SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 361 



SCIENCE: 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



PUBLISHED BY 



N. D. C. HODGES. 



47 Lafayette Place, New York. 



Subscriptions. — United States and Canada $3.50 a year. 



Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. 



Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers 

 are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author 

 n request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only 

 when the reqiiisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- 

 tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; 

 not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- 

 selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our 

 correspondents. 



Attention is called to the " Wants " column. All are invited to use it in soliciting 

 information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be 

 given in full, so that answers will go direct to them. The " Exchange " column is 

 likewise open. 



Vol. XV. 



NEW YORK, jANU.iRY 3, 1890. 



No. 361 



CONTENTS: 



Model Electric Elevator Instal- 

 lation I 



The World's Meat Consumption, 



Production, AND Trade 1 



Stanley's Explorations 2 



Phonetics 5 



Health Matters. 

 The Difficulties of the Medical Pro- 

 fession 8 



The Bacillus of Warts 8 



Memory following Cranial Injury.. 8 



Influenza 8 



Notes and News 8 



American Geological Society 10 



Book-Reviews. 



Scientific Papers of Asa Gray 



Among the Publishers 



Letters to the Editor. 

 Unconscious Bias in Walking 



Manly Mil, s 

 The Influence of Baking-Powder 

 Residues on Digestion 



R. Taylor Wheeler 

 Resemblance of People 



W. S. Franlin 



A Remarkable Bowlder of Nephrite 



or Jade James Terry 



AMERICAN GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The annual meeting of this society began Dec. 26, in the new 

 building of the American Museum of Natural History in this city. 

 The result of the election of officers was announced as follows : 

 president, James D. Dana ; vice-presidents, John S. Newberry 

 and Alexander Winchell ; secretary, John J. Stevenson ; treasurer, 

 Henry S. Williams ; executive council, J. W. Powell, George W. 

 Dawson, and Charles H. Hitchcock. 



Fifteen new fellows of the society were announced as having 

 been elected, and they are as follows : Frank Dawson Adams, 

 lecturer at McGill College, Montreal ; Albert Smith Bickmore, 

 American Museum of Natural History ; Aaron Hodgman Cole, 

 Hamilton lecturer on natural history at Madison University ; 

 Thomas Sterry Hunt of New York City ; R. D. Lacoe of Pittston, 

 Penn. ; Alfred Church Lane, Houghton, Mich., assistant on Geologi- 

 cal Survey of Michigan ; Alexander Richard Cecil Selwyn, Ottawa, 

 Canada, director of the Geological and Natural History Survey of 

 Canada; Bailey Willis, Washington, D.C., United States Geologi- 

 cal Survey ; J. E. Wolff, Cambridge, Mass., instructor of petrog- 

 raphy at Harvard ; Lorenzo G. Yates, Santa Barbara, Cal. ; Vic- 

 tor C. Alderson, Englewood, 111., teacher of geology ; Henry M. 

 Ami, Ottawa, Canada, Geological Survey of Canada; Ezra Brain- 

 erd, Middleburj', Vt., president of Middlebury College; Daniel 

 Webster Landon, jun., Cincinnati, O., geologist of the Chesapeake 

 and Ohio Railway ; George Clinton Swallow, Helena, Mont., in- 

 spector of mines of Montana. 



T. C. Chamberlin of Madison, Wis., read a paper upon " Some 

 Additional Evidences bearing on the Interval between the Lead- 

 ing Glacial Epochs," and W. J. McGee of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey replied briefly. Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard 

 spoke on " The Tertiary Deposits of Eastern Massachusetts." In 

 his paper, Mr. Shaler endeavored to show that in that district there 

 had been, since the miocene age, a large amount of true mountain- 

 building action at Gay Head, on Martha's Vineyard. The evi- 

 dence of this had been distinguishable for a longtime ; but about a 

 year ago it was uncovered, so that it could be better seen than at any 

 previous time, by a most violent rain-storm somewhat in the nature 

 of a cloud-burst. In two hours' time, five and one half inches of 

 water had fallen, and the cliffs at Gay Head had been washed so 

 much that opportunities for investigation were better than ever be- 

 fore. A remarkable instance of dislocations had been exposed, 

 and the formation of the cliffs made plainly visible. The evidences 

 of mountain- building were plain, and it was of a comparatively 

 late period. The same thing could be seen on Block Island. Its 

 limit to the north was sharply defined, for the greensands of 

 Marshfield, Mass., had been examined by Mr. Shaler, and they 

 were perfectly horizontal, and not disturbed. To the south and 

 west investigations had not been pushed : so the extent of the 

 mountain-building in that direction was unknown. Mr. Shaler 

 said further that the evidences of glacial action were plain, and 

 that it must have taken place after the upheaval or mountain-build- 

 ing age. 



The second day's session was opened with an address by the 

 present president. Professor James Hall, geologist of the State of 

 New York. Professor Hall's address was a sketch of the earlier 

 geologists, and was directed chiefly to the younger members of 

 the society present. He paid tributes, among others, to Agassiz, 

 Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Logan, the royal geologist of Canada, 

 and William Smith, and closed with a reference to his colleague, 

 Professor Dana. 



Professor Edward Orton, State geologist of Ohio, considered the 

 " Origin of the Rock-Pressure of Natural Gas in the Trenton 

 Limestone of Ohio and Indiana." The gas is the product of ages, 

 which has been accumulated in the porous limestone of Ohio and 

 Indiana. It has been produced so slowly that when once ex- 

 hausted it will take many thousands of years for it to again accu- 

 mulate in sufficient quantities to be used, even if the elements 

 necessary for its production were present, which he thought was 

 not at all probable. The pressure which forces the gas out with 

 such tremendous power that it sometimes reaches 1,000 pounds 

 pressure per square inch is not due to the pressure of the gas it- 

 self, but to the hydrostatic pressure brought to bear by the col- 

 umn of salt water that enters the porous stratum of rock contain- 

 ing the gas, at the sea-level, and which by its weight tends to force 

 the gas out. To the explanation and elucidation of this phenome- 

 non, Professor Orton's paper was more especially devoted. The 

 men who are engaged in the practical development of gas and oil 

 fields, said he, made great account of rock-pressure. It is the first 

 fact they inquire after in a new gas-field. They appreciate its im- 

 portance, knowing that the distance of the markets they care to 

 reach, and the size of the pipes they can employ, are entirely de- 

 pendent upon this element. After discussing the theories of its 

 origin, he expressed the opinion that the gas-supply could not be 

 of very long duration. . This fact he regarded as of the greater im- 

 portance on account of the vast extent to which natural gas had 

 become a factor in Western manufacture and development. He 

 said that 400,000 people in north-western Ohio and central Indiana 

 alone depended upon it for fuel and illumination, and that a large 

 proportion of their manufactures depended upon it. The supplies 

 were being wasted in a vandal fashion, and he thought that nine 

 years at most would mark its duration in this region. Artificial 

 gas he believed preferable. 



The next paper was by Professor William B. Clark of Johns 

 Hopkins University, his subject being " The Tertiary Deposits of 

 the Cape Fear River Region." 



Professor Andrevir C. Lawson of Ottawa, Canada, next read a 

 paper entitled " Note on the Pre-Palasozoic Surface of the Archasan 

 Terranes of Canada." Professor William M. Davis of Cambridge, 

 Mass., presented the fourth paper, on " The Structure and Origin 



