JANUARY 18, 1901.] 
Who can forget the famous and stinging 
characterization of that tutor in Magdalen 
College whom Gibbon’s caustic pen has em- 
balmed in eternal disgrace, one Dr. ; 
of whom Gibbon said, ‘he well remem- 
bered that he had a salary to receive, and 
he only forgot that he had a duty to per- 
form.’ I have always been sorry that 
Dr. was a teacher and glad that he 
was nota scientific man. President Hadley, 
I think, struck the right note when he cau- 
tioned young men not to ask themselves 
‘How much can we get out of college?’ but 
rather, ‘ How much of ourselves can we put 
into it?’ Science, like religion, demands 
of her votaries lofty sacrifices and personal 
devotion, and if they are public servants 
their debt to her is always not less but more. 
Wm. T. Sepewicr. 
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 
THE ALBANY MEETING OF THE GEOLOG- 
ICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 
I. 
THE thirteenth annual meeting of the 
Geological Society of America was held in 
Albany on December 27, 28 and 29, 1900. 
The fellows were called to order by the re- 
tiring President, Dr. George M. Dawson, 
Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 
at 10 a.m. on Thursday, in the chapel of the 
Albany Academy. A very gratifying num- 
ber of members was present and during the 
sessions from 50 to 60 were in attendance. 
All felt the significance of meeting in the 
city where stratigraphical geology received 
its greatest single impetus in America and 
where the classification of most of the 
Paleozoic was chiefly worked out. Mem- 
ories of James Hall were in all minds and 
frequent reference was made to the late 
venerable State Geologist, first President of 
the Society. 
At the opening meeting brief addresses 
of welcome were made by Dr. F. J. H. 
Merrill, State Geologist, and by Dr. J. M. 
SCIENCE. 
95 
Clarke, State Paleontologist. The Council — 
then presented its written report, which 
showed the Society to be in a very flour- 
ishing condition. During the year one 
fellow, Mr. Franklin Platt, has died. The 
present enrolment is 248, and the financial 
condition is gratifying. The following offi- 
cers were declared elected : 
President, Charles D. Walcott, Washington, D. C.; 
First Vice-President, N. H. Winchell, Minneapolis, 
Minn.; Second Vice-President, S. F. Emmons, Wash- 
ington, D. C.; Secretary, H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, 
N. Y.; Treasurer, I. C. White, Morgantown, W. Va.; 
Editor, J. Stanley Brown, Washington, D. C.; Libra- 
rian, H. P. Cushing, Cleveland, O.; Councillors: 
Samuel Calvin, Iowa City, Ia.; A. P. Coleman, Tor- 
onto, Can. 
A memorial of Franklin Platt, prepared 
by Persifor Frazer was then read by W. M. 
Davis, and at its conclusion the reading of 
scientific papers was immediately taken up. 
Experimental Work on the Flow of Rocks re- 
cently carried out at the MacGill University, 
Montreal: Frank D. Apams. 
This paper gave the results of an inves- 
tigation in which the effects of very heavy 
pressure on rocks were studied with a view 
to ascertaining how the gigantic move- 
ments which geologists observe in the strata 
of the earth’s crust have taken place. 
Marble was the rock on which most of 
the work was carried out, but harder rocks 
such as granite are now being studied as 
well. Small columns of marble an inch in 
diameter and an inch and one-half high 
were carefully turned, polished and then 
very accurately fitted into heavy wrought 
iron tubes constructed on the plan of heavy 
ordnance, by wrapping strips of wrought 
iron around a core of soft iron and welding 
the whole together. The core of iron was 
then bored out and the marble substituted 
for it. Heavy steel pistons were fitted 
into each end of the tube, and the rock was 
thus submitted to very high pressures, often 
for several months continuously, in espe- 
