94 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 160, 



or chemical work by the Carolinian Institution 

 in Stockholm, for literature by the Academy in 

 Stockholm, and for the propagation of peace 

 by a committee of iive persons to be elected by 

 the Norwegian Pauliament. 



Chas. D. Walcott, Director of the TJ. S. 

 Geological Survey, will have, in the next issue 

 of AppletorCs Popular Science Monthly, an article 

 on 'The Preservation of our Forests,' and 

 President David Starr Jordan an article on 

 ' The Evolution of the Mind.' 



With the January number The Journal of 

 School Geography has heen enlarged to 40 pages, 

 and the editor. Professor Richard E. Dodge, 

 Teachers' College, New York, announces that it 

 will be improved in several ways. Particular 

 attention will hereafter be given to mathemat- 

 ical geography, elementary meteorology and 

 commercial geography. Mr. Andrew J. Her- 

 betson Colliugton, Scotland, has become asso- 

 ciate editor for Great Britain. 



Three packages of yellow fever serum from 

 Dr. J. Sanarelli, of the Institut de Hygiene Ex- 

 perimentale at Montevideo, have been received 

 at New York, intended for Dr. Wyman, of the 

 United States Marine Hospital service at Wash- 

 ington and for Dr. Doty. Part will be used in 

 experiments made by Dr. Doty's assistant, Dr. 

 C. B. Fitzpatrick, at the laboratory at Quaran- 

 tine. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



At a meeting of the Corporation of Yale 

 University on January 13th it was decided to 

 appoint a committee to prepare plans for the 

 proper celebration, in October, 1901, of the bi- 

 centennial anniversary of the granting of the 

 charter to Yale College. 



At a special meeting of the Council of Co- 

 lumbia University, on January 13th, action 

 was taken as authorized by the Board of Trus- 

 tees,' incorporating the Teachers' College as a 

 professional school for the training of teachers. 

 President Low will become President of the 

 Teachers' College, but the Trustees of the Col- 

 lege will be continued as an independent board, 

 responsible for the financial administration of 

 the College. The Teachers' College was 

 founded in 1887, Professor Nicholas Murray 



Butler, of Columbia University, being the first 

 President. In 1893 the College was partially- 

 affiliated with Columbia University for educa- 

 tional purposes. Thebuildings of the College^ 

 erected at a cost of about $1,000,000 on land; 

 given by Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, are ad- 

 jacent to those of Columbia University and 

 Barnard College. The foundation of a profes- 

 sional school for the training of teachers of th& 

 same rank as university schools for medicine- 

 and law is one of the most important advances- 

 ever made in educational methods. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



A PKOPOSED ADDITION TO PHYSIOGRAPHIC 



NOMENCLATURE. 



The rocky mass of the earth, the lithospherCr 

 is mantled in large part by formations whose- 

 particles or grains are loosely aggregated,, 

 either incoherent or feebly coherent. To these 

 formations collectively Merrill has given the 

 appropriate name regoliih (stony mantle), a 

 term approximately coordinate with litho- 

 sphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. It was 

 not proposed until its need had come to be 

 distinctly recognized, and I believe it will be 

 promptly adopted in geology and physiog- 

 raphy. But a companion term is equally 

 needed. The lithosphere is composed of rock^ 

 the hydrosphere of water and the atmosphere 

 of air ; of what does the regolith consist ?' 

 There is no compact name for its material,, 

 although surface geology and physical geog- 

 raphy have found occasion to mention it so 

 frequently and under so many relations that 

 there are plenty of descriptive phrases. Lying, 

 above the firm rock, it is superficial or surficial' 

 material. Having been formed by the breaking 

 up of rock, it is disintegrated material. Because- 

 destined eventually to coalesce as rock, it is nn- 

 consolidated material. As a substitute for these 

 binomial terms I propose the word discrete. 



The adjective discrete comes to us along witb 

 discreet, from the Latin discretus, separate. 

 Discreet is now appropriated by a secondary- 

 meaning, wise, but discrete means only separate, 

 incoherent, discontinuous. In converting it 

 into a technical noun I propose to retain this- 

 adjective meaning and add the idea of stony 



