December 25, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



353 



discoveries of geologic science; these are the results which we 

 strive to express in our maps and reports, over and above the de- 

 tails of occurrence. The latter serve as a means for attaining the 

 former and are necessary for that purpose. They are gathered 

 sedulou.sly in the field and are studied in the office. Thus, in the 

 office, are most of the discoveries of modern science made. The 

 facts of observation are our mediums, the laws of reasoning are 

 our divining rods and witch-hazels. The determination of the 

 qualities and capabihties of materials we have recognized as an 

 important pre-requisite to the full development of a mining indus- 

 try. Such work is also properly made the function of a geological 

 survey. Some materials show on their faces, from mere inspec- 

 tion, what their value is; such being the case with most of the 

 zinc and lead ores of this region. Others need more or less elabo- 

 rate tests for the fact to be determined. Iron-ores may appear 

 and be rich in iron contents, yet they need to be analyzed to de- 

 termine the amounts of sulphur, phosphorus and silica, which they 

 contain before their capabilities can be predicted. Mineral waters 

 need similarly to be analyzed before their beneficial qualities can 

 be known. Coals and clays need similar treatment, and in addi- 

 tion they should be subjected to exhaustive tests, on a working 

 scale. An analysis of a building stone yields little knowledge as 

 to its capabilities, and here the thorough experimental test is alone 

 capable of demonstrating just what the value of the stone is. The 

 an9,lysis and tests above enumerated are either actually or pros- 

 pectively part of the work of the Geological Survey, and most 

 valuable results have been reached, especially with the clays of 

 the State, which will be incorporated in future publications. That 

 the additional information thus acquired concerning the mineral 

 deposits of the Slate v^-ill contribute to their further development 

 seems indisputable. 



Finally, in what way does a geological survey disseminate 

 knowledge concerning these materials and is this way an effective 

 one? A geological survey, if properly organized, is composed of 

 professional men of scientific attainments and of undoubted in- 

 tegrity; it is an ofliicial organization, and its examinations are 

 made disinterestedly, and on the truthfulness of its results depends 

 the reputation of its members. Its publications are widely circu- 

 lated; they are designed to be used by the professional man and 

 also by the layman; being official, and coming from such a disin- 

 terested and qualified source, the i-esults are accepted generally 

 without hesitation by the capitalists "or manufacturers. Such in- 

 fluence and acceptance could uever be reached by reports emanat- 

 ing from owners of property or other interested parties, nor would 

 the judgment of such concerning theories of distribution or quality 

 command respect, unless emanating from well known expert 

 sources ;' thus the capital and enterprise necessai-y for the incep- 

 tion of such undertakings would be slow to follow such guidance. 

 Hence, a good geological survey constitutes the best of adver- 

 tising mediums, if you choose to call it such; advertising what 

 is genuine and good, but never stooping to indiscriminate boom- 

 ing. 



But another means of disseminating information exists, over and 

 aliove that of publications. Some people are not reached by re- 

 ports, either because they are not given much to reading, or for 

 lack of access to the publications. They may come to the State, 

 or even be in the Stale, knowing little or nothing of its natural 

 features and products. In such cases, a State museum is the most 

 effective means of conveying information; a museum which shall 

 contain not only specimens of materials, but maps, models, views, 

 diagrams, and reports concerning all that is of interest in this 

 connection; the materials in which shall be so arranged as to con- 

 vey clear ideas, not only of what is in the State, but where it is, 

 how it occurs, and how much there is of it; which shall be sup- 

 plemented by the presence of (rained men, familiar with the 

 State, who can guide the stranger in the right direction. 



In conclusion, I would say a few words concerning the educating 

 influences of a geological survey among the citizens of the area 

 in which it operates. Through its publications, through the in- 

 tercourse with its members, and in other ways, a vast amount of 

 information is absorbed by the people concerning the land they 

 live in and its products. This information they apply uncon- 

 sciously in their various operations. If prevents them from being 



led into hopeless enterprises, it leads them to discountenance ex- 

 travagant expectations and to recognize charlatantry, it brings 

 them to appreciate the truly useful and valuable, and it supplies 

 them with a source of advice which many are otherwise desti- 

 tute of. 



