272 Notices of Memoirs. 



Sir John Evans, at the opening meeting of the 14:7th session of 

 the Society of Arts, November 21, 1900, read an address on "The 

 Origin, Development, and Aims of our Scientific Societies." Among 

 other matters of interest, he mentioned that in England the Society 

 of Antiquaries seems to be the oldest body which met for definite 

 purposes of enquiry. About the year 1572 " divers gentlemen of 

 London, studious in antiquities, formed themselves into a College 

 or Society of Antiquaries." The address gave an excellent general 

 account of the various London Societies. 



Dr. Gregory's " Plan of the Earth and its Causes " is appearing 

 in the monthly numbers of the American Geologist. To the March 

 number of this journal J. B. Hatcher contributes an exceedingly useful 

 account of the Lake Systems of Southern Patagonia, with a map. 



Among the recent publications of the Eoyal Dublin Society (Sci. 

 Proc, ix) will be found two papers of special interest to geologists 

 by Professor Joly. One is on the inner mechanism of sedimentation, 

 and deals with the fact that the presence of dissolved salts 

 accelerates the precipitation of finely divided matter, such as clay, 

 etc., suspended in water ; the other concerns the theory of the order 

 of formation of silicates in igneous rocks. 



With the view of throwing further light on the strength and 

 durability of slate as a roofing material, Messrs. Mellard Keade 

 and Holland have compared the Phyllades of the Ardennes with the 

 slates of North Wales in the Proc. Liverpool Geol. Soc, 1899-1900. 

 The object of the authors has been, " amongst other things, to 

 discover, if possible, upon what composition or causes the perfection 

 of slaty-cleavage depends, and furthermore, to find out to what 

 qualities and composition the characteristics and enduring properties 

 of roofing slates can be attributed." 



MM. LoHEST and Forir, in their study of the relative age of the 

 rocks composing the Cambrian massif of Stavelot, have arrived at 

 the conclusion that the massif is formed of a succession of sharp and 

 reversed folds, becoming stronger towards the north, and consisting 

 of Devillian, Eevinian, and Salmian deposits, mainly quartzites and 

 phyllades. The paper appeared in the Bull. Sci. Assoc. Eleves Ecoles 

 Special Liege, 1900. 



Captain Hutton read before the Otago Institute a general but 

 up-to-date account of the geology of New Zealand. The paper was 

 published in the Trans. New Zealand Inst, for 1899. There are 

 a few footnotes of critical value. 



Mrs. Gordon's paper on "The Crust-Basins of Southern Europe" 

 has appeared in English in the Verh. VII Internat. Geogr.-Kongress. 

 Berlin, 1899 (1900). In general terms Mrs. Gordon states that 

 " Cross movements in the Earth's crust have as resultants a spiral 

 movement in one sense, accompanied in a neighbouring region by 

 a spiral movement in the opposite sense." The paper must be read 

 to be understood ; an abstract would be of little use to the student. 



Dr. Henry M. Ami has published in the Canadian Record of 

 Science, vol. viii, under the title of "Progress of Geological Work in 



