SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Sept. 14, 1888. 



fade in dry air, and showed that the greater number of paints are 

 stable in sunlight, provided moisture is absent. 



Professor T. W. Langley read a paper on Proposed International 

 Standards of Iron and Steel, in which he showed the necessity for 

 identical standards being adopted in every country, so that the dif- 

 ferent productions might be assured of an absolutely uniform material. 



GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 



(Continued from p. 262) 



Saturday, September 8th. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., presiding. 



Professor O. C. Marsh, of Newhaven, U.S.A., gave a long 

 address On the Dinosauria of Europe and America, explaining them 

 by means of diagrams, and entering into a comparison of the 

 principal forms. 



The President said Professor Marsh had laboured in America 

 under more advantageous circumstances than they did in Europe. 

 Here there were only isolated fragments of these difficult creatures, 

 but in the great Continent from which Professor Marsh came they had 

 nearly perfect skeletons ; and he certainly welcomed the communi- 

 cation they had had, not merely on account of the addition it made 

 to their knowledge, but also for the prospect which it afforded that 

 they might have some of the long names attached to some of the 

 fragments on this side of the water knocked on the head. 



Mr. H. F. Osborn, Professor of Comparative Anatomy at 

 Princeton, explained a number of diagrams intended to illustrate 

 the Evolution of Ike Mammalian Molar Tee h to and from the 

 Tritubercular Type. He showed that the placental mammalia of the 

 present day have passed through a stage in which the superior and 

 inferior molars presented in the upper and lower jaws three com- 

 ponent cusps, and from the molars of this type have been derived 

 the various types of molars among the living mammalia. This 

 tritubercular type, discovered by Professor Cope in the lower 

 Eocene Rocks of North America is shown to have been derived 

 from the molars of the mammals of the Jurassic period, and the 

 latter bear evidence of their descent from the single reptilian cone. 

 The^formation of these complicated teeth from the simple teeth may 

 be attributed to the mechanical effect of the interference of the 

 upper and lower molars in the vertical and horizontal motions of the 

 jaws. 



Professor H.G. Seeley objected to the classification of the group 

 alluded to, but beyond this there was no discussion. 



Professor Gaudry (Paris) gave a short no'e On the Gigantic Size 

 of certain Fossil Mammalia. He instanced the skeleton o(E/ephas 

 meridionalis of the Paris Museum, which is nearly five yards high, 

 and said he had himself obtained from Greece a still larger animal 

 — the Deinotherium. (Seep. 27S.) 



The President said they were exceedingly obliged to Professor 

 Gaudry for bringing these interesting fac's before them. It was well 

 to know that at all events the ancestors of some of the larger 

 mammalia were the larger the further they went back. The Deino- 

 therium stood at the head of the list, and then there was a gradual 

 decrease in the size down to the present. 



Professor G. A. Lebour, M.A., read a. Note on the Relation of the 

 Percentage of Carbonic Acid in the Atmosphere to the Life and Growth 

 of Plants, written by the Rev. A. Irving, D.Sc,, B.A., F.C.S , in 

 which the author referred to the discussion raised recently on this 

 question in the pages of the Geological Magazine. In order to test the 

 hypothesis adopted by Professor Prestwich, three series of observa- 

 tions had been made during the past summer on plants exposed, 

 under similar physical conditions, to atmospheres of different com- 

 positions. The evidence obtained all pointed in one direction, and 

 went to show that, with an increase of the percentage of carbonic 

 acid up to about that of the free oxygen present, the vigour of plant 

 life and growth is also increased, so long as the plants are freely 

 supplied at their roots with water, as we have good reason to sup- 

 pose was the case with the vascular cryptogams from which the 

 carbonised materials of the coal-measures are for the most part 

 derived. The author further considered the theory as throwing some 

 light upon a certain stage of development of life upon the earth in 

 later palaeozoic time ; the great development of plant growth in the 

 carboniferous age, having served as the means of storage of carbon 

 in the earth's lithosphere, and thus purified the atmosphere so as to 

 render it fit for the development of air-breathing forms of life in 

 the Mesozoic Age. 



Dr. Sterry Hunt considered that theamount of carbonic acid now 

 condensed in vegetation was not entirely due to the purification of 

 impure atmosphere, but that it derived it from an extra-terrestrial 

 source. They must go back to the idea first enunciated by Newton 



— that there had been a constant interchange between our atmo- 

 sphere and the atmosphere of other bodies in space. 



