SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHINQ THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Feidat, November 20, 1908 



COtiTEtiTS 



Uranium and Geology: Pbofessor John Jolt 697 



Abstracts from the Annual Report of the 

 President of Cornell University 713 



The Delos Arnold Collections of Natural His- 

 tory Specimens 717 



The Department of Microscopy of the Brook- 

 lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences 718 



The Association of Colleges in New England 719 



The Winter Meeting of the American Chem- 

 ical Society: Peofessoe Chas. L. Pabsons 720 



Scientific Notes and News 720 



President Eliot's Resignation 724 



University and Educational News 724 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Training of Industrial Chemists: De. 

 Chas. S. Palmee. Auroral Displays: 

 Majoe W. E. Ellis, De. Alfeed Sang. 

 Recessive Characters: Pbofessoe C. B. 

 Davenpoet 725 



Quotations : — 

 The Vrcsidency of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology; Burdens of College 

 Presidents 729 



Scientific Books: — 



Bailey and Coleman's First Course in 

 Biology: S. J. H. Whipple on Typhoid 

 Fever: Dr. Geobge Blxjmee 730 



Special Articles: — 



Note on the Formulas for Energy stored 

 in Electric and Magnetic Fields: P. G. 

 AoNEW. A Vacuum Stopcock: Feedeeick 

 G. Keyes 734 



Societies and Academies: — 

 The American Mathematical Society: Pbo- 

 fessoe F. N. Cole. The New York Sec- 

 tion of the American Chemical Society: 

 C. M. Joyce 735 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 reTiew should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Iludson, N, Y. 



URANIUM AND GEOLOGY^ 

 INTRODUCTION 



In our day but little time elapses be- 

 tween the discovery and its application. 

 Our starting-point is as recent as the year 

 1903, when Paul Curie and Labord showed 

 experimentally that radium steadily main- 

 tains its temperature above its surround- 

 ings. As in the case of many other mo- 

 mentous discoveries, prediction and even 

 calculation had preceded it. Rutherford 

 and McClung, two years before the date of 

 the experiment, had calculated the heat 

 equivalent of the ionization effected by 

 uranium, radium and theorium. Even at 

 this date (1903) there was much to go 

 upon, and ideas as to the cosmic influence 

 of radio-activity were not slow in spread- 

 ing.^ 



I am sure that but few among those 

 whom I am addressing have seen a ther- 

 mometer rising under the influence of a 

 few centigrams of a radium salt; but for 

 those who pay due respect to the principles 

 of thermodynamics, the mere fact that at 

 any moment the gold leaves of the electro- 

 scope may be set in motion by a trace of 

 radium, or, better still, the perpetual mo- 

 tion of Strutt's "radium clock," is all that 

 is required as demonstration of the cease- 



' Address of the president of the Geological 

 Section of the British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, Dublin, 1908. 



' See letters appearing in Nature of July 9 and 

 September 24, 1903, from the late Mr. W. E. 

 Wilson and Sir George Darwin referring to 

 radium as a solar constituent and one from the 

 writer (October 1, 1903) on its influence as a 

 terrestrial constituent. 



