June 21, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



965 



Eeaders of this class will doubtless find this 

 book of great interest, and tlie general view 

 and perspective of the subject will also be of 

 value to the professional physicist. It is writ- 

 ten with the spirit and enthusiasm which we 

 Lave learned to expect from Sir Oliver Lodge 

 since the publication of his ' Modern Views of 

 Electricity ' — nearly twenty years ago — that 

 remarkable little book which, by a masterly 

 use of mechanical analogies and models, gave 

 an exposition of Maxwell's theory that was 

 understood and enjoyed by many non-mathe- 

 matical readers and was at the same time 

 capable of exciting the admiration of Helm- 

 holtz. It can not be said that the present 

 work is the equal of the earlier book ; but taken 

 together they afford a view of the progress of 

 electrical theory during the past thirty years 

 which can hardly be got elsewhere in the same 

 compass. H. A. Bumstead 



Yale University 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



At the 191st meeting of the society, held 

 on Wednesday, April 10, Mr. F. E. Wright 

 exhibited four new attachments for the petro- 

 graphic microscope and gave a brief descrip- 

 tion of each: (a) Double screw micrometer 

 ocular by means of which the optic axial angle 

 of any section under the microscope can be 

 measured in convergent polarized light, if one 

 optic axis, at least, appears within the field of 

 vision, (h) A special cross-section ocular, 

 which consists of a Eamsden-Czapski ocular 

 with a fine coordinate scale in the focal plane 

 and which serves the same purpose as the 

 double-screw micrometer ocular, although 

 slightly less accurate, (c) An improved Fedo- 

 row-Fuess universal stage on which new 

 hinged graduated circular scales have been 

 added and found to increase the general ap- 

 plicability of the stage considerably, (d) A 

 new condenser-lens system combining the ad- 

 vantages of the ten Siethoff system with the 

 quantitative movements of the universal stage. 



Regular Program 

 Mr. Bailey Willis discussed the geological 

 problem of the Alps especially from a struc- 

 tural standpoint and compared the conclu- 



sions reached by him with those held by the 

 majority of European students of the Alps. 



At the 192d meeting of the society, on April 

 24, Mr. Bailey Willis presented and briefly 

 explained a diagram on the possible develop- 

 ment of recumbent folds as a consequence of 

 thrust faults of great magnitude. This paper 

 will be published in Science. 



Mr. F. L. Hess exhibited informally speci- 

 mens of gypsum from Lost Hills, fifteen miles 

 south of Tulare Lake, California. 



Regular Program 

 A Peculiar Form of Metamorphism in Sili- 

 ceous Sandstone: Mr. Geo. P. Merrill. 

 Mr. Merrill described a peculiar and ap- 

 parently very local form of metamorphism of 

 the siliceous sandstone which underlies the 

 Aubrey limestone in the vicinity of Canon 

 Diablo, Arizona. The materials shown and 

 discussed were from the so-called Coon Butte 

 Crater, and were of unusual interest, not 

 merely on account of the character of the 

 phenomena, but as bearing upon the question 

 of the origin of the crater itself. 



It was shown that the sandstone, composed 

 of very pure quartz sand, passed by grada- 

 tions into an almost wholly crystalline rock 

 composed of remolded quartz granules with a 

 well-developed rhombohedral cleavage, and 

 thence into glassy and pumiceous forms 

 closely resembling a bleached liparite pumice. 

 The metamorphism was accompanied by no 

 apparent chemical changes that could be con- 

 sidered constant or essential. Mr. Merrill dis- 

 cussed the bearing of this metamorphism upon 

 the origin of the crater, but refrained from 

 committing himself upon the subject. 



Normal Faulting in the Bullfrog District: 

 W. H. Emmons. This paper will be pub-' 

 lished in Science. 



Some Prohlems Concerning the Formation of 



Coal: David White. 



Under this title Mr. White presented 

 an outline of the more important ques- 

 tions relating to the deposition of vegetable 

 matter and its transformation into coal. 

 He observed that the ' transportation ' theory 

 appeared to be fully vindicated in a numb*v 



