SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



17 



GEOLOGY 





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Fossil Bacteria. — The following interesting 

 note, on the discovery of fossil bacteria, appears 

 in the " Revue Scientifique " : " The silicious beds 

 of Esnost and Regny, which belong to the culm, 

 enclose numerous bacilli in the midst of almost 

 unrecognisable vegetable remains. A new species 

 B. vorax, has been studied by M. B. Renault, 

 and appears to have been the chief cause of the 

 destruction of vegetation. The ' rods ' are divided 

 into cells, each containing a spore ; six to eight 

 spores have been counted in one ' rod ' ; young 

 ' rods ' have also been found composed of two, 

 three and four cells ; the spores escape from one of 

 the extremities. It is the most ancient of the known 

 bacteria." 



Dendrites and Oldhamia. — In examining 

 certain dendrites which I have, alongside with 

 small specimens of Oldhamia radiata from Bray, I 

 have been much struck with their similarity in 

 appearance. The latter, found fossil in ancient 

 Cambrian beds, have long occupied an undecided 

 position between animal and vegetable. I would 

 throw out as a suggestion the possibility of the 

 fossil being, after all, but the impressions left by 

 crystals formed before the hardening of the 

 material of the rock. Oldhamia antiqua, which you 

 figure at the head of your Geological column, will 

 illustrate what I mean. By the way, I may say 

 how interesting and well-considered the whole of 

 the head-pieces are. — E. A. Martin, Thornton Heath. 



Section of Chalk at Croydon. — I think your 

 correspondent, Mr. A. Abseil, is wise in placing a 

 query after the words " Thanet Sands" (vol. i., 

 N.S., page 285). From his description of the 

 uneven surface of the chalk, and of the contents of 

 the clefts and fissures which he mentions, I should 

 strongly suspect that the overlying formation is of 

 recent alluvial age. Looking at the winding valley 

 which leads from the Downs into Croydon (Croig- 

 deane, a winding or crooked valley), there is every 

 reason to suppose that the valley once drained 

 part of the hills there, and that the present site of 

 old Croydon was formerly a wide expanse of mere 

 and marsh (cf. Waddon Marsh). Hence it would 

 be expected that on the inclines at the sides of the 

 valley we should find various alluvial deposits, and 

 this is in fact what we actually find. I know the 

 road to which reference is made, although I cannot 

 call to mind the particular cuttings. His descrip- 

 tion would serve almost accurately to describe one 

 of the many fissures and wedge-shaped clefts which 

 seem to push themselves downward into the chalk 

 round about Brighton and Hove. With regard to 

 the dip of the chalk, this is of course towards the 

 north at Croydon, but in regard to the two sections 

 referred to, an important factor is omitted in the 

 description. Did the faces, or the outcrops at the 

 faces of the sections, both run in parallel direction ? 

 If they did, there was apparently a difference in 

 the degree of dip ; this, however, is not uncommon 

 in the chalk. — Edwd.A. Martin, Thornton Heath; 

 February, 1895. 



Progress' 0/ Science: its Origin, Course, Promoters 

 and Results. By J. Villin Marmerv. With an 

 Introduction by Samuel Lang. 376 pp., Crown 

 8vo. (London: Chapman and Hall, Limited, 1895.) 

 Price 7s. 6d. a 



This will be found to be a book of reference alike 

 for the Students of Science and for the general 

 reader. Some idea of the large amount of valuable 

 material digested in its pages may be gathered 

 from the general index, which embraces over 2,500 

 references to facts and persons. It is a concise 

 survey of the history of science from the earliest 

 attempts to understand the subject down to this 

 present year. Especially fascinating is the chapter 

 on the progress of scientific knowledge among the 

 Arabs, from the ninth to the fifteenth century ; even 

 though we may individually know already the facts 

 set forth by Mr. Villin Marmery, yet as arranged 

 by him one cannot resist reading on page by page 

 to the end of the chapter. The author reminds us 

 that "the Arabian race is gifted with an intellect 

 which, underproper direction and cultivation, yields 

 the most admirable effects. A general fact shows 

 this very forcibly. It took the Greeks six centuries, 

 the Romans seven, ourselves ten to emerge from 

 barbarism into civilisation ; the Arab's transition 

 did not exceed one hundred years — a phenomenon 

 which speaks volumes with respect to their natural 

 gifts." We presume the author desires to convey 

 the idea that we have emerged from our "ten," 

 but one can hardly think this is so, when we find 

 the following footnote at the end of one of his 

 pages. "In a town of 130,000 people, which enjoys 

 the benefit of a public lending library, the Essays 

 of Herbert Spencer had in six months been issued 

 eighteen times. Not one had read the three 

 volumes through, for the writer of the present work 

 found pages uncut in them ! " 



A much abbreviated biographical dictionary is 

 arranged, in chronological order, of upwards of 

 400 men of science who have good claims to fame, 

 the work of each being explained. These are 

 tabulated in one of the eight appendices at the end 

 of the book. By the way, we are pleased to see an 

 effort has been made to avoid the ugly word 

 "scientists," which we find only once, that being 

 in the title of a chapter, and may be the perpetra- 

 tion of the " man who made the index," and not 

 of the author. This work undoubtedly shows 

 great learning and research upon the part of Mr. 

 Marmery, and is one which will frequently be 

 useful to all students and writers on scientific 

 subjects, and invaluable to school teachers. 



There is a very marked difference between the 

 literary style of the couple of pages forming Mr. 

 Samuel Laing's introduction and the general body 

 of the work. In the former, the sentences are 

 elegantly written, figuratively expressed and full of 

 metaphor, as becomes the finished craftsman ; 

 whilst Mr. Marmery sacrifices everything to 

 brevity and conciseness. Still we do not think he 

 has overdone the pruning, for his work appears to 

 be well done. J- T. C. 



