152 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



southwesterly direction. The occasional finding of fragments of the common 

 sulphide of lead in the drift of Iowa, in a southwesterly direction from the lead 

 region about Dubuque, would indicate the same fact. Perhaps long subsequent 

 to that part of the glacial epoch, during which these fragments of copper and lead 

 were transported from the northeast, the glacial currents changed their course, 

 and assumed the direction which brought about the present drainage system of 

 Iowa — a general movement of those currents from nearly north to south. Dur" 

 ing that wonderful age, known in the geological calendar as the glacial epoch, 

 the topographical conformation of the North American Continent was no doubt 

 vastly different from what it is at the present time. That age of ice may have 

 extended over many thousands of years, and until the latter part of it the Missis- 

 sippi with its great valley did not exist. The present drainage of Iowa is the re- 

 sult of the later glacial currents, the currents which carried down in their flow the 

 great granite and quartzite boulders now found so far "out of place" that we 

 sometimes term them "lost rocks." As the climate gradually changed, through 

 influences which astronomers explain, the glaciers slowly subsided, and these er- 

 ratics were lodged as we find them, with their worn and rounded shapes and pe- 

 culiar markings, still bearing the evidence of the forces to which they were sub- 

 jected, just as the pebble you pick up on the beach of the Des Moines river shows 

 by its oval and worn appearance the result of the action of the water. Every 

 pebble, every grain of sand on the shores of our rivers was once a part of some 

 stratum of rock in its proper geological position, but was displaced and carried 

 away by the forces of nature, just as the fragments of copper were during the 

 great ice age. These natural forces have never been suspended, for, in a modi- 

 fied degree, the same process is still going on. In our river valleys, with the 

 constant alternations of heat and cold, dearth and flood, the rocks are still being 

 ground into gravel and sand. 



O. P. Pence, the treasurer, made a report stating that the society was out of 

 debt and had nearly enough on hand to meet the next quarter's rent. 



The following resolution was offered by T. G. Orwig and unanimously adopt- 

 ed : 



" In view of the lamentable fact that much disease and suffering is occasion- 

 ed by sewer gas and that all efforts heretofore made to economically and satisfac- 

 torily dispose of sewerage have failed, and 



Whereas^ Mr. Andrew Engle, of Metz, Iowa, has invented a method and 

 apparatus for converting sewerage (urine, night soil and kitchen oflfal) into gas 

 and charcoal that can be utilized for producing light and heat, and has demon- 

 strated the merit of his invention by a practical test in the courthouse at Newton 

 duiing the past month; therefore be it 



Resolved, That we recognize the importance of Mr. Engle's scientific efforts 

 in sanitary reform and respectfully request him in the interests of science to exhib. 

 it a model of his apparatus and explain the philosophy of his invention at our 

 next monthly meeting, Tuesday evening, July 8." 



Adopted. 



