenched by the 
incised meandering valleys of the Rhine, Moselle, and 
Meuse; the concentric cuestas north-east and east of 
Paris with their steep escarpments facing towards the 
Germans; and the comparatively level plains of central 
and north-western Belgium. In the eastern field the 
East Prussian lake district, the plain of Poland, the 
Podolian cuesta, and the Carpathian mountains are 
described. It is shown that in both theatres of war 
land-forms have exercised an important influence both 
upon the general plans of campaign and the detailed 
movements of armies. Topography limited the Ger- 
man invasion of France to four principal routes, The 
violation of Belgian neutrality had a very distinct 
topographic basis. Russia’s plan of campaign has 
been dictated in part by topographic considerations, 
and the principal battles in the east have been fought 
with reference to natural lines of defence. Sugges- 
tions are made as to the effect of land-forms upon 
probable future movements of the armies. 
Prof. Paul Haupt, Johns Hopkins 
‘“Opium in the Bible.” 
In ten passages of the Old Testament the Hebrew 
résh, head, denotes a bitter and poisonous plant. It 
is used also of the poison of serpents. According to 
Pliny the venom of snakes was nothing but bile. The 
ancients used the same word for gall, bitterness, 
poison, medicine. We use “to drug’’ for “to narco- 
tise,” although “drug” originally means simply a dry 
(German trocken, Dutch droog) herb. Résh is men- 
tioned in the Bible in connection with la‘anadh, worm- 
wood, or absinthe. It was a plant which grew in the 
furrows of the fields (Hosea x. 4). The Authorised 
Version renders ‘‘hemlock,’’ but résh, head, denotes 
poppy-head, and mé-résh is opium. Also the gall (i.e. 
bitter fluid) with wine (not vinegar) in the account of 
Christ’s crucifixion (Matthew xxvii. 34), and the 
myrrh in Mark xv. 23 denote opium. The Talmud 
states that a cup of wine with lebonah was given 
to criminals before their execution. Lebonaéh means 
“incense,’’ as a rule, but in this case it is used for 
opium. In the fifth chapter of the Third Book of 
the Maccabees, we read that wine with incense was 
given to the elephants before they were let loose 
upon the Jews. This ‘incense’? may have been a 
preparation of Indian hemp. Assassin means intoxi- 
cated with hashish (Cannabis indica). 
Dr. C. A. Davis: ‘“‘The Occurrence of Algze in 
Carbonaceous Deposits.” 
On account of their small size and fragile structure, 
Algez have not usually been recognised as important 
contributors to Carbonaceous rocks, and some recent 
students of the microscopic structure of coals have 
denied the probability of their existence as fossils in 
Carbonaceous rocks. Under certain conditions of 
deposition and preservation, as yet unknown, Algz 
may constitute a large percentage of the recognisable 
plant remains which have accumulated to form beds 
of Carbonaceous shales of great extent and thickness. 
Microphotographs of Algae from the oil-yielding shales 
of Green River age were described. 
Dr. W. J. Sinclair, Princeton University : “* Addi- 
tions to the Fauna of the Lower Pliocene Snake Creek 
Beds, Nebraska.”’ 
The Snake Creek beds explored by the Princeton 
Expedition of 1914 are found in the north-west corner 
of Nebraska, and consist of unconsolidated gravels 
NO. 2381, VOL. 95] 
University : 

[JUNE 17, 1915 

and sands in which water-worn bones of a large 
number of fossil animals of Lower Pliocene age are 
found. Most of these remains are fragmentary, and 
there is almost no association of parts. Better mate- 
rial than has hitherto been collected from this forma- 
tion has been secured, and new forms are now de- 
scribed for the first time. Most of the remains are of 
horses, of which there were at least a dozen different 
species on the Lower Pliocene plains of Nebraska, 
most of them three-toed. There were also several 
different kinds of camels, some of them quite large, 
at least three rhinoceroses, many carnivorous animals, 
some of large size, at least two mastodons, a peccary, 
the last of the oreodons or *“‘ruminating hogs,” an 
antelope of entirely new type, quite ditferent from 
anything hitherto reported from North America, with 
scimitar-shaped horns sloping backward and curving 
inward, circular at the base but flattening out toward 
the tips. There is still another antelope, Dromo- 
meryx, but no trace of the pronghorn. In collections 
made by the American Museum from the Snake Creel: 
beds the first of the bisons appears, so the Snake 
Creek fauna gives us some idea of the kinds of 
animals on the buffalo range when the buffalo first 
came, and shows what great faunal changes have 
taken place even during the lifetime of this genus. 
Prof. William H. Hobbs, University of Michigan : 
“The Réle of the Glacial Anticyclone in the Air 
Circulation of the Globe.” 
A theory of nourishment of the great continental 
glaciers of the polar regions is given, and the author 
shows in what ways this theory has been confirmed 
and extended by the work of numerous exploring 
expeditions. It is because the expeditions across 
Greenland of 1912 (de Quervain) and of 1913 (Koch 
and Wegener), and those of Scott and Amundsen into 
the heart of the Antarctic continent, have for the first 
time penetrated the central areas of continental glaciers 
that these studies are illuminating. The penetration 
of higher levels of the atmosphere upon the borders 
of the inland-ice through the aid of pilot-balloons 
has supplied further evidence of great value along a 
wholly new direction. Most recent of all, the studies 
of Sir Douglas Mawson within a new section of the 
Antarctic continental glacier have brought valuable 
confirmatory observations. 
Prof. H. N. Russell, Princeton University: ‘‘ Note 
on the Sun’s Temperature.” 
The effective temperature of the sun may be com- 
puted from Abbot’s data for the radiation of each 
separate wave-length, using Planck’s formula. The 
resulting temperature at the centre of the disc is about 
6600° when determined from the visible radiation, but 
600° lower according to the radiation in the infra- 
red. The effective temperature at the edge of the 
sun is more than 1000° lower, which accords with the 
theory that at the centre of the disc we can see down 
deeper, into hotter layers. 
Prof. R. S. Dugan, Princeton University: *‘ Some 
Results from the Observation of Eclipsing Variables.’ 
Slides were exhibited showing observed light-curves 
of three giant eclipsing variables: RT Persei, 
Z Draconis, and RV Ophiuchi; and diagrams of the 
binary systems the revolution of which is supposed 
to give rise to the observed light variations. The 
importance was explained of repeatedly observing the 
entire period shown in the discovery of shallow 
secondary minima, the oblateness of the stars, inter- 
radiation and periastron effects, and darkening towards 
the limb. Evidence was given of the greater bril- 
liance of the advancing side of the bright star. The 
variation of the periods of these three stars was 
described. | Early Harvard photographs: and recent 
