114 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. TSS 



On the Houston East and West Texas Rail- 

 way, the sands -which really represent the 

 Payette heds occur around Lufkin, but the ex- 

 posures on the railroad, where the section was 

 originally made, are so small that they were 

 considered as simply a part of the Tegua 

 beds, which were thereby given a much greater 

 areal distribution than elsewhere and made to 

 include the overlying Frio clay as well. 



The contact between the Tegua and 

 Fayette should have been given as just north 

 of Lufkin and the Frio clays should have been 

 shown as occupying the area between Burke 

 and the top of the blufE on the south bank of 

 the Heches Eiver. At this latter point, we 

 have the contact of the sandy limestone con- 

 taining Jackson fossils, and this is overlain by 

 the Fleming-Burkeville beds, while the Oak- 

 ville sands appear just south of Corrigan. 

 Similar conditions exist east and northeast of 

 Oorrigan to the Sabine Eiver, and it is alto- 

 gether probable that some of the deposits lying 

 to the west and classed by Kennedy as Nava- 

 sota beds may belong to this same horizon. 



The same section is also shown on the 

 Conchas Eiver in Tamaulipas, Mex., where 

 the Fayette sand, with its characteristic 

 fossil Ostrea alabamiensis var. coniracta is 

 overlain by the Frio clays and these in turn 

 by sandstones with a distinct Oligocene fauna. 



It would therefore appear that while the 

 Oligocene was' probably laid down entirely 

 across this area, it is now covered in many 

 places by the overlapping Oakville. 



E. T. DUMBLE 



THE SIXTIETH MEETING OF THE AMER- 

 ICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE, BALTIMORE, MD., 



DECEMBER 2S-JANUART 1, 1908-9 

 One of the most successful meetings in the his- 

 tory of tile American Association, and ia some 

 regards the most successful, was brought to a 

 close Friday evening, January 1, 1909, at Balti- 

 more. Ample provisions for a large meeting were 

 made by the local committee, and the expectations 

 were fully realized. The total registration of the 

 members of the association was 1,088 and the 

 affiliated societies reporting adds 117. The next 

 largest registration to this was at Washington, in 

 1903, when 903 were recorded. But, as always. 



many in attendance were not registered, and a 

 conservative estimate would bring the attendance 

 of scientific men up to about 2,000. One striking 

 feature in the attendance was the large number 

 of men from the various government services in 

 Washington, who came over and lent their pres- 

 ence in the meetings of every section. 



Great credit is due to the energy and efficiency 

 of the local committee, of which Professor Wm. 

 H. Welch was chairman and Professor Wm. J. A. 

 Bliss secretary. The meeting places, mostly in 

 the buildings of the Johns Hopkins University 

 and Medical School, were ample and convenient, 

 and the hotel accommodations excellent. There 

 was not a hitch in the carrying out of the pro- 

 gram; every want was provided for in advance. 



The opening session was held in the audience 

 room of McCoy Hall, Johns Hopkins University, 

 at 10 A.M. Monday, December 28, 1908, with the 

 retiring president. Professor E. L. Nichols, of 

 Cornell University, in the chair, who introduced 

 the incoming president. Professor T. C. Cham- 

 berlin, of the University of Chicago, who presided. 

 Addresses of welcome were made on behalf of the 

 educational institutions of the city by President 

 Ira Remsen, on behalf of the local committee by 

 Dr. Wm. H. Welch and on behalf of the city of 

 Baltimore by the mayor, Hon. J. Barry Mahool. 

 It was recalled that when the association met in 

 Baltimore fifty years ago, the membership was 

 only 1,000 and the attendance at the meetings, 

 only 200, while now the membership has grown to 

 7,000 and the association has been divided into 

 eleven sections, each devoted to a phase of scien- 

 tific work, and even sections subdivided, in the 

 case of Section 0, chemistry, there being eight 

 subsections, each with large attendance, and 

 papers enough to occupy two or three days in the 

 reading. 



The presidential address by Professor E. L. 

 Nichols, of Cornell University, was given in the 

 hall of the Peabody Institute before a large audi- 

 ence of members and citizens of the town. The 

 address was a masterly presentation of the thought 

 that all the material advance of society is based 

 on the discovery of laws and the establishment of 

 principles by research in pure science; that the 

 most of this research and of these contributions 

 up to date have been made in lands across the 

 sea; that our universities are not properly pro- 

 viding for research, and that great improvement 

 along these lines is possible, the recent noble 

 bequest of Senator Vilas to the University of 

 Wisconsin for the endowment of research pro- 

 fessorships pointing the way. 



