SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, MAY 6, 1887. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



DURma THE CENTENNIAL YEAR SOme of OUr 



leading geologists in the United States and Canada 

 conceived the happy thought of calling an inter- 

 national congress of geologists for the purpose of 

 agreeing upon such important though subsidiary 

 matters as the colors by means of which the dif- 

 ferent geological formations should be expressed, 

 the terms that should be applied respectively to 

 these formations, and also upon the far more im- 

 portant problem of the limits and values of these 

 different formations. The first session of this 

 congress was held in Paris in 1878, the second 

 session in Bologna in 1881, and the third session 

 in Berlin in 1884. The third session found the 

 preliminary difficulties so far cleared away that 

 some definite and tangible results could be at- 

 tained ; and it was decided to make an attempt 

 to embody these provisional results in some work 

 which should include as many as possible of the 

 difficulties to be encountered by any plan of uni- 

 fication, and at the same time be one with which 

 the largest possible number of geologists were 

 familiar. This additional precaution was adopted 

 in order that whatever steps might be taken should 

 be well advised. This was the reason for the 

 selection of the continent of Europe as an area 

 upon which to test the proposed classification and 

 coloration schemes. Not only are there more 

 geologists and larger geological collections in 

 Europe, but the fact that each of the countries of 

 Europe supports its own geological survey, and 

 employs its own methods independently of all the 

 rest, has for its consequences that there are more 

 differences of opinion among geologists on the 

 continent of Europe, both in important matters 

 and in matters of detail, than in all the rest of 

 the world put together. If, then, a compromise 

 could be effected which would satisfy the con- 

 flicting notions of European geologists, it was 

 reasonably sure that a system of unification for 

 the whole world could be arranged. It is true 

 that there are some questions to be settled upon 

 which European geology can shed but little light, 

 but they are not numerous, and they can certainly 



No. 222 — 1887. 



be adapted to the rest of the general plan when 

 that has been decided upon. 



The congress restricted to each of the ' large 

 countries' of Europe — to wit, France, Spain, 

 Austro-Hungary, Russia, Scandinavia, Germany, 

 and Great Britain — the right to become a sttb- 

 seriber to the proposed geological map of Europe, 

 to be issued under the direction of a specially ap- 

 pointed committee of the congress. The number 

 of copies of the map to which each subscriber is 

 entitled is one hundred, and the price one hun- 

 dred francs per copy. The American committee 

 of the congress, feeling that the questions involved 

 were of universal and not of merely European in- 

 terest, sent a request to the committee of direction, 

 asking that the United States be included in the 

 list of subscribers. The response of the executive 

 committee to this request was favorable. The ob- 

 ject of the American committee is to get the 

 names of one hundred institutions or individuals 

 as subscribers to the map, so that the United 

 States can occupy the same position among the 

 grands etats, through these private subscriptions, 

 that Germany, France, etc., occupy by reason of 

 the direct subscription of their governments. For 

 the purpose above indicated, a circular was mailed 

 by the American committee to one hundred and 

 fifty institutions of learning and original research 

 six months ago. It was then thought that the 

 one hundred copies would be entirely exhausted 

 by such institutions at once. As this has not 

 proved to be the case (largely owing to the time at 

 which the circulars were sent out), the Ameri- 

 can committee, at its Philadelphia meeting last 

 December, decided to send out another, and, 

 in addition, to invite a few scientific men to 

 take advantage of the same privilege. Up to the 

 present date, but fifty subscribers have sent in 

 their names. In case of failure to secure one 

 hundred subscribers, the committee must either 

 pay the cost of this number of copies ($3,000) 

 itself, or ask the comit6 directeur to withdraw the 

 United States from its list of subscribers. 



Two HUMAN SKELETONS have been discovered 

 in the lower quaternary deposits, in a cave on the 

 banks of the Orneau, in the commune of Spy, 



