1870.] Geology and Pahvoniology. 537 



his notice, and sums np with some very excellent rules for the avoid- 

 ance of such disasters. 



Safety- Valve for Steam-Boilers. — This apparatus is intended to 

 serve the double functions of fusible plugs and low-water alarums. 

 An internally loaded valve of spherical form is placed in a sfceam- 

 chamber, and a pair of steam-pipes connect this chamber with the 

 furnace crown of the boiler. The safety-valve is dead weighted, and 

 should the pressure of steam lift it up, it escapes into the chamber 

 and down the pipes into the furnace. Any over-pressure is thus 

 dealt with, and the motion of a float is made to act in a similar 

 way on the same safety-valve. Another independent safety-valve 

 is adjusted to blow off at a pressure somewhat lower than that at 

 which the dead weight is adjusted. 



Liverpool Polytechnic Society. — A very interesting paper was 

 recently read before this Society by Mr. T. B. Thorburn, C.E., 

 Surveyor to the Birkenhead Commissioners, " On the method 

 adopted in Birkenhead for Ventilating Sewers, and carrying away 

 the Gaseous Emanations generated therein." This paper, which it 

 would be impossible to follow in detail, contains an account of the 

 extent of the Birkenhead sewers, and not only states the different 

 ventilators employed, but gives also the cost of constructing them 

 according to the several arrangements adopted. 



7. GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



{Including the Proceedings of the Geological Society and Notices 

 of Recent Geological Works.) 



Professor John Phillips, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., F.B.S. &c— Few 



men have by their own labours contributed a larger share to the 

 advancement of scientific knowledge than Professor Phillips, and 

 we are glad to obtain a sketch of his career,* which is probably as 

 full of noble achievements as that of any scientific man we have 

 ever known. Brought very young (by the death of his father) 

 under the care of his uncle, William Smith, originally known as 

 " Strata Smith," and afterwards called " the father of English 

 Geology," he was early led to take delight in the identification of 

 strata by their fossil contents, and accompanied his uncle through 

 the greater part of England during his geological investigations, 

 which resulted in the first geological map of England and Wales. 

 Eew men of science have had a more distinguished career. Ap- 

 pointed Keeper of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society's Museum 

 in 1825, that Society grew and flourished under his care, and led in 



* 'Geol. Mag.,' vol. vii., 1870, p. 301. 



