140 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 578. 



Editor — Professor E. G. Martin, Purdue Uni- 

 versity. 



J. H. EaNSOM, 

 Assistant Secretary. 



SOCIETY OF GEOHYDEOLOGISTS, WASHINGTON. 



The second regular meeting of the society 

 was held on January 3. 



An informal discussion was held as to the 

 desirability of substituting the designation 

 ' Division of Underground Waters ' for ' Divi- 

 sion of Hydrology ' as the name for the section 

 of the United States Geological Survey de- 

 voted to the investigation of underground 

 waters. This was followed by the regular 

 program. 



Definition of ' artesian.' Discussion by M. 

 L. Fuller, G. B. Richardson, C. E. Siebenthal, 

 C, A. Fisher, "W. T. Lee and others. 



Supplementary to the paper presented by 

 Mr. Fuller at the preceding meeting sum- 

 maries were presented of the arguments for the 

 various usages of the term, including: (1) For 

 flowing wells, (2) non-flowing wells in which 

 the water rises and (3) deep drilled wells. 

 The relations of deep wells were analyzed and 

 the established facts bearing on the use of the 

 term enumerated. It was agreed that: (1) 

 The original use of ' artesian ' was for flowing 

 wells, (2) that the present usage among scien- 

 tists is not uniform, the number favoring the 

 restriction of the term to flows varying, in a 

 broad way, inversely with the amount of ex- 

 perience in underground water investigation, 

 (3) the popular usage is likewise exceedingly 

 variable, people in areas of non-flowing wells 

 applying the term to any deep wells, while 

 those in flowing well areas use it for this class 

 of wells only, and (4) no definite meaning 

 can be assigned to the word in a given publi- 

 cation unless a definition is given in the same 

 paper. 



Terms to distinguish common wells from 

 wells in which water rises, for flowing and 

 non-flowing hydrostatic wells, for the hydro- 

 static principle, for the hydrostatic basin, for 

 confined and for unconfined shallow ground- 

 waters were regarded as necessary. It was 

 agreed that the term artesian is too expressive 

 to be 'dropped, notwithstanding its various 



usages, and that it is the best word for the 

 hydrostatic principle, for the hydrostatic 

 basin, and for water under pressure. It was 

 not, however, considered desirable to extend 

 such usage, depending as it does upon well- 

 defined properties of liquids, upon definite 

 physical laws, and on fundamental geological 

 conditions to cover the incidental features, 

 like the flows of wells, which are dependent in 

 many eases or mere accidents of topography. 

 The application of ' artesian ' to all wells in 

 which the water is under hydrostatic pressure 

 was favored. 

 Indraft Wells in Southern Georgia: M. L. 



Fuller. 



Two wells sunk in the Vicksburg-Jackson 

 limestone in southern Georgia, and character- 

 ized by a continuous indraft of air, have re- 

 cently been reported by Mr. S. W. McCallie, 

 who investigated the phenomena at the speak- 

 er's request. One of the wells, located at 

 Boston, encountered a rapidly moving subter- 

 ranean stream in the limestone at one hundred 

 and twenty feet, the sound of which was dis- 

 tinctly audible. A strong indraft was noted 

 after the completion of the well, which con- 

 tinued without change until the well was 

 finally connected with a pump. The other 

 well, located in the same general locality, 

 encountered a similar swiftly moving under- 

 ground stream in the limestone and pre- 

 sented the same strong indraft. Investigation 

 showed that the current was always in , the 

 same direction and was independent of baro- 

 metric pressure and temperature. Mr. Mc- 

 Callie believes that the sucking in of the air 

 is due to the friction of the rapidly moving 

 water on the air, which is dravni in and car- 

 ried onward until the water rises as one of the 

 large limestone springs of the jegion. The 

 conditions are almost exactly reproduced arti- 

 ficially in the Richard suction apparatiis in 

 use in nearly all chemical laboratories. 



M. L. Fuller, 



Secretary. 



the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NEW YORK 

 SECTION. 



The third regular meeting of the New York 

 Section, American Chemical Society was held 



