SCIENCE 



Editoeial Committee : S. Newcosib, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeking, As- 

 tronomy ; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics ; R. H. Thubston, Engineering ; Ika Remsen, Chemistry ; 

 J. Le Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Marsh, Paleontology; W. K. Brooks, 

 Invertebrate Zoology ; C. Hart Merriam, Vertebrate Zoology ; S. H. Scuddek, Entomology ; 

 N. L. Britton, Botany ; Henry F. Osboen, General Biology ; H. P. Bowditch, 

 Physiology ; J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology ; 

 Daniel G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, July 12, 1895. 



CONTENTS: 



The Sim: David P. Todd 29 



Current Notes on Physiography {XII.) : — 39 



Recent Geographical School Books; Teay Valley, 

 West Virginia : W. M. DAVIS 



Zoological Notes : — -. 41 



Monograph of the Crinoids ; FisJies of the Colo- 

 rado Basin. Skeletons of Zeuglodon : F. A. L. 



Scientific Notes and News : — 43 



Botanical Survey of Nebraska ; M. Andree's Polar 

 Expedition ; The Upper Regions of the Atmosphere ; 

 Lightning in the United States ; General. 



Educational and University News 47 



Correspondence : — 48 



A Bibliography of Scientific Literature : A. Ram- 

 say. Sack Take Memorial : G. F. Blandfoed. 



Scientific Literature : — 51 



L'Annee psychologique : E. B. Delabaeee. 

 lotca Geological Survey : J. F. Kemp. Hygiene. 



Scientific Journals: — 55 



The American Geologist ; The Monist. 



Neiii Books 56 



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

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison on Hudson, N. Y. 



Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to Science, 

 41 N. Queen St., Lancaster, Pa., or 41 East 49th St., New York. 



THE SUN. 

 "It is because the secrets of tlie Sun," 

 says Mr. Lockyer, " include the cipher in 

 which the liglit messages from external 

 Nature in all its vastness are written, that 

 those interested in the 'new learning,' as 

 the chemistry of space may certainly be 

 considered, are anxious to get at and pos- 

 sess them." But even more significant to 

 dwellers on the Earth are the heat radia- 

 tions of the Sun, because they are determi- 



nant in all animal and vegetable life, and 

 are the original source of nearly every form 

 of terrestrial energy recognized by man- 

 kind. Through the action of the solar 

 heat-rays the forests of palijeozoic ages 

 were enabled to wrest carbon from the at- 

 mosphere and store it in forms afterward 

 converted by JSTature's chemistry into peat 

 and coal; through processes incompletely 

 understood, the varying forms of vegetable 

 life are empowered to conserve, from air 

 and soil, nitrogen and other substances 

 suitable for and essential to the life main- 

 tenance of animal creatures. Breezes 

 operant in the production of rain and in 

 keeping the air from hurtful contamination ; 

 the energy of water, in stream and dam and 

 fall; trade winds facilitating commerce be- 

 tween the continents; oceanic currents 

 modifiying coast climates (and no less the 

 tornado, the waterspout, the typhoon, and 

 other manifestations of natural forces, ex- 

 cepting earthquakes, frequently destructive 

 to the works of man), all are traceable 

 primarily to the heating power of the Sun's 

 rays acting upon those readily movable 

 substances of which the Earth's exterior is 

 in part composed. 



The Sun, cosmically speaking, is simply 

 a star, but the nearest fixed star is 27.5,000 

 times more remote ; so that the Sun's vastly 

 greater brightness is, for the most part, due 

 to mere proximity. Still, the distance of 

 the Sun is by no means easy to conceive or 



