August lo, 1905 J 



NA TURE 



347 



Bechuanaland, and Xatal receive scant notice. The 

 coastal system, including the Uitenhage and 

 Umtavuna Cretaceous rocl-cs, profusely illustrated 

 with typical fossils, occupies part iii. 



The superficial deposits, somewhat summarily dis- 

 missed, form a separate chapter. Many of the 

 interesting- problems connected with them are not 

 even hinted at. A classification by chemical compo- 

 sition is adopted. 



The igneous and volcanic rocks, which take so 

 large a share in South .\frican stratigraphy, are de- 

 scribed in connection with the systems with which 

 they are more intimately associated. 



Part iv. briefly discusses the igneous rocks of 

 doubtful position. Too much space has here been 

 allotted to the diamond-bearing deposits. 



Part V. discusses the correlation of the South African 

 strata. It contains much information guardedly ex- 

 pressed. This portion possesses the almost unique 

 virtue of stating the arguments in favour of the corre- 

 lation adopted by the authors. Few geologists will 

 now dissent from the view that the Witwatersrand 

 series is older than the Table Mountain Sandstone 

 and newer than the complex of rocks termed .ArcheEan. 



Latter-day geologists will miss a chapter on struc- 

 tural and dynamical geology. The authors, and 

 manv will no doubt agree with them, have eschewed 

 the problems entailing the use of modern physio- 

 graphical and dynamical terminology. In dealing 

 with rocks and fossils they have, however, 

 occasionally beeh compelled to drop into technical 

 language. Thus we met with Cardium hullen- 

 newtoni, Eripliyla rupert-jonesi among fossils; while 

 among minerals and rocks several of those mentioned 

 wordily lengthen out what, to the general reader, 

 would otherwise be a welcome page. 



The authors have certainly succeeded in their 

 self-imposed task " to correlate and systematise the 

 valuable results of both official and private work." 

 They are right in considering that what we know of 

 South African geology lacks coherence. The best 

 efforts, such as that of the authors, must for a long 

 time be regarded as tentative and by no means final. 



The volume is profusely and admirablv illustrated 

 with photographs of scenery and rock sections. Two 

 coloured geological maps accompany the text, one 

 of .South .\frica between Bechuanaland and the east 

 coast and the Transvaal and the south coast, and one 

 of the Transvaal. It is to be hoped that the half- 

 mourning adopted for the K.arroo svstem will not be 

 perpetuated. Economically it is false; artisticallv it 

 is ruinous. W. G. 



NOTES. 



TiTE meeting of the French .Association for the .Adviince- 

 nient of .Science was opened on .August 3 at Cherbourg 

 under the presidency of Prof. Ciiard. 



We regret to learn that Prof. L. Errera, professor of 



botany in the University of Brussels, and member of 



the Royal .Academy of Belgium, died on .August i at 

 Uccle. 



We understand that the editorship of the " Fauna of 

 British India," rendered vacant by the death of Dr. 

 W. T. Blanford, has been offered bv the Secretary of 

 State for India to Lieut. -Colonel C. T. Bingham. 



-A Rel'TER telegram from Rio de Janeiro savs that the 



Latin American Scientific Congress was opened on 



August 7, delegates from all the South American Republics 

 being present. 



NO. 1P67, vol . 72I 



TiJE sixth International Congress of Criminal .Anthro- 

 pology is to take place in Turin on April 26 ne.\t under 

 the presidency, of .Signor Bianchi, Minister of Public 

 Instruction. 



Prof. Ronald Ross and Prof. Boyce, of the Liver- 

 pool .School of Tropical Medicine, will sail for New Orleans 

 en Saturday to as.si^t in dealing with the epidemic of 

 yellow fever in that city. 



We regret to see the announcement that Mr. .Alexander 

 Bell, father of Dr. Ale.xander Graham Bell, and an active 

 worker in educational science, especially in relation to the 

 study of deaf-mutes, died at Washington on August 6. 



Mr. Christopher Heath, Emeritus professor of clinical 

 surgery in University College, I^ondon, and a former presi- 

 dent of the Royal College of .Surgeons of England, died 

 suddenly on Tuesday, .August 8. Mr. Heath was the 

 author of several standard works on surgical subjects. 



The -.Amherst College expedition for the observation of 

 the eclipse of the sun on August 30 has departed for 

 Tripoli, whore the instruments will be mounted on the 

 edge of the desert. The members of the expedition are 

 Prof. David Todd, Mrs. and Miss Todd, and Mr. E. A. 

 Thompson, and their attention will be chieflv devoted to 

 the photography of the corona and of intra-Mercurial 

 planet regions. 



The Treasury has renewed for a further period of five 

 years the annual grant of 500/. to the British School at 

 .Athens. The promoters of the movement hope that an 

 inlluentiallv signed petition for a similar grant to the 

 British School at Rome may be also favourably considered. 



Prof. Guido Cora informs us that the earthquake dis- 

 turbances registered at the Pola Hydrographic .Station on 

 July 23 (see p. 298) were also recorded at the Osservatorio 

 Ximeniano of Florence at 3.50 a.m. on the same date. 

 Father Guido Alfani, from an examination of the seismo- 

 grams, e.xpressed the opinion that a severe and protracted 

 earthquake must have taken place at an estimated distance 

 cf about 6S00 kilometres (4225 miles). 



We notice with regret the death on July 26 of Prof. 

 Bichat, dean of the faculty of sciences at the University 

 of Nancy. Prof. Bichat was also director of the Electro- 

 technical Institute of Nancy, and took a very active part 

 in all efforts for the improvement of second,ary and higher 

 education. 



The research fellowship in chemistry offered by the 

 Worshipful Company of .Salters, and tenable in the re- 

 search laboratory of the Pharmaceutical .Society, has this 

 year been awarded to Miss Nora Renouf, who has been 

 engaged in research work for the past two years in the 

 society's laboratories. The Salters' fellowship is of the 

 annual value of 100/., and was founded with the view of 

 encouraging the application of the newest methods of 

 scientific chemistr\' to the elucidation of pharmacological 

 problems. 



The International Congress of Anatomy was opened in 

 the morning of August 7 at Geneva. Three hundr<'d re- 

 presentatives of the principal universities of Europe and 

 America were present, including office-bearers of the five 

 great anatomical associations of Great Britain, France, 

 Germany, Italy, and the United States. One hundred 

 and fifteen papers on various scientific subjects were put 

 down for reading. The congress will conclude to-day with 

 a banquet given by the city of Geneva to the delegates. 

 The congress has accepted an invitation lo assemble aV 

 Boston in 1907. 



