404 



NA TURE 



[June 3, 1909 



B^ 



T. MELLARD READE. 



>Y the death of Mr. Thomas Mellard Reade, 

 F.G.S., geological science has lost an amiable, 

 painstaking, and enthusiastic geological _ worker. 

 Educated as a civil engineer, he was at one time chief 

 draughtsman in the civil engineering department 

 (northern division) of the London and North-Western 

 Railway. Later on he became engaged in independent 

 engineering and architectural work, and was elected an 

 Associate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers 

 and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Archi- 

 tects. In the course of his professional work, the 

 strata exposed in foundations and trenches aroused 

 his interest, and, recognising the practical advantages 

 of a knowledge of geology, he began, when about 

 thirtv-five years of age, to pursue the study with great 

 earnestness. The list of his scientific papers and 

 works, numbering about 200, commenced in 1870 and 

 continued until the present year. Residing in the 

 neighbourhood of Liverpool, his attention was in 

 earlier years given especially to the Glacial and r'lst- 

 Glacial' deposits of Lancashire and Cheshire, and he 

 was ever an advocate of the glacio-marine origin of 

 much of the Boulder-drift. 



Mr. Reade became a Fellow of the Geological 

 Society of London in 1872, and was also an active 

 member of the Liverpool Geological Society, of which 

 he was three times president. His more important 

 papers were communicated to these societies, and to the 

 Geological and Philosot^hical Magazines, while many 

 short contributions (dating from 1870) were published 

 in Nature. He extended his researches on Glacial 

 geology into North Wales, Norfolk, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. Tidal action as a geological cause, chemical 

 denudation in relation to geological time, and the 

 physiography of the Trias are among the subjects 

 with which he dealt. In 1886 he published his great 

 work on " The Origin of Mountain Ranges considered 

 Experimentally, Structurally, Dynamically, and in 

 Relation to their GeologicalHistory." The results of 

 much original and experimental research were given 

 in this volume, and the existence of a Ievel-of-no-s_train 

 in a cooling solid globe was for the first time pointed 

 out. It was recognised that his experiments on the 

 rates of expansion of different kinds of rock were of 

 great interest and value, although they did not explain 

 some of the more complicated phenomena of mountain 

 structure. In recognition of this work and other re- 

 searches, the Geological Society in 1806 awarded him 

 the Murchison medal. 



Pursuing the subject of dynamic geology, and mak- 

 ing further experimental investigations, he published 

 in 1903 a volume entitled " The Evolution of Earth 

 Structure, with a Theory of Geomorphic Changes." In 

 this work he embodied much material which he had 

 previously published, including researches on slaty 

 cleavage, carried out in conjunction with Mr. Philip 

 Holland, as well as essays on denudation and on the 

 permanence of oceans and continents; and the volume 

 may be said to summarise his main contributions to 

 geological science. He expressed his conclusion that 

 while the relative proportions of land and water have 

 been fairly constant throughout the ages, regional 

 changes of level are due to alterations in the bulk of 

 certain portions of the lithosphere caused by expansion 

 and contraction, without other movements in mass. 

 Among his later investigations, those on " Sands and 

 Sediments," in which he had the cooperation of Mr. 

 P. Holland, are of great interest and importance, 

 especially in connection with the micro-sediments, such 

 as quartz-dust, and fine particles of carbonate of lime 

 of detrital origin. In the latter case the suggestion is 



NO. 2066, VOL. 80] 



made that some deep sea-limestones may be due in part 

 to mechanical causes. 



Mr. Reade died on May 27, aged seventy-seven, at 

 his residence, Park Corner, Blundellsands, Liverpool. 



H. B. W. 



NOTES. 



The Croonian k'Cture of the Royal Society will be 

 delivered on Thursday, June 10, by Prof. E. A. Schafer, 

 F.R..S., on " The Functions of the Pituitary Body." 



The statue of Lamarck, erected by international sub- 

 scription, is to be unveiled in the Jardin des Plantes, Pari.s. 

 on Sunday, June 13, at 3 p.m. M. Falliferes will preside 

 at the meeting. 



The death is announced of M. Eugene Grenet, well 

 known as an electrical engineer and the inventor of the 

 potassium bichromate cell. 



Prof. Ira Remsen, president of the Johns Hopkins 

 University, Baltimore, U.S..^., has been elected president 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry for the ensuing year. 

 The next annual meeting of the society will be held in 

 Glasgow. 



It is announced that the principal trustees of the 

 British Museum have appointed Mr. Lazarus Fletcher, 

 F.R.S., keeper of the department of mineralogy, to the 

 post of director of the natural history departments of the 

 British Museum. 



The New York correspondent of the Times announces 

 that the American delegates to the Darwin centenary 

 celebration at Cambridge will bring with them a bronze 

 bust of the great naturalist, 40 inches in height, which 

 they will present to Christ's College. 



It is announced in Science that the American .Academy 

 of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Rumford premium 

 to Prof. R. W. Wood, of the Johns Hopkins University, 

 for his discoveries in light, and particularly for his re- 

 searches on the optical properties of sodium and other 

 metallic vapours. 



Mr. Horace Darwin, F.R.S., has been elected a corre- 

 sponding member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. 



The annual meeting of the Cape Chemical Society was 

 held on April 30, when the following officers for iqog were 

 elected : — president, Dr. R. Marloth ; vice-president. Dr. 

 C. F. Juritz ; hon. secretary and treasurer, Mr. St. Clair O. 

 Sinclair; additional members of council, Mr. G. N. Black- 

 shaw and Prof. P. D. Hahn. Dr. R. Marloth delivered 

 his presidential address, on " The Chemistry of some 

 Vegetable Products of South .Africa." 



At the last meeting of the International Physiological 

 Congress, which was held at Heidelberg in 1907, it was 

 decided to hold the next congress at Vienna in 1910, at. 

 Whitsuntide. It has been found, however, that at this 

 time of year it would be impossible for a large number 

 of physiologists to attend the congress, and the local 

 committee of the congress at Vienna has therefore, after 

 consulting the -local secretaries in the various countries, 

 determined to change the date. In accordance with the 

 general wish, the congress will now be held on September 

 26-30, 1910. 



On July ! the price of the Astrophysical Jourinil is to be 

 increased. In a letter upon this change. Prof. E. B. Frost, 

 the managing editor, points out that a periodical of a 



