July 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



adopted is that each word shall diflfer by at 

 least two letters from every other word in 

 the code, and no word of more than ten 

 letters shall be included. The words are 

 taken from all languages, many of them 

 from the Spanish, and the difficulty that 

 seems to have suggested to Prof. Holden 

 the desirability of a change has come from 

 the common use of the telephone in the trans- 

 mission of telegraphic messages to the ob- 

 servatory. 



The words of the despatch have to be 

 spelled out over the telephone, and in many 

 cases the code words are entirely meaning- 

 less to the ordinary operator. Prof. Hol- 

 den suggests a condensation of the code by 

 which the forty thousand words, occupying 

 two hundred pages, may be covered by 

 two octavo pages, the first consisting of 

 five hundred prefixes, and the second of 

 ninety-nine affixes ; the prefixes each of 

 three letters, and the ninety-nine affixes 

 each of five letters ; so that by these two 

 tables any number of five figures less than 

 fifty thousand can be made up of a cipher 

 word always of eight letters. It produces, 

 of course, pure jargon, but this is no worse 

 than most of the words in the old code. 



The idea of control words to insure the 

 accuracy of the telegraphic transmission of 

 important data, due to Ritchie and Chand- 

 ler, is, of course, retained in the suggested 

 modification of the code published by Prof. 

 Holden, as well as the list of phrases of the 

 original code. 



Prof. Holden publishes as an appendix to 

 his code the circular of the Central Bureau 

 of astronomical telegrams of Europe, from 

 Prof. Kreutz, of the Kiel Observatory, 

 which has not apparently been published 

 hitherto in America. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY. 

 ICE WORK, PAST AND PRESENT. 



Prof. T. G. Bonney, of the University 

 College, London, contributes a work of the 



above title to the International Scientific 

 Series (Appleton, 1896). Its three parts 

 discuss existing evidence of ice work from 

 Alpine, Arctic and Antarctic glaciers, traces 

 of the glacial epoch, and theoretical ques- 

 tions. The two first parts are not clearly 

 separated, for the ancient moraines of 

 Switzerland are described under both. Al- 

 though containing much interesting ma- 

 terial, the work is rather disappointing in 

 its deficiency of thoroughly scientific quality. 

 ISTo one could learn from the associated ac- 

 counts on the Deckenschotter of the Uetli- 

 berg and the Zurich moraine that an enor- 

 mous erosion interval separated the forma- 

 of the two deposits, and that the former is 

 only a remnant of a widespread sheet of 

 drift. After the habit of the English school, 

 the geological structure of till is largely 

 dwelt upon, with too brief explanation of 

 its geographical effects. A disproportionate 

 amount of space is given to the Parallel 

 Eoads of Glen Roy ; and too much authen- 

 ticity is allowed to Lake Ohio by the repro- 

 duction of Claypole's hypothetical map, 

 without reference to the very grave doubts 

 that have been expressed as to its verity. 

 Some once-controverted but now-settled 

 questions are treated in a still doubting 

 manner that hardly represents the present 

 status of glacial geology. 



dissected basalt plateaus of north- 

 western EUROPE. 

 Sir a. Geikie, for many years a student 

 of the ancient volcanic rocks of Scotland 

 and neighboring countries, now presents an 

 outline of his results. (Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc.jLIL, 1896, 331-405.) These are largely 

 concerned with structural features — the lava 

 flows, the vents, the sills and dikes, the 

 gabbro and granophyre intrusions— but 

 they also include matters of physiographic 

 interest — the rivers of the volcanic period, 

 the effects of denudation, and particularly 

 the parallel drawn with modern volcanic 



