526 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1085 



additions to the world's store of knowledge, 

 even though unrelated, are now grouped to- 

 gether in one volume and published as 

 promptly as possible. Some of the conclusions 

 in the volume which has just appeared are of 

 interest to the general public; others will be 

 appreciated only by those who have made a 

 special study of geology. For example, the 

 articles on the rock strata knovm to geologists 

 as the " Montana group " describe the strata 

 which make up that group and their variations 

 from place to place and interpret the facts set 

 forth, giving their significance as to the origin 

 of the strata and the conditions under which 

 they were formed. Most of the field evidence 

 was obtained in examinations of public land 

 for the purpose of determining its value as 

 coal land. The direct results of such work, 

 those which appeal to the man in the street, 

 are the bringing into the United States treas- 

 ury of some hundreds of thousands or millions 

 of dollars. Indirectly a thorough knowledge of 

 the strata makes the finding of coal and other 

 valuable deposits easier, but the value of the 

 work is not wholly expressible in dollars and 

 cents, for in the realm of pure science the 

 understanding of the make-up of the earth 

 and its history in the past has a value entirely 

 apart from what such knowledge may at pres- 

 ent yield directly or indirectly in money. An 

 article on pitchblende ores of Colorado in- 

 cludes not only an account of those ores in 

 that state but also a brief description of the 

 principal European occurrences of pitchblende, 

 one of the ores of radium. An article on 

 erosion in Chesapeake Bay prophesies that cer- 

 tain islands in the bay will be washed away 

 by the waves within the next century and 

 shows the places on the bottom of the bay to 

 which the sand and soil of these islands is 

 being carried by the waves and currents. 

 Another article describes some lavas which 

 have been thrust into cracks in the earth's 

 crust in the vicinity of Spanish Peaks, Colo. 

 StiU another article shows that the echino- 

 derms, a class of sea animals, secrete skeletons 

 of one kind of material in cold water and of 

 another kind in warm water, and that the 

 origin of magnesian or dolomitic limestone 



which has long been a mystery, may be partly 

 explained by the nature of these skeletons, 

 myriads of which make up considerable parts 

 of certain rocks. Several papers discuss the 

 strata underlying the surface of the earth in 

 various parts of the country and give data of 

 use to the driller of deep wells. A copy of 

 this report — Professional Paper 90 — may be 

 obtained on application to the director, United 

 States Geological Survey, Washington, D. 0. 



UNIVEBSITT AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS 



Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, a member of the board 

 of trustees of Barnard College and its first 

 treasurer, has given $500,000 to the college for 

 a woman's building. It will include a library 

 and additional lecture halls as well as a gym- 

 nasium, a lunch room and rooms for students' 

 organizations. 



The University of California has received 

 $100,000 from an anonymous donor to endow 

 the " Dr. C. W. and Mrs. Sarah E. Fox Memo- 

 rial Beds " in the University of California 

 Hospital, a part of the equipment of the Uni- 

 versity of California Medical School. These 

 beds are to be maintained in the new Univer- 

 sity Hospital, now being erected in San Fran- 

 cisco through the gift of $615,000 by various 

 friends of the university. The superior court 

 of San Francisco has just decided in favor of 

 the university a suit for $145,000 brought by 

 the regents against the heirs of John M. Keith, 

 who had refused to pay the balance of $145,000 

 due under a subscription made toward this new 

 hospital by Mr. Keith, of which but $5,000 had 

 been called for at the time of his death. 



The win of the late Anna TarnaU creates 

 a trust fund of $25,000, which is placed in the 

 hands of the trustees of the University of 

 Pennsylvania for the support of the botanic 

 gardens of the Biological Hall at that institu- 

 tion. The income from this trust is to be con- 

 tinued for this purpose as long as the botanic 

 garden is under the supervision of the head of 

 the botanical department. 



Since the transfer of the department of geol- 

 ogy and geography of the University of Chi- 

 cago to the new Julius Eosenwald Hall, Walker 



