480 Obituary — Miscellaneous. 



of steam to repel any invasion of water ; but they seem to overlook 

 the fact that when once the CYitical pressure of water is attained, there 

 will either be no steam, or the steam will be compressed to the same 

 volume as the liquid water at the critical temperature. If the critical 

 pressure be exceeded, the steam will be still more compressed. 



As the critical pressure of water is only 200 atmospheres, the 

 moderate ocean depth of 1100 fathoms will suffice to overcome any 

 expansive force that water or steam may exert ; and at the greater 

 oceanic depths, fire and water would be impotent to resist the pressure- 

 control. 



One thing I notice is that though petrologists reject the penetration 

 of rocks by water under tremendous pressure, they gaily assume the 

 free penetration of ' country rocks ' by gases and liquids ! They 

 obviously will not allow the sauce for the goose being used for the 

 more powerful gander. A. E.. Hunt. 



SouTHwooD, Torquay. 

 September 9, 1909. 



WILLIAM FORD STANLEY, F.G.S. 



Born 1828. Died August 14, 1909. 



Mk. Stanley, who died at his residence, South Norwood, at the age 

 of 81 years, was the head of the firm of W. S. Stanley, manufacturers 

 of surveying and drawing instruments. Well versed in all branches of 

 physical science, he also took considerable interest in geology, and 

 became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1884. In that year he 

 communicated a note — " A Correction in the assumed Amount of 

 Energy developed by the Secular Cooling of the Earth as stated in 

 two Papers by the late Robert Mallet." In 1887 he brought before 

 the same Society some observations on the "Probable Amount of 

 former Glaciation of Norway". Before the British Association at the 

 Montreal Meeting in 1884, he criticized Dr. CroU's views in a paper 

 " Upon the Improbability of the Theory that Pormer Glacial Periods 

 in the Northern Hemisphere were due to Eccentricity of the Earth's 

 Orbit, and to its Winter Perihelion in the North" (see Geol. Mag., 

 1884, p. 518). He was also author of a work on The Nelular Theory 

 in, relation to Stellar, Solar, Planetary, Cometary, and Geological 

 Phenomena (1895). 



nVEISCE IL, 3L.-A.3SrE OTJS. 



Victoria University, Manchester. 

 Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, F.B.S., has resigned the Chair of 

 Geology and Palseontology in the Yictoria University of Manchester, 

 and he is succeeded by Sir Thomas H. Holland, K.C.I.E., P.R.S., 

 who has for some years been Director of the Geological Survey of 

 India. Professor Dawkins, after serving from 1861 to 1869 on the 

 Geological Survey in England, was in 1870 appointed Curator of 

 the Manchester Museum and lecturer in geology at Owens College ; 

 and since the foundation of the University he has been Professor of 

 Geology and Palseontology. 



