2S4 



NA TURE 



[July 23, 1908 



dweller in the Statij. References, however, are required 

 throughout this volume from the illustrations to the text. 

 Bulletin No. xvii. is on the " Abandoned Shore-lines of 

 Eastern Wisconsin," by Mr. J. W. Goldthwait (1907), and 

 is a study of the development and passing away of the 

 lakes and lake-extensions associated with later Glacial 

 times. The evidences of warping in the shore-terraces 

 through earth-movement are of special interest. Mr. t. C. 

 Harder has contributed a study of the relations of streams 

 ajid joint-systems to the Bulletins of the University of 

 Wisconsin (No. 138, 1906), in which the south-western 

 area of the State is dealt with. The maps, however, do 

 not at once carry conviction, owing to the obvious influence 

 of large topographic features on the courses of many of 

 the smaller streams. 



The ♦Iowa Geological Survey issued its fourteenth annual 

 report (for 1905) in 1906, a thick volume giving much 

 information on the economic and general geology of the 

 State. The descriptions, fully illustrated, are published 

 county by county, and the stratigraphy concerns Ordovician 

 and Silurian rocks especially. Next in interest to these 

 come the glacial drifts, often overlain by loess of the usual 

 problematic origin. The value of this loess as a soil- 

 provider is justly dwelt on on p. 393. The huge boulders 

 from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, often of red 

 granite, remind one of those of Holland and north 

 Germany, and similarly serve as quarries for the farmer. 

 The scope of this survey covers forestry and the observa- 

 tion of the local flora. 



The Maryland Geological Survey continues its well- 

 printed series of volumes with one on the Pliocene and 

 Pleistocene deposits (1906), one on Calvert County (1907), 

 and one on St. Mary's County (1907). In the county 

 volumes we again note how geological surveys in the 

 United States tend to become natural history surveys, with 

 the view of the application of all branches of observation 

 to local education and the local industries. This is a 

 return, and we venture to think a welcome one, towards 

 the broad and wholesome " statistical surveys " of the 

 eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ; and surely the 

 climate, plant-associations, and human activities of a dis- 

 trict are so closely united with topography and geology 

 that a united survey under one scientific department seems 

 the only rational way of studying a political division. A 

 certain amount of repetition, even in diagrams and illus- 

 trations, is. of course, inevitable, if each countv is 

 separately dealt with, but local knowledge is no doubt 

 enlarged by such a system. The palaeontological studies 

 given in the Pliocene volume show that so-called " pure " 

 science is in no danger of being eclipsed. The superficial 

 deposits of Maryland (called " surficial " in the memoir) 

 are " the last of a long series of unconsolidated beds 

 which began to be deposited in Lower Cretaceous and 

 possibly Jurassic time, and have continued on with inter- 

 ruptions down to the present " (p. 136). Five systems of 

 terraces are traced in the coastal plain, the highest being 

 the oldest. These are uplifted terraces of marine deposi- 

 tion, and represent the seaward edges of submarine plat- 

 forms, successively constructed out of the products of 

 coast-erosion and of materials swept by currents against 

 the shore (o. 108). It is interestingly urged that " the 

 Atlantic seaboard has been repeatedly elevated when loaded 

 and depressed when lightened " (d. 137). 



The domes of folding in Maryland", its Upper Devonian 

 fauna, its climate, and the historical origin of its counties 

 fire dealt with in the Johns Hopkins Universitv Circular, 

 " Notes from the Geological Laboratory " (July, 1907). 

 The work of the Universitv, the State Survey, and the 

 general United States Geological Survey seem happily 

 combined (p. 2) in the interests of research. 



Dr. J. A. Udden publishes in the Bulletin of the Uni- 

 versity of Texas, No. 93. 1907, an account of the " Geology 

 of the Chisos Country. Texas," which is of the more value 

 since the Geological Survey of that State has been dis- 

 continued. 



