SCIENCE 



Fbiday, Octobee 16, 1914 



CONTENTS 

 The Earth's Crust: Sir Thomas H. Holland. 533 



Fraternities and ScJiolarsMps at the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois: Akthur Eay Warnock. 542 



Theodore Nicholas Gill 547 



^Scientific Notes and News 550 



University and Educational News 553 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Dr. Bateson's PresidentiaX Address: Dr. 

 Wm. H. Dall. Heredity and Mental 

 Traits: Professor Joseph Jastrow. 

 Quantity and Manic of University Attend- 

 ance: Db. Charles R. Ejbyes. The Fur- 

 Seal Inquiry, the Congressional Committee 

 and the Scientist: De. Raymond C. Os- 



BURN 554 



Scientific Boolcs : — 

 Beoent Boolcs on Mathematics: Professor 

 Casshjs J. Keyseb. Thorpe's Dictionary 

 of Applied Chemistry: Dr. W. R. Whitney. 

 The Moyal Society's Catalogue of Scien- 

 tific Papers: Dr. F. H. Garrison 559 



The National Conference Committee: Pro- 

 fessor Frederick C. Feery 565 



Special Articles: — 



The "Multiple Unit" System as a Source 

 of Electricity for Laioratories : De. C. L. 

 V. Hess 566 



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

 revieTT should be sent to Professor J. MoKeen Cattell, Gaixison- 

 on-Hudson, N. Y. 



TRE EARTH'S CBUSTi 

 The idea of the greater inequalities of 

 the globe being approximately static equi- 

 librium has been recognized for many- 

 years: it was expressed by Babbage and 

 Herschel; it was included in Archdeacon 

 Pratt's theory of compensation; and it 

 was accepted by Fisher as one of the funda- 

 mental facts on which his theory of moun- 

 tain structure rested. But in 1889 Captain 

 C. E. Button presented the idea "in a 

 modified form, in a new dress, and in 

 greater detail"; he gave the idea orthodox 

 baptism and a name, which seems to be 

 necessary for the respectable life of any 

 scientific theory. "For the condition of 

 equilibrium of figure, to whieli gravitation 

 tends to reduce a planetary body, irespect- 

 ive of whether it be homogeneous or not." 

 Button^ proposed "the name isostasy." 

 The corresponding adjective would be iso- 

 static — the state of balance between the ups 

 and downs on the earth. 



For a long time geologists were forced 

 to content themselves with the conclusion 

 that the folding of strata is the result of 

 the crust collapsing on a cooling and 

 shrinking core ; but Fisher pointed out that 

 the amount of radial shrinking could not 

 account even for the present great surface 

 inequalities of the lithosphere, without re- 

 gard to the enormous lateral shortening in- 

 dicated by the folds in great mountain 

 regions, some of which, like the Himalayan 



1 Concluding part of the address of the presi- 

 dent of the Geological Section of the British As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, Aus- 

 tralia, 1914. 



2 Dutton, ' ' On Some of the Greater Problems of 

 Physical Geology," Bull. Phil. Soc. Wash., XL, 

 53, 1889. 



