6^,o 



NATURE 



October 25, 1906 



The second division of the subject is the discussion 

 of the leading cases which have been used to prove 

 the actual uplift and subsidence of the land, such as 

 the raised shore-lines of Norway and northern Europe, 

 the bored pillars of the Temple of Serapis, near Naples, ! 

 the raised beaches around the Baltic, and the sub- 

 merged peat bogs and forests on the British coasts. 

 Suess examines these cases in detail, and denies that 

 they give any evidence of secular uplift. He rejects 

 what are generally considered some of the best estab- 

 lished of geological truths, such as the still progressive 

 tilting of .Scandinavia. Suess denies these popular 

 conclusions, and during his argument claims that both. 

 Lyell and Darwin mistook kitchen middens for raised 

 sea beaches. Suess examines the evidence in detail 

 for each case, and maintains that the inferences based 

 on it are invalid. The shore-lines of Norway he 

 claims to have been formed along the shores of glacier- 

 dammed lakes. The Temple of Serapis, he maintains, 

 has no connection with secular movements, because it 

 is actually in the breached crater of a volcano. Sub- 

 merged forests, he points out, may be due to growth 

 behind storm beaches, or on land along a low shore 

 which has sunk by the shrinkage of an underlying 

 water-logged bed. The raised beaches around the 

 inner Baltic he explains by the gradual lowering of 

 the water by the emptying of that sea. The slow 

 emergence of the north Baltic shore is, therefore, 

 according to Suess, the consequence of a climatic 

 change, not of an earth movement ; and Suess 

 advances evidence to prove that the level of the 

 southern Baltic has been constant throughout historic 

 times. 



The latter part of this volume is perhaps of most 

 popular interest, but it is the least convincing part 

 of the "Antlitz," and perhaps the least essential to 

 Prof. Suess's main position. .Suess admits some cases 

 of uplift, as at the Temple of Serapis, and he admits 

 that some of the lower Norwegian shore-lines are true 

 sea beaches We may accept Dr. Giinther's evidence 

 showing that the uplift near Naples was somewhat 

 wider than Suess admitted, or accept a slow uprise 

 of the land near the great lakes of .America, without 

 rejecting the doctrine that the major changes in the 

 range of the sea are due to changes in its level. Suess 

 only briefly refers to the phenomenon of isostasy ; and 

 the work of Colonel Burrard in India shows that the 

 plumb-line agrees with the pendulum as to the un- 

 equal density of the blocks in the earth's crust; and 

 therefore some areas may have been uplifted to restore 

 that hydrostatic equilibrium at which others are still 

 upheld. 



The second division of this volume shows that the 

 easy inference that every submerged forest and every 

 raised beach involves a movement of the land is not 

 justified. .Suess shows that thev can be explained 

 without any assumption of earth movements. Each 

 case must be judged on its merits. We can accept 

 either the explanation of a limited emergence or sub- 

 mergence of the land without rejecting Prof. Suess's 

 main proposition that, in the geological past, the 

 major changes in the range of the sea have been due 

 to variations in its level. J. W. G. 



NO. 1930, VOL. 74] 



REFUSE DESTRUCTORS. 

 (i) The Disposal of Municipal Refuse. By H. de B. 



Parsons. Pp. x-l-186. (New York: John Wiley 



and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1906.) 



Price &s. 6d. net. 

 (2) Garbage Crematories in .America. By W. M. 



Venable, M.S. Pp. x + 200. (New York; John 



Wiley and Sons; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 



1906.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 

 (1) nPHE author has not attempted in this book to 

 -1- produce a treatise dealing with the design- 

 ing of the details for the final disposal of city refuse, 

 but rather to set forth clearly the principles under- 

 lying the sanitary and economic handling and de- 

 struction of such material. The book owed its origin 

 to certain designs which Mr. Parsons was engaged 

 upon in connection with the disposal of the refuse of 

 the city of New York, and as a result the bulk of the 

 appliances and plant which the author describes are 

 those which are employed in the Empire City, and 

 there is a number of excellent reproductions of photo- 

 graphs of the methods adopted in that city both for 

 collecting and for disposing of the refuse. 



In chapter iii. it is shown that the general refuse 

 for which a method of collection and disposal must 

 be provided can be divided into five classes : — 

 (i) ashes; (2) garbage; (3) rubbish; (4) street sweep- 

 ings; and (5) snow; and tables are given to show 

 the average composition of the first four of those, and 

 the weight which has to be collected annually in 

 a number of selected American cities; in New York 

 the refuse varies from 2.6 lb. to 49 lb. per head per 

 diem. The methods of collecting the various classes 

 of refuse are then dealt with, and the author rightly 

 lays stress on the absolute need of arranging the 

 collections at regular intervals, and of the use of 

 properly designed, covered, and water-tight carts; the 

 important problem of cleansing streets crowded with 

 vehicular traffic is also briefly discussed. 



In the next two chapters the methods of disposal 

 are taken up, and the various systems in use con- 

 trasted and compared ; such processes as those of 

 dumping on land or dumping in water should never 

 be permitted; they are hopelessly insanitary; one of 

 the illustrations — " Disfigurement of Beach by Dump- 

 ing at .Sea " — is a striking instance of the abomin- 

 able results which may arise from such cheap and 

 nasty methods. Mr. Parsons is evidently of opinion 

 that the reduction process (only applicable when the 

 garbage is separately collected), by which oil and 

 grease are extracted and sold, can never be made a 

 paying process, and it seems, therefore, highly un- 

 desirable to put up plants of this nature, when they 

 are liable to produce such serious nuisance from foul 

 smells. It is pointed out that the incineration process, 

 which has been such a success in the cities of England 

 and Germany, has so far not been adopted on a large 

 scale in the United States, but the author considers 

 that this method is bound to become more and more 

 common in the States; where it has been a failure it 

 is entirely due to faulty design of the destructors, 

 and to the desire unduly to cheapen first cost. 



Undoubtedly the form of civic government in 



