Proceedings of Learned Societies. 315 



Mesh formers . . . .5*1 



Fat . . . . .2-9 



Starch, etc. . ■ . . 22*2 



This dietary closely resembles the war dietary of the continental 

 armies, except that as potatoes are largely used in garrison, and 

 not on active service, the starch and consequently the total carbon 

 is' increased. Dr. Playfair concludes that a war diet for soldiers 

 should have at the very least a daily supply of five and a half ounces 

 of flesh formers in the food, as this quantity is absolutely necessary 

 to enable men to march fourteen miles daily, with a weight of sixty 

 pounds of arms and accoutrements, without exhausting their own 

 tissues to obtain the necessary amount of muscular force. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.— April 5. 



Ox the Chalk Districts of England. — Mr. Whitaker made 

 several interesting valuable communications on the arrangements of 

 the beds in the chalk districts. In the Isle of Thanet, a bed of 

 comparatively flintless chalk overlies one with many flints. The 

 higher division, or Margate chalk, contains but few scattered flint- 

 nodules, and shows well-marked ]ST.W. and S.E. joints. The lower 

 division, or Broadstairs chalk, on the other hand, is less jointed, and 

 has many continuous layers of flint. The beds form a very flat arch, 

 as may be seen along the coast from Kingsgate to Pegwell, between 

 which places the flinty chalk rises up from below that with few flints. 

 It is remarkable that in this neighbourhood the Thanet beds are 

 conformable to the chalk, the green coated nodular flints at the 

 bottom of the former resting on a peculiar bed of tabular flint at the 

 top of the latter. In carrying on the geological survey of Bucking- 

 hamshire, the Totternhoe stone (with its underlying chalky marl), 

 which had been sometimes thought to be the representative of the 

 Upper Greensand, was traced south-westwards into a part where 

 that formation was fairly developed, and was then found to overlie 

 it. The divisions of the chalk in Buckinghamshire are, in ascending 

 order — 



(1.) Chalk-marl, with stony layers here and there, and at top. 

 (2.) The Totternhoe stone, generally two layers of rather 

 brownish sandy chalk, hard, with dark grains of small 

 brown nodules. 

 (3.) Marly white chalk, without flints. 

 (4.) Hard-bedded white chalk without flints, forming generally 



a low ridge at the foot of the great escarpment. 

 (5.) The thick mass of white chalk without flints, or with a 



very few flints in the uppermost part, and at top. 

 (6.) The " chalk-rock," a thin hard bed or beds, with green- 

 coated nodules. 

 (7.) The chalk with flint, the lowermost part only coming on 

 near the top of the escarpment, the rest bed by bed over 

 the tableland southwards, the angle of dip being rather 

 more than that of the slope of the ground. . 



