414 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



Proceedings of the Geological Society. 



A large portion of the last number of the Society's Journal 

 is taken up with the Annual Report and the Address of the Presi- 

 dent (Mr. W. W. Smyth). The former contains nothing specially 

 worthy of notice ; but the Address is a valuable resume of modern 

 opinions on questions of Chemical Geology, which the President's 

 high reputation invests with exceptional importance. The origin 

 of serpentine, for instance, is a question which has for many years 

 occupied the attention of petrologists, and Mr. Smyth brings 

 together the chief facts and arguments in support of the several 

 theories which deserve consideration. Among those who demur to 

 the igneous origin of serpentine, two principal views may be dis- 

 cerned. That held by the majority is that generally serpentine has 

 been derived from a " decidedly crystalline unstratined rock, in 

 which the constituents are augite, or hornblende, and a felspar; 

 whilst a few investigators, chiefly, however, for a special region, 

 term it an indigenous rock, as having been altered in situ from a 

 sea-borne sediment.'' Mr. Smyth, like most petrologists, takes 

 exception to Dr. Sterry Hunt's view that the silicated minerals in 

 which the structure of Eozoon has been preserved "have been 

 formed, not by subsequent metamorphism in deeply buried sedi- 

 ments, but by re-actions going on at the earth's surface." The 

 President likewise discusses at some length M. Daubree's memoir on 

 Meteorites, especially with reference to the original condition of the 

 earth, and contrasts the results of that author's experiments with 

 the unsupported dicta of M. Friedrich Mohr in his work entitled 

 1 Geschichte der Erde.' 



The part devoted to the Proceedings of the Society commences 

 with an important paper, by Professor Huxley, on a new specimen 

 of Telerpeton Elginense, in which the author shows "that this 

 animal is one of the Eeptilia devoid of the slightest indication of 

 affinity with the Amphibia." Professor Huxley further refers it 

 to the sub-order Kionocrania of the true Lacertilia, which contains 

 all the modern Lizards. This conclusion of course renders it more 

 probable than ever that the age of the deposit in which it is found, 

 associated with Stagonolepis, Hyperodapedo?!, &c, is Trias and not 

 Old Bed Sandstone ; and we have recently learnt that further con- 

 firmation of the Mesozoic age of the strata has been obtained by the 

 discovery of one of its associates in Warwickshire. 



Mr. S. Y. Wood, jun., in the next paper, describes a section at 

 Litcham exhibiting contorted and broken layers of chalk and flint 

 bands, as affording evidence of Land-glaciation during the earlier 

 part of the Glacial period in England. This is followed by a paper, 

 by Mr. F. W. Harmer, "On the Existence of a Third Boulder- 



