668 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 24. 



delegation from the National Geographic 

 Society in an eifort to persuade the Con- 

 gress to hold its next meeting in Wash- 

 ington. 



The death is announced of Dr. Franz 

 Neumann, the oldest active teacher in 

 Germany. In 1826 he was called to the 

 Professorship of Physics and Mineralogy in 

 the University of Konigsberg, and for 

 sixty-nine years has been teaching and 

 working in the same institution. Dr. Neu- 

 mann was the first man in Germany to 

 teach Mathematical Physics. 



It is stated that Professor E. E. Barnard 

 and Professor Burnham have accepted posi- 

 tions in the Yerkes Observatory, Chicago. 



Principal Peterson, who has accepted 

 the Principalship of McGill University, in 

 succession to Sir William Dawson, gradu- 

 ated at Edinburgh University in 1875, and 

 a,fterwards gained an open scholarship at 

 Corpus Christi College, Oxford. For two 

 and a half years he acted as assistant to the 

 Professor of Humanity in Edinburgh Uni- 

 versity. On the inauguration of University 

 College, Dundee, in 1882, Mr. Peterson was 

 unanimously appointed Principal and Pro- 

 fessor of Classics and Ancient History. 



Major William A. Shepard, for twenty- 

 five years Professor of Chemistry in Ean- 

 dolph Macon College, died in Ashland, Va., 

 on June 3d. 



A STATUE of the late Professor Billroth 

 was unveiled in the Hospital Rudolfinerhaus 

 on April 25th. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The following are abstracts of the com- 

 munications presented at the thirty-fourth 

 meeting. May 8, 1895 : 



G. F. Becker. 'Gold Fields of 'the 

 Southern Appalachians.' This communica- 

 tion presented a summary of a report upon 



these gold fields, based upon field work of 

 the last season, which will appear in the 

 Sixteenth Annual Eeport of the Director of 

 the U. S. Geological Survey, and -will be is- 

 sued in separate form verj- soon. 



The geographical position, histoiy and 

 statistics of the known deposits were first 

 given, followed hy a discussion of the rock 

 formations and the structural features of 

 the regions in which the deposits occur. 

 The gold-bearing veins and impregnations 

 were then described, and a long list of the 

 observed gangue minerals was given, with 

 comments upon their significance. The 

 secondarj^, or placer deposits, were also con- 

 sidered. 



C. WiLLARD Hayes. ' Notes on the 

 Geology of the Cartersville Sheet, Georgia.' 

 The region covered by the Cartersville 

 sheet is in northwest Georgia, its northern 

 and western borders being about thirty 

 miles respectively from the Tennessee and 

 Alabama lines. Its topography is domi- 

 nated by two peneplains, the older pre- 

 served by the harder metamorphic and 

 crystalline rocks on the eastei-n side of the 

 sheet, and the j'ounger developed on com- 

 paratively soft limestones and shales. The 

 older peneplain shows a decided southward 

 inclination from an altitude of 1,400 feet at 

 the north edge of the sheet to 1,000 at the 

 south edge. Above the peneplain rise a 

 few monadnocks from 800 to 1,000 feet, 

 while the larger streams have cut their 

 channels several hundred feet deep within 

 it. The lower peneplain has an altitude of 

 between 800 and 900 feet, and a slight in- 

 clination toward the west. The two plains 

 probably coincide a short distance east of 

 this region, in the vicinity of Atlanta. 



Two distinct groups of rocks are found 

 in this sheet, separated by a profound fault. 

 The rocks west of the fault are unaltered 

 Cambrian and Silurian, while those to the 

 east are crystalline and metamorphic, prob- 

 ably Archean and Algonkiau. The most 



