OCTOBEB 23, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



573 



solved in a mixture of ether and alcohol, is 

 transformed into a crystalline fat, -which 

 softens at 69° and melts at 7Y°. 



The behavior of olive oil is very peculiar. 

 It combines with three times the quantity of 

 hydrogen which was anticipated from its be- 

 havior with iodine. The product, which in 

 general properties resembles that from castor 

 oil, is still capable of combining with iodine. 

 Unless, therefore, some flaw can be shown to 

 exist in the experiments, it will be necessary 

 to revise our ideas of the processes which 

 take place during the ordinary testing of oils 

 and fats with iodine (Hiibl's method). 



Train oil absorbed about 30 per cent, more 

 hydrogen than was anticipated. The yield of 

 solid fat was quantitative. Before reduction 

 the train and olive oils were converted into 

 emulsions with water and a little gum arable. 



These results promise to be of great impor- 

 tance to plant physiologists, because the reac- 

 tions proceed under conditions comparable, in 

 a number of respects, with those under which 

 similar or identical products are formed in 

 nature. To the industrial chemist the results 

 may also prove to be of considerable value; 

 a reasonably cheap method of transforming 

 liquid oils into solid fats has been much 

 sought after. 



J. Bishop Tingle 



McMastee UwrVEESITT, 



Toronto, Canada, 

 August, 1908 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 joint meeting of geologists of the noeth- 



eastern united states with the section 



of geology and mineealogt op the 



new toek academy of sciences 



The Section of Geology and Mineralogy of the 

 New York Academy of Sciences in cooperation 

 with the geologists of neighboring institutions 

 held an all-day meeting on April 6. The general 

 invitation sent out by the academy met with a 

 generous response. Representatives attended from 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Amherst, 

 Wesleyan, Universities of Vermont and Pennsyl- 

 vania, Dartmouth, Lehigh, Rutgers, Harvard, Yale, 

 New York University and Columbia in addition to 

 the local membership. Two sessions were held, 

 one in the rooms of the department of geology at 



Columbia University, the other in the academy 

 quarters at the American Museum of Natural 

 History. Fourteen papers were presented and 

 eight others were read by title. Abstracts of 

 some of these papers are given below: 



The Cambrian Rocks of Vermont: G. H. Peekins, 



State Geologist of Vermont. 



So far as satisfactorily determined, the Cam- 

 brian of Vermont occupies a narrow strip from 

 north to south through the state between the 

 Green Mountains and Lake Champlain. In some 

 places they reach the shore of that lake and form 

 the boldest of the headlands. 



Northward the Cambrian extends to the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence and south through New York to 

 middle Alabama. 



It is probable that there are derivatives from 

 Cambrian strata in and east of the Green Moun- 

 tains, but none have been certainly identified. So 

 far as studied, all the beds belong to the Olenellus 

 zone of Walcott, or Lower Cambrian. The very 

 interesting and extensive fault and overthrust by 

 which Cambrian strata were lifted and thrown 

 over the Utiea is noticed. In all there are not 

 less than 10,000 feet of Cambrian beds in western 

 Vermont. These beds consist of 1,000 feet of more 

 or less silicious limestone, and the other rocks are 

 shales, sandstones, quartzites, conglomerates, of 

 very diverse color composition and texture. In a 

 few places the red sandrock beds change to a 

 thick-bedded brecciated calcareous rock which 

 when worked is the Winooski or Champlain 

 marble — a mottled red and white stone used in 

 many large buildings in many parts of the 

 coimtry. 



Few of the beds are fossiliferous, but some 

 abound in trilobites, Olenellus, Ptychoparia, etc., 

 and a few brachiopods, worm burrows, trilobite 

 and other tracks, etc., are also found. In all the 

 number of species is not large, probably not more 

 than fifty have been fo\md. Of these, trilobites 

 form the larger number, brachiopods coming next. 

 A large portion of the species were described from 

 the Vermont beds and many have not been found 

 elsewhere. 



Most of the beds are thin, but there are some 

 several feet thick. 



The great beds of roofing slate which are ex- 

 tensively worked in southwestern Vermont are 

 included in the Cambrian. 



Newa/rk Copper Deposits of Pennsylvania: Edgab 

 T. Wheebt, University of Pennsylvania. 

 The Newark series in eastern Pennsylvania is 



divisible into five formations, and attains a total 



