9 2 



REVIEWS 



Topologie. Etude du terrain. Par le General Berthaut. 2 

 vols., quarto, pp. 674; 265 full-page topographic maps; 65 

 text figures. Paris: Service Geographique de l'Armee, 1909. 

 This title covers a masterly philosophical treatise upon the evolution 

 of land forms. The presentation is founded upon a thorough analysis 

 of the geologic agencies which co-operate to form and to alter the surface 

 features. The different classes of topographic features are described 

 in the light of the various deformative and physiographic processes to 

 which they owe their origin. These processes are taken up successively, 

 and as the peculiarities and characteristics of the resulting topography 

 are minutely described, they are vividly illustrated by the introduction 

 of topographic maps. The subject is further developed from a discussion 

 of these maps, which are so numerous as to constitute one of the leading 

 attractions of the work. Most of the maps are selected from the topo- 

 graphic surveys of France and the French possessions in North Africa, 

 with occasional sheets from the Swiss Alps, Norway, and the United 



States. 



R. T. C. 



La securite dans les mines. Etude pratique des causes des accidents 



dans les mines et des moyens employes pour les prevenir. 



By H. Schmerber. Paris : Ch. Beranger, editeur, 1910. 



Pp. 659; figs. 589. 



Now that the people of this country have been awakened to the need 



of greater safety in coal mining and efforts are being made to better the 



mining conditions, this new work on the engineering phase of the problem 



is very timely. It should be understood, however, that the geological 



and strictly scientific aspects of the problem of mine explosions scarcely 



enter at all into the author's treatment and hence the book contains little 



of interest to geologists as such. But as an engineering work, which in 



truth is all that it attempts to be, it is an admirable treatise. 



R. T. C. 



Leading American Men of Science. Edited by David Starr 



Jordan. New York: Henry & Holt Co., 1910. Pp. 471, 



with 17 portraits. 



This volume is made up of biographical sketches of seventeen men 



of the past selected as leaders in American science by a zoologist of 



eminence. The selection embraces an astronomer, a chemist, a geolo- 



