REVIEWS 981 



will find itself able to rapidly expand the work and give the new 



director adequate means for the remarkable opportunities for investi- 

 gation which the region affords. H. F. Bain. 



Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science^ ^Sg§ ; Geological 

 Subjects. 



Six papers on purely geological topics were read before the Indiana 

 Academy during the year, besides a number of others of more or less 

 interest and value to geologists. The most important geological paper 

 of which an abstract is published is that by A. H. Purdue upon the 

 Charleston, Missouri, earthquake of October 13, 1895. The shock or 

 shocks of that earthquake were of sufficient force to break plate glass 

 windows, crack brick walls, and to throw down brick chimneys at 

 several places, and it seems to have been felt over an area of more than 

 400,000 square miles. The author might have called attention to the 

 fact that within the area affected there are a score or more of colleges 

 and universities at which geology is taught, but that not one of these 

 institutions had a seismograph or seismoscope in working order, and 

 that there were therefore no accurate observations made upon the time 

 or nature of the shocks. 



In "Some Minor Eroding Agencies," by J. T. Scovell, attention is 

 directed especially to the work of burrowing animals : ground hogs, 

 gophers, badgers, prairie dogs, cray fishes, and burrowing insects of 

 various kinds. When Mr. Darwin mentioned the geologic importance 

 of earthworms it was generally thought that he was making the most 

 of a very small affair, but when his data were completed every one was 

 amazed to find the results so important. Mr. Scovell's points are 

 doubtless well taken, but if he will make and record his observations 

 in such a manner as to give them a quantitative value, he will do the 

 science of geology an excellent service. In some instances this is 

 impossible, but in others it is not. 



It is cause for congratulation that the legislature of the state of 

 Indiana recognizes the importance of cooperating with the State 

 Academy of Science. Show us a state in which the legislature and 

 the people demand of the scientific men scientific results, regardless of 

 whether they have immediate "practical" value and we will show you 

 a state that contributes its full share to the advancement of science and 

 of civilization. J. C. B. 



