60 Geological Society: — 



Saturated Steam the Motive Power in Volcanoes and Earthquakes ; 



great Importance of Electricity. By R. A. Peacock, C.E. tyc. 



London : E. and E. N. Spon. 1882. (136 pp.) 

 The object of this little work is (as expressed in the title) to show that 

 saturated steam is the motive power in volcanic eruptions and earth- 

 quakes. Evidence is quoted from various authorities to the effect 

 that (1) free hydrogen has been detected in the flames issuing from 

 certain volcanoes; (2) the temperature of combustion of hydrogen 

 with oxygen is 14,541° E.; (3) clouds of steam are frequently ejected 

 from volcanoes ; (4) the pressure of saturated steam at 14,541° E. is 

 about one million tons per square inch. Hence the conclusion that 

 " there is no other terrestrial force at all approaching to saturated 

 steam in power and magnitude," and the question (about volcanic 

 eruptions and earthquakes) " Will any man venture to deny that 

 saturated steam was the active agent on these occasions ? " answered 

 further on thus : — " This steam necessarily causes earthquakes and 

 volcanoes ; for how is it possible so very vast a power can remain 

 idle?" 



In part evidence of the great resistance of the air to a body in 

 rapid motion, a graphic account is given of the author's personal 

 experience thereof on a runaway horse forty years ago. In other 

 cases statements of fact are generally freely supported by quota- 

 tions from authority : the author even thinks it as well to " prove 

 by a quotation from ' Chemistry ' that, since air and water were pre- 

 sent in the volcano of Java, oxygen and hydrogen were necessarily 

 present also." The figure 14,541° E. quoted above seems very pre- 

 cise in the units, but it is quoted (as 8061° C.) from Prof. Tyndall 

 with the remark that " Professor Tyndall is a safe man to follow." 



The style is not always clear; e. g. the phrase "being about equally 

 and very great " occurs thrice ; and the terminology is sometimes 

 loose ; e. g. steam is described as a " force " {v. supra). 



Allan Cunningham, Major B.E. 



X. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from vol. xiv. p. 478.] 



November 15, 1882.— Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, E.R.S., 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



THE following communications were read : — 

 1. " The Drift-beds of the North-west of England and North 

 Wales. — Part 2. Their Nature, Stratigraphy, and Distribution." 

 By T. Mellard Reade, Esq., C.E., F.G.S. 



The author stated that the first part of this paper, read in 1873, 

 treated of the low-level Boulder-clay and sands, specially in relation 



