October 10, 1884. 



SCIENCE 



365 



— Dr. Ferd. Lowl, of the German university at 

 Prag, has just completed a valuable resume of obser- 

 vations and theories on the making of valleys (Ueber 

 thalbildung, Dominicus, Prag, 1884, 136 p., with 

 many cuts), that should prove of special value to 

 American students of physical geology and geogra- 

 phy. It will serve well as a guide to the German lit- 

 erature on the subject. The contrast is well brought 

 out between the older theory that referred the begin- 

 ning of valleys to splits and cracks in the earth's 

 crust, and the newer that regards them as chiefly 

 independent of these guides; and numerous exam- 

 ples are mentioned to show, that valleys are not only 

 formed in unbroken rocks, but also, that, where the 

 rocks are greatly faulted, the valleys run almost inde- 

 pendent of the fault-lines. The origin of cross-val- 

 leys, on which the author had written previously 

 {Science, i. 325), is again discussed, and carried to a 

 conclusion adverse to that reached by Powell, Tietze, 

 and Medlicott. The views of Kiitimeyer and Stein, 

 as to the revelation of old base-levels in the terraced 



'slopes of Alpine valleys, are disputed chiefly because 

 direct elevatory movement, by which the base-level is 

 changed, is not any longer to be admitted in modern 

 geology; and the canons of the Colorado are referred 

 chiefly to climatic conditions. While we cannot ac- 

 cept these conclusions, the book deserves careful 

 study. 



— The recent visit of Dr. C. V. Kiley to Europe, on 

 a mission from the Agricultural department, is noticed 

 in a recent number of Mature, which says that during 

 his two months' sojourn in Europe he has twice been 

 on the continent, and has visited correspondents and 

 acquaintances both there and in England, examining 

 the insect collections in various museums, and espe- 

 cially at South Kensington. He speaks favorably of 

 the lasting influence for good which the International 

 forestry exhibition at Edinburgh will have, and of 

 the Serrel serigraph, — an American invention, which 

 has of late years been perfected in Lyons, and which 

 he thinks is destined to revolutionize silk-reeling and 

 profoundly influence silk-culture, which is just now 

 attracting unusual attention in America. He was 

 also much interested with the investigations into the 

 life-habits of the Aphididae that are being carried on 

 by Jules Lichten stein at Montpellier, and with the 

 thoroughness with which the French authorities en- 

 courage experimental research in advanced agricul- 

 ture. He received a warm welcome at Montpellier, 

 whither he went at the invitation of the French 

 minister of agriculture to explain some new methods 

 of dealing with the Phylloxera, and where he found 

 his own recommendations of previous years so fully 

 carried out. He was also surprised at the very ex- 

 tensive and successful experiments with American 

 vines carried on at Pageset, near Nimes. At a meet- 

 ing of the Societe d' agriculture d'Herault, held on 

 June 30, he read a paper entitled " Quelques mots 

 sur les insecticides aux £tats-Unis, et proposition 

 d'un nouveau remede," which appears in full, with 

 an account of the discussion, etc., in Le Messager 

 agricole for July 10, 1884. The 'new' remedy is 

 kerosene emulsion, which has been successfully used, 



especially against Coccidae, in the United States. Its 

 application against the Phylloxera is recommended 

 in much the same manner as is used with regard to 

 sul pho-carbon ate of potassium. The proportions rec- 

 ommended are three hundred or four hundred grams 

 of the emulsion in forty litres of water. 



— A new feature in the German market is Caucasian 

 petroleum. The first sixteen wagon-loads of petro- 

 leum by the Marienburg-Mlawbraer railway recently 

 crossed the German frontier, and sixty more are to 

 follow. The German-Russian naphtha-import com- 

 pany has acquired land on the frontier at lllowo, and 

 here three reservoirs holding seventy-five wagon-loads 

 each are set up; from these reservoirs the petroleum 

 is to be pumped by steam-power into the German 

 wagons. 



— The mineral wealth of the Weser hills is becom- 

 ing more clearly recognized in Germany. Ironstone 

 beds have recently been found in several places, which 

 seem to be connected and to form one long vein. 



— Efforts to cultivate the tea-plant are now being 

 made in several parts of Europe. In France, on the 

 lower Loire, the plants have been extensively set; but 

 it is still a question whether the leaves will retain 

 their characteristic aroma on a foreign soil. In Sicily 

 the plants set three years ago at Messina are strong 

 and healthy, and have flourished in leaf and seed. 

 Russia has also made the attempt, the first planting 

 being at ten versts from Aleschbri on the Dnieper, 

 and proving satisfactory; and plants have also been 

 sent from Odessa to Suchum. In Germany the Sile- 

 sian committee of agriculture have received seed and 

 directions from Professor Goppert of Breslau, with a 

 recommendation to attempt their cultivation. 



— The second part of the Zeitschrift fur wissen- 

 schaftliche mlkroskopie, etc., confirms our favorable 

 opinion formed by the examination of the first num- 

 ber of the new journal, and we think the publication 

 will soon become indispensable to active workers with 

 the microscope. Microscopy is no longer the simple 

 undertaking of a few years ago, but an art, manifold 

 and elaborate in both its principles and its methods. 

 Indeed, no one can be in the front rank of discovery 

 in those fields where the microscope is the essential 

 instrument of investigation, unless- acquainted with 

 the most recent advances of microscopical technique. 

 The new Zeitschrift will be valuable, because it is to 

 be the central repertorium for gathering and render- 

 ing accessible the improvements of the microscopist's 

 art. We praise the periodical in question, because 

 it does well what it undertakes to do. 



We have to notice also another new journal, the 

 Recuell zoologique Suisse, comprising, according to 

 title-page, "l'embryologie, l'anatomie et l'histologie 

 comparees, la physiologie, Tethnologie, la classification 

 des animaux vivant ou fossiles." It is edited by Dr. 

 Hermann Fol, with the collaboration of a number of 

 his compatriots. It appears in parts of from a hun- 

 dred to a hundred and fifty pages each, at irregular 

 intervals. Four will form a volume of five or six 

 hundred pages, with from twenty to twenty-five plates, 

 in octavo. It is expected that the volumes will 



