SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, JULY 27, iSS 



The want of a complete report on the mineral resources 

 of Ontario has long been felt, and, in response to the general wish^ 

 on the 14th of March last a resolution was carried in the Legislative 

 Assembly authorizing the government to appoint a royal commis- 

 sion to investigate and report on this subject. Acting on this reso- 

 lution, the Council on the 8th of July appointed the following gentle- 

 men a commission for the above purpose : John Charlton, M.P., Chair- 

 man ; Robert Bell, Assistant Director of the Dominion Geological 

 Survey, Ottawa ; William Hamilton Merritt, mining engineer, To- 

 ronto ; William Coe, proprietor of iron mines, Medoc ; Archibald 

 Blue, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Secretary of the Commission^ 

 The commissioners met the members of the government by ap- 

 pointment in Toronto on Saturday, July 12, when it is understood a 

 programme was agreed upon, the particulars of which, however, 

 have not been made public. 



Two IMPORTANT EXPEDITIONS left Rio de Janeiro in June for 

 e.xploration and work in two of the least-known parts of the Brazil- 

 ian territory. The first, sent out by the Ministry of War, under 

 the command of Capt. Bellarmino Mendonga, is to open a road 

 from the town of Guarapuava. on the frontier of the settled portion 

 of the province of Parana, to the confluence of the rivers Parana 

 and Iguassu, and to found a military colony at the latter point. A 

 road is also to be opened along the Parana river from the mouth of 

 the Iguassu to the navigable portion of the river above the Sete 

 Quedas fall, and from this point to Guarapuava, via the valley of the 

 Piquiry. The founding of a colony at the mouth of the Iguassu, 

 where the Argentines are already establishing themselves, will, 

 aside from its military importance, prove of great value in peopling 

 the valley of the upper Parana, which has been deserted since the time 

 of the expulsion of the Jesuits. By means of the lower Parana the 

 colony will have free water communication with Buenos Ayres and 

 other markets of the Argentine Republic, where two of its natural 

 products, lumber and matte, will find a ready sale. This will give 

 at once to the proposed colony a commercial importance, far be- 

 yond that of a purely military station, and will doubtless lead to the 

 rapid spread of population along the upper Parana and its tributa- 

 ries, with their hundreds of miles of navigable waters. The second 

 e.xpedition, consisting of three military engineers, Capt. Lourengo 

 Telles and Lieutenants Miranda and Villeray, is sent out under the 

 auspices of the Sociedade de Geographia de Rio de Janeiro, the ex- 

 penses being borne by the Ministry of Agriculture. It is to proceed to 

 Cuyaba in the province of Matto Grosso, pass by land to the head- 

 waters of the Paranatinga, and descend that river and the Sao Manoel 

 or Tres Barras to the Tapajos, returning to Rio de Janeiro via Para 

 by the Tapajos and Amazonas. This exploration will thus be a 

 valuable complement to that of the Tapajos by Chandless, as the 

 Sao Manoel and Paranatinga are almost absolutely unknown. 



A Ft/LL REPORT of a recent lecture on personal identification, by 

 Mr. Francis Galton, appears in N'a/iiri: for June 21 and June 28. Mr. 

 Gallon here presents a practical application of his favorite pursuit, the 

 accurate description of physical and mental peculiarities. He pro- 

 poses a very ingenious scale of divergencies from the normal for 

 any one feature, and has even invented a mechanical device by 

 which the tedious labor of arranging a large number of such ob- 



servations can be much abbreviated. The anthropometrical lab- 

 oratory, at which any one can, under proper restrictions, have a 

 record made of his chief physical measurements, is now open in 

 London, and promises to yield valuable material for this line of 

 study. In connection with this work Mr. Galton has studied the 

 striations of the human fingers, and is able to corroborate the value 

 attributed to them as a means of identification. These markings 

 are easily obtained, and the variety of them is larger than one would 

 a /r/(7r/ imagine. The markings of a finger of Sir William Her- 

 schell made in i860 and 1888 respectively are figured, and show a 

 striking similarity. The difference in age of the two prints testifies 

 to the wearing of the epidermis. The study is still in its infancy ; 

 but the success of such measurements for identifying criminals, as 

 exhibited in France, promises to draw more general notice to the 

 subject. 



A CABLEGRAM RECEIVED in Philadelphia, Penn., announces the 

 death of Henry Carvill Lewis, geologist, at Manchester, England, 

 on Saturday, July 21. Professor Lewis was born in Philadelphia 

 on Nov. 16, 1853. He was graduated at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania in 1873. and in 1S79 joined the State Geological Survey as 

 a volunteer, and first investigated the surface geology of southern 

 Pennsylvania ; after which he studied the glacial phenomena of the 

 northern part of the State, and traced the great terminal moraine 

 from New Jersey to the Ohio frontier. He furnished numerous 

 papers on the geology and mineralogy of Pennsylvania to the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. He 

 was elected professor of mineralogy in the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences in 1880, and to the chair of geology in Haverford College 

 in 1883. These positions he held at the time of his death. Since 

 1885 he had been engaged in geological studies in Europe, working 

 at microscopic petrology in the University of Heidelberg ; and had 

 completed a map of the separate ancient glaciers and ice-sheets of 

 England, Wales, and Ireland. Professor Lewis was a member of 

 a number of scientific societies in the United States and Europe, 

 and contributed to their Proceedings and to other scientific period- 

 icals, including the American Naturalist, of the mineralogical de- 

 partment of which he was for some time editor. It was at the 

 British Association meeting held at Birmingham in September, 

 1 886, that he read his first paper on ' The Genesis of the Diamond ; ' 

 and in describing the peridotite of the De Beers mine, and that 

 from Kentucky, he suggested interesting possibilities in regard to 

 the latter locality. Since then he was actively engaged in the ful- 

 ler preparation of his paper on ' The Genesis of the Diamond,' 

 visiting all the localities in the Southern States where diamonds 

 have been found ; and it was undoubtedly his intention to read this 

 paper at the coming meeting of the British Association in September, 

 and then to continue his geological studies in Norway, remaining 

 in Europe for three or four years. Professor Lewis was an indefati- 

 gable worker, of keen perception. Genial in his manner, he made 

 many friends ; and although he had not reached the prime of life. 

 yet his work is known to the entire scientific world, and he gave 

 promise of having entered upon a long life of usefulness. In him 

 science has lost a valuable worker, and society a useful member, 

 and he leaves a blank which will not be readily filled. He leaves 

 a wife and one child. 



In SPITE OF THE USUAL vexatious delays, which often prevent 

 the opening of new buildings at the appointed time, the new Ma- 

 rine Biological Laboratory at Wood's Holl. Mass., was formally 



