﻿Obituary. 
  3S9 
  

  

  Obituary. 
  

  

  Alfred 
  J. 
  Moses, 
  1859-1920. 
  By 
  the 
  death 
  on 
  February 
  

   27th 
  of 
  Alfred 
  J. 
  Moses, 
  professor 
  of 
  mineralogy 
  at 
  Columbia 
  

   University, 
  the 
  science 
  of 
  mineralogy 
  has 
  lost 
  one 
  of 
  its 
  most 
  

   eminent 
  and 
  valued 
  exponents. 
  Professor 
  Moses's 
  work 
  as 
  a 
  

   teacher, 
  as 
  a 
  writer 
  and 
  as 
  a 
  scientific 
  investigator 
  can 
  hardly 
  

   be 
  too 
  highly 
  esteemed 
  and 
  his 
  loss 
  to 
  all 
  branches 
  of 
  his 
  pro- 
  

   fession 
  is 
  most 
  keenly 
  felt. 
  His 
  text 
  book 
  on 
  Mineralogy, 
  Crys- 
  

   tallography 
  and 
  Blowpipe 
  Analysis 
  will 
  for 
  many 
  years 
  remain 
  

   the 
  standard 
  in 
  a 
  large 
  majority 
  of 
  the 
  universities 
  in 
  which 
  

   courses 
  in 
  these 
  subjects 
  are 
  given. 
  His 
  work 
  on 
  The 
  Charac- 
  

   ters 
  of 
  Crystals 
  published 
  in 
  1899 
  is 
  the 
  first 
  treatise 
  published 
  

   in 
  America 
  upon 
  Physical 
  Crystallography, 
  a 
  branch 
  of 
  Crys- 
  

   tallography 
  which 
  was 
  early 
  recognized 
  by 
  him 
  as 
  of 
  primary 
  

   importance 
  to 
  chemists, 
  geologists 
  and 
  mineralogists 
  and 
  which 
  

   has 
  within 
  very 
  recent 
  years 
  assumed 
  a 
  scope, 
  and 
  developed 
  

   practical 
  applications 
  which 
  have 
  more 
  than 
  justified 
  his 
  early 
  

   visions 
  of 
  its 
  future. 
  H. 
  P. 
  Whitlock. 
  

  

  Professor 
  Charles 
  Lapworth, 
  the 
  veteran 
  English 
  geologist, 
  

   died 
  on 
  March 
  13 
  at 
  the 
  age 
  of 
  seventy-eight 
  years. 
  Americans 
  

   will 
  ever 
  be 
  thankful 
  to 
  him 
  for 
  working 
  out 
  the 
  very 
  difficult 
  

   Ordovician 
  succession, 
  where 
  the 
  strata 
  are 
  of 
  dark 
  to 
  black 
  

   shales, 
  on 
  the 
  basis 
  of 
  the 
  entombed 
  graptolites. 
  He 
  was 
  a 
  born 
  

   stratigrapher, 
  with 
  a 
  genius 
  for 
  discerning 
  the 
  minute 
  differ- 
  

   ences 
  in 
  the 
  rock 
  and 
  fauna! 
  sequence. 
  Nature 
  says 
  of 
  him 
  in 
  

   part: 
  

  

  "It 
  happened 
  that 
  the 
  landscape 
  of 
  the 
  Southern 
  Uplands 
  

   concealed 
  under 
  an 
  aspect 
  of 
  simplicity, 
  but 
  revealed 
  to 
  the 
  eye 
  

   of 
  genius, 
  a 
  rock-structure 
  of 
  extraordinary 
  complexity, 
  to 
  

   which 
  there 
  was 
  apparently 
  no 
  clue 
  except 
  a 
  few 
  obscure 
  pen- 
  

   like 
  markings, 
  called 
  graptolites, 
  in 
  the 
  Moffat 
  shales; 
  and 
  

   these 
  had 
  been 
  tried 
  for 
  the 
  purpose, 
  but 
  'turned 
  down' 
  as 
  

   useless. 
  Lapworth, 
  however, 
  determined 
  to 
  give 
  them 
  a 
  second 
  

   chance, 
  and, 
  as 
  a 
  result 
  of 
  systematic 
  collecting, 
  a 
  keen 
  eye 
  for 
  

   a 
  country, 
  and 
  a 
  retentive 
  memory 
  for 
  minute, 
  but 
  significant, 
  

   lithological 
  variation, 
  accompanied 
  by 
  a 
  more 
  elaborate 
  piece 
  of 
  

   geological 
  mapping 
  than 
  his 
  predecessors 
  had 
  ever 
  attempted, 
  

   succeeded 
  in 
  proving 
  that 
  they 
  could 
  be 
  used 
  to 
  unravel 
  a 
  rock- 
  

   succession, 
  even 
  though 
  it 
  was 
  more 
  crumpled, 
  inverted, 
  and 
  

   tangled 
  than 
  any 
  other 
  then 
  known. 
  The 
  rock 
  succession 
  and 
  

   tectonic 
  structure 
  thus 
  made 
  out 
  were 
  tested 
  against 
  the 
  simpler 
  

   succession 
  and 
  relations 
  and 
  the 
  more 
  normal 
  fossils 
  of 
  the 
  

   Girvan 
  area, 
  and 
  proved 
  correct. 
  At 
  the 
  same 
  time, 
  the 
  grap- 
  

   tolite 
  zones 
  that 
  Lapworth 
  had 
  established 
  were 
  tested 
  by 
  com- 
  

   parison 
  with 
  successions 
  made 
  out 
  partly 
  by 
  others, 
  but 
  mainly 
  

   by 
  himself 
  at 
  home, 
  and 
  by 
  workers 
  in 
  Scandinavia, 
  Bohemia, 
  

  

  