560 
student of trigonometry. It seems easier to 
solve such a triangle by dividing it into two 
right triangles and I understand this method 
is commonly pursued by the engineer. The 
love for generalization on the part of the 
teacher seems to have led him in this case to 
commit a serious pedagogical blunder. 
In closing, I desire to urge you to do your 
own thinking and not to allow yourself to 
waste energies on the many modern fads ap- 
pearing under the high sounding term of re- 
form. The very rapid modern transformations 
have made us unduly vulnerable to the darts 
of the faddist whose audacity has outstripped 
that of the mine and oil promoters of the last 
few decades. A few mines and oil wells have 
paid handsomely but most of those which have 
been advertised extensively proved to be dis- 
astrous to the too credulous investor. A sim- 
ilar fate has come to those who are too credu- 
lous about educational reforms, whether they 
appear in the form of the function rattle popu- 
larized by F. Klein, vocational training, trans- 
fer of training, ability tests, or simply the 
emphasis on methods above knowledge. 
As a result of the many wildcat propositions 
the universities used to avoid pedagogical in- 
vestments altogether and they used to be fear- 
less in warning the public against investing 
their hard-earned money in this way. Dur- 
ing recent years, however, our American uni- 
versities have abandoned this policy, under the 
leadership of Columbia, and have invested 
heavily in this line of securities. At first they 
selected the best class only but recently they 
seem also to invest heavily, again under the 
leadership of our largest university, in the 
more doubtful class. This is done even in the 
graduate schools. 
Hence the public has become more and more 
unwary, and wildcat pedagogical promotions 
are thriving as never before. The richness of 
a few reputable pedagogical mines has served 
to inspire hope as regards others whose only 
asset is proximity to the former. Hence the 
grave need of caution at the present time. 
The educational public would seem to need 
some public educational commissions similar 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIIT. No. 1249 
to those recently inaugurated along financial 
lines to protect the ever too gullible public. 
The scientific development securities to which 
I directed your attention above do not promise 
the largest returns but they have withstood 
the severest test of the ages and hence they 
should be regarded as the soundest of all in- 
tellectual investments. Our students need to 
be trained to enjoy ideals as well as to utilize 
the real. Mathematics is the ideal science and 
there is more moving than improving in re- 
forms. 
G. A. Minier 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
BANDED STRUCTURES OF THE AD- 
TRONDACK SYENITE-GRANITE 
SERIES 
THE syenite-granite series constitutes the 
greatest bulk of Adirondack rock. It is 
younger than both the Grenville metamor- 
phosed sedimentary series and the anorthosite, 
the former especially having been broken up 
and badly cut to pieces by the syenite-granite 
intrusion. Jn mineral composition the range 
is from syenite rich in microperthite, ortho- 
clase, and hornblende or augite, together with 
some plagioclase; to granite rich in micro- 
perthite, quartz, orthoclase and microcline, to- 
gether with some plagioclase, hornblende and 
biotite; to monzonitic and dioritic facies rich 
in plagioclase, orthoclase, pyroxene and horn- 
blende. Medium grained rocks greatly pre- 
dominate but there are many variations to 
fine and coarse grained and even porphyritic 
facies. Granulation is common, the feldspars 
especially being most notably crushed. In 
structure the syenite-granite series exhibits 
all sorts of variations from non-gneissoid to 
excessively gneissoid types, with a moderate 
degree of foliation prevalent. The color of 
the typical fresh syenite is greenish-gray, 
while the fresh granite varies from greenish- 
gray, to light gray, to light red. 
In this paper the features of special interest 
in connection with the syenite-granite series 
are the comparatively sharp transitions from 
acidic to basic facies; from greenish-gray or 
gray to pink or red varieties; from coarser to 