Professor Seeley pointed out that nowhere when carbonic acid 

 was given off by the burning of lime did they find any very vigorous 

 vegetable growth. In the neighbourhood of lime kilns they did not 

 find that excessive amount of vegetation they would anticipate on 

 the theory of luxuriant growth during the carboniferous period. 



Professor Lebour, in the absence of Mr. James Spencer, read 

 a paper written by the latter on The Occurrence of a Boulder of 

 Grantoid Gneiss or Gneissoid Granite in the Halifax Hard-bed Coal. 



Professor Lebour said it was nothing new to find boulders of 

 gneiss in coal. He knew of many. 



Mr. W. Whitaker (now occupying the chair) agreed with this, 

 and said boulders were so common in the Manchester coal-field, 

 that the Manchester Geological Society had published a series of 

 papers on the subject with illustrations — not only the gneiss, but a 

 great variety of rocks occurred. The boulders also occurred in 

 Germany, and indeed anywhere where they took the trouble to look 

 for them. 



Professor Claypole said there were also many in the United 

 States. 



The next paper read was on The Caverns of Luray, the author 

 being the Chevalier R. E. Reynolds (Washington, U.S.A.). 



These famous caverns are situated near the crest of a limestone hil 

 of Silurian Limestone, near Luray Court House, in the valley of the 

 South Shenandoah, Virginia, U.S.A. The valley is bounded on 

 the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, and on the west by the Mas- 

 sanulton range, the caverns lying equidistant from each. They 

 were discovered in 1880, during which year the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion sent out a scientific commission for the purpose of exploring 

 and reporting on the same. The writer was a member of this 

 commission. 



The caverns — several distinct ones united by engineering opera- 

 tions — are similar to others found in limestone regions. They are 

 mostly the result of erosion ; one only — the Ramble, a plateau of 

 500 feet long by 300 wide— resulting from displacement of the ad- 

 jacent strata. 



Human remains have been found, but the character of the'r 

 environment proves them to be of Indian origin. From the depth 

 of the travertine which enclose them they appear to have been 

 imprisoned for nearly a thousand years. The bones that are now 

 visible consist of the right femur, the lower jaw, a rib, the segment 

 of a clavicle, and a few teeth detached from the superior max. They 

 appear to have belonged to a female of seventeen or eighteen years, 

 the sex and age being determined by anatomical structure, ossifica- 

 tion, and dentition. 



The writer's memoir on this subject embraced a vast amount of 

 information on the early or incipient growth of stalactites, some of 

 which is believed to be wholly original. He is also engaged in 

 studying the ratio of stalagmitic growth in the Atlantic coast caverns. 

 The result now obtained shows that the veitical growth of stalagmite 

 is one inch in forty years. The growth of stalactites is nearly twice 

 as fast, or one inch in twenty years. 



Mr. W. Topley, F.R.S. (Recorder), presented a report on 7he 

 Rate of Erosion of the Sea Coasts of England and Wales. 



Monday, September ioth. 

 Volcanic Department. 



Professor Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., presiding. 



Dr. Tempest Anderson, B.Sc, exhibited a number of photo- 

 graphs (by the aid of Mr. Pumphrey and lime-light) of the Volcanoes 

 of the two Sicilies, The exhibitor has recently visited the volcanoes 

 of Naples, the Lipari Islands and Sicily, including Vesuvius, 

 Stromboli, Vulcani, and y£tna, and taken photographs of their 

 craters, and some of their lava streams, and other most important 

 parts, in order to obtain a record of their present condition which 

 may be available for comparison in case of future eruptions. 



Dr. H. J. Johnston-Lavis contiibuted, in combination with 

 this lecture, voluminous Notes on the Formation and Geological 

 History of Volcanoes, 



Accompanying it was a graphic account of the eruption of August 

 last by Mr. A. E. Narlien, who was on the island at the time, an 

 account, said the lecturer, which was well worthy from its analogy 

 of being placed side by side with the renowned epistle of Pliny the 

 younger to Tacitus. 



Dr. H. J. Johnston-Lavis followed with a Report on the Vol- 

 canic Phenomena of Vesuvius, which we may publish in a future 

 issue. 



Dr. Johnston-Lavis then read a paper on the subject of The 

 Conservation of Heat in Volcanic Chimneys. He said : One who 

 daily follows the phenomena of an active volcano such as Stromboli, 