Lastly, workers in Silurian fields will be interested in 

 Mr. E. M. Kindle's paper on the " Occurrence of the 

 Silurian Fauna in Western America" (.4mcr. ]oiirn. Set., 

 vol. XXV., February, p. 125). " Silurian " is used in the 

 restricted sense now common in England, and beds of 

 this age are traced in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah 

 NO. 2021, VOL. 78] 



and .\laska. Conchidiiim Knightii is large and abundant 

 on Kuiu Id. in S.E. Alaska, though not hitherto known 

 from the United States. .Another old acquaintance, Feiitu- 

 nicriis ohlongus, is abundant in the Utah fauna. 



G. A. J. C. 



THE ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE. 

 ^PHE annual congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute 

 was held at Cardiff last week. Many interesting 

 papers were read, and several useful discussions were 

 arranged. A large proportion of the papers fittingly dealt 

 with practical and demonstrative matters arising out of 

 the duties and work of sanitary and educational authori- 

 ties and the ofiicials who serve them. There was a dearih 

 of original contributions of a scientific nature, but those 

 contributions which appear to call for special reference are 

 the following : — 



Dr. W. G. Savage read a paper upon " The Examina- 

 tion of Sausages and their Hygienic Preparation." While 

 sausages are usually composed of good meat, finely minced 

 and mixed with flour, spices, and flavouring agents, such 

 as salt, pepper, and sage, there are no definite guiding 

 standards in this country either as to their composition, the 

 presence and amount of preservatives, or their bacterial 

 content. Hitherto there does not appear to have been any 

 investigation dealing with the bacteria of sausages, and 

 Dr. Savage has recently examined twelve different samples, 

 purchased on the open market, in order to see how far 

 typical excretal organisms are present in them. Most of 

 the sausages examined were quite recently made, and the 

 results show that Bacillus Colt of definite excretal type 

 were always present in large numbers, whereas the 

 ordinary musculature, bread, and other constituents of 

 sausages in their pure state do not contain B. Colt. 

 Although this bacillus is the distinctive organism of ex- 

 creta, and the fact of its presence in considerable numbers 

 in sausages is not a nice matter to contemplate, it must 

 be realised that the bacillus referred to is found in the 

 intestines and given off from the dejecta of animals gener- 

 ally. These and ether facts referred to by Dr. Savage 

 call for the framing of some standard by which the purity 

 and wholesomeness of these articles of food can be judged. 



.\n instructive paper was presented by -Mr. H. Percy 

 Boulnois upon " The Utilisation of Residuals from Refuse 

 Destructors," and two other papers were contributed to 

 the congress upon the same subject. The amount of refuse 

 produced in a town in this country is about a quarter of 

 a ton per head of population per annum, and after this 

 has been cremated in a destructor, the residual clinker 

 represents from 25 to 33 per cent, of the refuse burnt. 

 Of the many methods which have been devised for utilising 

 this material, reference was made to a very recent method 

 which involves the use of the lightning dust crusher lOr 

 converting furnace clinker into the form of poudrette. The 

 lightning dust crusher consists of a comparatively small 

 steel case containing four or six steel hammers, each 

 weighing about 50 lb. The a.xle on which these hammers 

 hang is rotated by machinery at the rate of about 1000 

 revolutions per minute. The machine can be fed at the 

 rate of four tons an hour, and the poudrette escaping finds 

 a market, as a manure, at 25. jd. per ton. It is quite 

 inoffensive to the smell, and recently Mr. H. J. Coles, the 

 surveyor of Market Harborough, has, by mixing the poud- 

 rette with tarry compounds, made very serviceable fuel 

 briquettes, with a calorific value amounting to one-third that 

 of the best coal. 



Mr. Reginald Brown had some experiences to offer with 

 reference to " The Surface Treatment of Roads in Relation 

 to Dust Laying." He recommended the use of oil-tar, 

 which is a by-product of the manufacture of gas from 

 oil, and varies in its composition according to the tempera- 

 ture of production, the nature of the retort or producing 

 plant, and of the oil used. The lack of uniformity in 

 composition, however, does not seriouslv affect its suit- 

 ability for road treatment. From extended experience It 

 has been found that four dressings are required for each 

 watering season, and that on an average one gallon will 

 cover ten superficial yards. The cost of "surfacing" a 

 road with oil-tar averages one penny for four dressings 

 (no grit being required for covering), and this works out 



