536 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 275. 



additional films taken from growing seeda. 

 Of course there is no reason why the pho- 

 tographing should not be continued until 

 the plants have bloomed and fruited, if any 

 fact important to mechanics or botany is 

 likely to result from the trouble. Perhaps 

 botanists know of matters in plant growth 

 and plant development that it may pay 

 them to investigate by the same method. 

 I anticipate that some interesting facts con- 

 cerning the mechanics of the root's motion 

 into and through the soil will result from 

 such studies. 



I have taken up the work now being 

 done upon living organisms as merely pre- 

 liminary to the general problem that I have 

 set before me. It must be several months 

 before enough material can be accumu- 

 lated for a proper discussion of observed 

 and theoretical results in the motions of 

 plastic solids. The actual results may 

 prove disappointing, but this fact cannot 

 be determined in advance. 



Chas. S. Slighter. 



ITARYLAND'S HIGHWAY REPORT* 

 There is a growing realization in this 

 country that the problems which have to be 

 met and solved in the construction of better 

 highways are, in large measure, geological 

 problems. The most satisfactory outcome 

 of this tendency which has yet appeared in 

 this country is the report on highway im- 

 provement in Maryland, which has been 

 recently issued by the Maryland Geological 

 Survey ; and the Survey, through these in- 

 vestigations and this report, has rendered 

 the cause of good roads in the country at 

 large an important service. 



The work resulting in this report was au- 

 thorized by the General Assembly of Mary- 

 land, in an Act passed early in April, 1898, 

 which provided an appropriation of $10,000 



* Maryland Geological Survey, Vol. III., 1899, pp. 

 461. Highway Improvement. Baltimore, Md., W. 

 B. Clark, State Geologist. 



per annum for the investigation of ques- 

 tions of road construction in that State, 

 and for the preparation of reports thereon. 

 Under this act a highway division was at 

 once established under the supervision of 

 the State Geologist, Professor W. B. Clark, 

 and Dr. H. F. Eeid was appointed chief of 

 this division ; Mr. A. N. Johnson, Mr. St. 

 George Lioussat and Mr. F. H. Schloer, 

 special assistants. It was also arranged 

 that other assistants connected with the 

 different branches of the Survey should co- 

 operate in examining the character and dis- 

 tribution in the State of the road-building 

 materials. 



Of the volume before us, which contains 

 the results of these investigations, and 

 which it is hoped may serve as a model for 

 similar work in many other States, it is dif- 

 ficult to give any thing like an adequate 

 synopsis in the brief space allotted for 

 an ordinary book review. In a short in- 

 troductory chapter. Professor Clark has 

 given a copy of the law under which the 

 work was provided for ; and a brief state- 

 ment as to the purpose and character of the 

 enquiries and investigations carried on dur- 

 ing 1898 and 1899. This is followed by a 

 more elaborate chapter by Professor Clark 

 on ' the Kelations of Maryland Topography, 

 Climate and Geology to Highway Con- 

 struction ' ; a subject which must be thor- 

 oughly understood by the highway engineer 

 before he can intelligently plan, locate or 

 construct in any section of country, either 

 a system of highways or an individual 

 road. This chapter includes a brief de- 

 scription of the topographical features of 

 the State and its different geographical sub- 

 divisions (coastal plain. Piedmont plateau 

 and the Appalachian region), and the influ- 

 ence these have had and should have here- 

 after on the location of the roads. The 

 question of temperature is not so im- 

 portant a feature in Maryland as in some 

 of the more northern States, for the reason 



