August 23, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



299 



wish of the majority is, or by a show of hands. 

 There is a subtlety iu the decision, for if the 

 chairman wishes he can rule on a single show, 

 or he may ask for 'Ayes' and 'Noes,' or he 

 may compare the number of hands shown with 

 the number of persons present. But it is 

 decreed that our friend, the speaker, must 

 stand down, and there is something pathetic 

 in his self-conscious, proud and satisfied bow, 

 and the death -like silence which follows it for 

 one moment. A discussion now takes place. 

 At first absolute oblivion of time seems to sur- 

 round the Chair, and the first intimation which 

 the occupant of it receives of the fact that one 

 member has occupied the platform for nearly 

 half an hour is that his conversation with a 

 colleague is interrupted by a dozen eager mem- 

 bers who wish to have their say. Then he 

 rings the bell and asks if the speaker has much 

 more to say, but to do this he waits until the 

 latter has reached the middle of a sentence. 

 ' I am just finishing,' is the reply. Five min- 

 utes later a further ring, the same question, 

 the same reply. Still five minutes later the 

 chairman says that Herr X. is in possession of 

 the platform, and requests the loquacious one to 

 stand down. He forgets to bow, and, collect- 

 ing his notes and papers slowly mumbles that 

 he has had no time to give his most important 

 points of argument. Will he try to continue 

 his arguments at next year's congress ? — British 

 Medical Journal. 



CUBBENl NOTES ON PHY8I0GBAPEY. 

 /,A ' THE MARYLAND COASTAL PLAIN. 



A LUMINOUS generalization concerning the 

 a^^ geological history and the geographical features 

 of our Atlantic coastal plain has lately been an- 

 nounced by Shattuck (' The Pleistocene Problem 

 of the North Atlantic Coastal Plain,' Johns 

 Hopkins Univ. Circulars, No. 152, 1901). Five 

 shore lines with wave-cut and wave-built ter- 

 races, accompanied by spits, bars and lagoon 

 deposits, are recognized. The uppermost is the 

 Lafayette on the margin of the Piedmont up- 

 lands at altitudes of from 300 to 500 feet. The 

 lowest is on the present coast. The develop- 

 ment of each shore line was preceded by a 

 period of erosion during a somewhat higher 

 stand of the land ; hence when submergence to 



the new level occurred, the shore was of irreg- 

 ular outline. Valleys Avere thus repeatedly 

 drowned, and rivers transformed into estuaries ; 

 for one may trace the younger terraces along 

 the sides of the older valleys. The changes of 

 level do not seem to have been accompanied by 

 so much warping as has been inferred by other 

 observers : the conclusions thus announced are 

 thought to be applicable to the coastal plain for 

 some distance northeast and southwest of Mary- 

 land. A fuller description of the topographic 

 details on which these changes are based will 

 be waited for with interest. 



DUNMAIL RAISE. 



The low pass between Windermere and Kes- 

 wick in the English Lake district, annually 

 crossed by thousands of tourists in stage and on 

 foot, is known as Duumail Raise. Its elevation 

 is 782 feet, between Helvellyn, 3,118, and Sea- 

 fell pikes, 3,210. R. D. Oldham (' On the Origin 

 of Dunmail Raise, Lake District,' Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc, LVir., 1901, 189-195) points out 

 the striking disproportion between the size of 

 the local streams and the dimensions of the op- 

 posing valleys that head in the open j)ass, and 

 concludes that it is the work of a large river 

 which once flowed from north to south through 

 the mountains, long maintaining its course in 

 spite of their upheaval, until at last overcome 

 by a too rapid warping. While the conditions 

 of such an origin are readily conceived, the 

 consequences by which the conditions may be 

 ■'"tested are not explicitly stated, and the reality 

 of the postulated river is left in doubt. The 

 present form of the opposing valleys being held 

 to be beyond production by the existing 

 streams, the valleys are taken as the product 

 of the extinct river. The valleys being still 

 but little modified by their streams, the warp- 

 ing by which the river was broken in two mutt 

 have been relatively recent. The slopes of the 

 opposing valley fioors being strong and of re- 

 cent origin, the warping that produced the 

 slopes must have been rapid. As the present 

 north-sloping valley descends against the slope 

 of the extinct river for ten miles or more, the 

 warping must have affected the district for a 

 number of miles north of the pass. So rapid 

 and extensive a warping can hardly have been 



