Reviews— Ansted’s Applications of Geology. 267 
bequeathed half his residuary estate to the Society, for the promo- 
tion of its objects; and the Society has employed the proceeds in 
establishing Courses of Lectures on the Application of Science to 
the Arts. The talent for lecturing, however, is by no means com- 
mon in this country, and the power of exhibiting a subject in a 
popular form is for the most part inversely proportioned to the 
learning and experience of the lecturer. 
As a Professional Geologist, Prof. Ansted stands nearly alone, both 
as regards his disconnection from all Government offices, and his 
experience in delivering courses of lectures in which geological 
topics are treated as matters of business, and not as media for jokes. 
His ‘Geological Gossip,’ published in 1860, contained eighteen 
shorter essays on subjects similar to those which occupy the present 
volume. These relate for the most part to subjects of the day, such 
as water-supply, the manufacture of cements and artificial stones, 
fossil fuel, and the connection between Agriculture and Geology. 
The reguiar Text-books cannot be expected to give much infor- 
mation on these economical questions; for whatever is said re- 
quires frequent change: but they are good subjects for courses of 
periodic lectures. 
Agricultural Geology is just now under a cloud. At the Royal 
College they find it as much as they can do to get lecturers to come 
and discourse periodically on pure science. But they have an excel- 
lent resident Chemist, who, if he enjoyed any sort of relation to 
the Government, might save us from the great cost of the proposed 
works for the manufacture of sulphuretted hydrogen in the Maplin 
Sands. 
It would seem time also for Government to regulate by some 
general principle the rights of proprietorship in Springs. When 
the attempt was lately made to take the head-waters of the Thames 
and divert them into Sabrina’s Valley (for the benefit of the Old 
Indians who inhabit those parts), the Conservators of the Thames 
cried out lustily, and greatly exaggerated the loss of volume it would 
sustain; but it is only reasonable to respect Nature’s division of the 
country into hydrographical areas, and to allow the inhabitants of 
each to make the best use they can of their own rain-fall. 
The manufacture of artificial stone has not yet attained perfec- 
tion. The failure of Prof. Kuhlman’s water-glass led to the expe- 
riments of Messrs. Ransome, who have produced a porous material well 
adapted for filtering other materials sharp enough for whetstones and 
grindstones, and artificial sandstone in blocks of sufficient size and 
strength for supporting heavy engines or any other purposes. But they 
have never entirely succeeded in freeing this stone from soluble and 
deliquescent salts which continue to effloresce from the surface, or 
render it damp. ven the process described by Prof. Ansted as the 
last and perfectly successful has been considerably improved upon; 
‘and we trust now that the ‘Stone Company (limited)’ will only 
need unlimited orders to attain equal success. As those who read 
Prof. Ansted’s remarks on cements are most likely to deal with them 
on a small scale, we will mention, as the result of our personal 
