Geological Society. 287 



electron and the dimensions of electrical quantities. There are a 

 few obvious slips, such as the one on p. 69, line 6 from the bottom, 

 where " dynes " should read " ergs." 



To all who wish for a simple and easily-digested account of the 

 electron theory we can heartily recommend this work, to which 

 Dr. Johnstone Stoney contributes an interesting preface. 



Aether : a Theory of the Nature of Aether and its Place in the ^ 

 Universe. By Hxgh WouDS, M.D., M.A.O., B.Ch., B.A., 

 D.P.H. London: "The Electrician" Printing and Publishing 

 Co., Ltd. 1906. Pp. xii+100. 

 According to the author of this book, aether consists of very 

 minute particles in complete contact, without any intervening 

 spaces between. The solar system is immersed in " an enormous 

 volume of swiftly -flowing aether." The resistance offered to the 

 free flow of aether by the partially impervious bodies floating in it 

 gives rise to " whirls," which, " by their continual action, make 

 the bodies more or less spherical, aud set them rotating," while the 

 whirl surrounding a body tends to draw other bodies in its neigh- 

 bourhood " centripetally towards the centre of the solid spherical 

 body." Hence gravitation may be accounted for " in a perfectly 

 rational manner." AH other physical occurrences, such as the 

 phenomena of heat, light, magnetism, electricity, &c, are made to 

 follow in a similar " rational manner " from " the author's theory." 

 And lest there should be some captious critics ready with 

 objections, we have the following defiance flung at them on one of 

 the concluding pages : " If our theory is scouted and cast aside, 

 what other theory with a shadow of probability can be proposed 

 in its stead ? " 



XXI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from vol. xii. p. 532.] 



November 7th, 1906.— Sir Archibald Geikie, D.C.L., Sc.D., 

 Sec.R.S., President, in the Chair. 

 r PHE following communications were read : — 



1. ' The Upper Carboniferous Pocks of West Devon and Xorth 

 Cornwall.' By E. A. NeweU Arber, M.A,, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



After a reference to the previous work in the area, the author 

 gives a description of the coast-sections, which display a highly- 

 disturbed sequence of Upper Carboniferous rocks. Special atten- 

 tion is paid to two lithological types : — The Carbonaceous Kocks 

 which contain inconstant and impersistent beds of the impure 

 smutty coal, known locally as 'culm': these beds have yielded 

 plant-remains; and the Calcareous Rocks, partly of marine and partly 

 of freshwater origin, consisting of well-marked, impersistent bands 

 of impure limestone, and conglomeratic beds of calcareous nodules 

 embedded in shales. One of the limestone-bands, the Mouthmill 

 Limestone, is marine, and contains an abundant fauna; while in 

 others the only fossils are Catamites Sacl-civi and Alethopteris 