Finally, if their serious attention is aroused, they are soon 

 brought to see in all nature that surrounds them, a wonderful re- 

 lationship of parts, to read the history of a wonderful succession 

 of events; they begin to hear the " sermons of the stones," which 

 ever after become replete with interest and significance, exercis- 

 ing refining influences and acting as healthy stimulants to intel- 

 lectual effort. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Geological Society of America will hold its winter meet- 

 ing in Columbus, Dec. 39-31. 



— From a report on mine ropes to the French Government, it 

 appears that hemp or aloes ropes are almost exclusively used for 

 all depths of shaft in Belgium. The makers guarantee the ropes 

 to last one and a half to two and a half years, and should they 

 fail earlier, a twelfth to a twenty-fourth of their cost is deducted 

 for every month short cf their stipulated duration. Steel-wire 

 ropes, according to Invention, should be of crucible steel having 

 a breaking strength of 70 to 76 tons per squai'e inch. Large 

 pulleys are more necessary for wire than for hemp ropes, the 

 smallest diameter permissible being 1,300 to 1,400 times the diame- 

 ter of the wire in the rope, if of iron, and 3,000 times if of steel. 

 For mining purposes wire ropes are best made with a hemp core 

 being more flexible. 



— Poisoning by mussels is a well-known fact. Such poisoning 

 appears in chronic form in Tierra del Fuego, mussels being abun- 

 dant on the shores, and other kinds of food rare, so that the 

 natives eat large quantities of the former daily, both of bad and 

 of good quality. According to a doctor of the Argentine fleet, M. 

 Segers, as Nature reports, the mussels are rarely injurious at their 

 maximum time of growth, which corresponds with full moon, but 

 when the moon wanes, they become poor and often poisonous. 

 The poisonous quality apparently results from the death of a large 

 number at this time, and the putrefaction of their bodies yielding 

 ptomaines which are absorbed by the surviving mollusks. In any 

 case, the Fuegians are often attacked by a liver complaint, con- 

 sisting in atrophy of the organ, with jaundiced color of the skin 

 and tendency to hsemorrhage ; and M. Segers believes this is due 

 to mussel poisoning. He finds sulphate of atropine an efficacious 

 antidote. 



— According to the Lancet a noteworthy difference between the 

 present outbreak of influenza and those experienced last spring 

 and the original epidemic of the winter of 1889-90 is the com- 

 parative slowness of its diffusion over the country. It was, in 

 November, mainly confined to two widely separated parts of the 

 kingdom, Cornwall and the eastern counties of Scotland. It is re- 

 markable that children are attacked almost as much at adults. It is 

 reported to be very prevalent in St. Petersburg and Berlin, while 

 at Hamburg it reached " alarming proportions," and the weekly 

 mortality of the city and its suburbs exceeded the average by 380. 

 In France it is especially prevalent at Bordeaux, where many 

 deaths among the aged have occurred. It has also appeared in 

 Paris. In showing some patients to his students a few weeks ago, 

 Professor Gerhardt of Berlin said, "The morbid symptoms which 

 we comprehend under the collective name of influenza have re- 

 peatedly been observed before, and several epidemics of the so- 

 called 'grippe' (those of 1847 and 1876, for instance) are on record. 

 Such a pandemic, however, as prevailed two years ago had not 

 occurred for a generation, and we had to deal with something 

 quite new and unknown. It came to us from the East. In May, 

 1889, it broke out in Bokhara, rapidly overran Eussia in Asia, and 

 came to St. Petersburg in September. Tbe disease spread rapidly 

 all over Europe, radiating over the provinces from Berlin, Vienna, 

 Paris, and London, and remaining mostly three or four weeks, 

 never more than two or three months, in one place. Its course 

 ran unmistakahlv from east to west ; from us it went to America 



