JANUARY 25, 1884.] 
equally probable, may arise from the greater 
dryness of air in the park region as compared 
with that of Iceland and New Zealand. 
The chemical investigation of the Yellow- 
stone springs is not yet sufficiently complete 
for their satisfactory classification; but they 
are broadly divided by Dr. Peale into those of 
calcareous, siliceous, and aluminous character. 
The so-called aluminous springs, being those 
highly charged with mud, or matter in a state 
of suspension, will doubtless eventually be 
relegated to one or other of the first-named 
classes. The possible therapeutical value of 
the springs is as yet practically untested ; and 
it is to be remarked in this connection, that the 
climate is such as in any event to be unfavor- 
able to those suffering from debilitating dis- 
eases. A few experiments on the color of the 
waters are recorded ; but these, it must be con- 
fessed, are unsatisfactory, as the samples had 
been long in bottle; and, apart from this, it 
‘is doubtful whether the waters of the park offer 
peculiarities so marked as to throw any im- 
portant light on a subject which has already 
been elaborately studied by physicists and 
chemists. 
The older theory of geyser action requiring 
a steam-chamber which blew off, from time to 
time, through a water-trap connecting with a 
tubular orifice, and implying a quite excep- 
tional co-ordination of circumstances, became 
SCIENCE. e 
107 
virtually untenable when geysers were discov- 
ered in such considerable numbers in different 
regions. Bunsen’s explanation, depending on 
the superheating of water under pressure in 
fissures, or more or less tubular receptacles, 
seriously modified in action by local circum- 
stances, is considered sufficient to account for 
the observed phenomena. 
Appended to this report, is a valuable bibli- 
ography of the park, and of the literature treat- 
ing of geysers and hot-springs generally. 
In the latter part of the volume, Mr. Gannett 
reviews the geographical work on which the 
excellent maps accompanying the report are 
based. 
Notwithstanding the amount of precise in- 
formation now made available on this region, 
much yet evidently remains to be discovered. 
The field-work on which the report on the park 
is based extended over about two months only ; 
and the observations have too often been of 
what Mr. Holmes regretfully describes as the 
‘ twenty-five-mile-a-day kind.’ Armed with 
the present report, embodying the results so far 
obtained, each scientific visitor for a long time 
to come may well hope to add some important 
new facts. ‘The definition of the catchment 
areas from which the various groups of springs 
are supplied, and the circulation of the under- 
ground waters, may be specially noted as an 
important point scarcely yet touched. 
RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF Ss CLENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Princeton science club. 
Nov. 8.— Dr. L. W. McCay reported that the Perrot 
method for estimating P, O; can only give accurate 
results providing chlorine beabsent. This, however, 
is seldom the case in apatites, superphosphates, etc. 
He therefore proposes a modification, — dissolving 
the tri-argentic phosphate from the filter-paper with 
dilute nitric acid, thereby leaving the chloride, and 
proceeding at once to titrate the silver according to 
-Vallhardt. He reserves for himself the privilege of 
developing the subject. 
Jan. 10.— Dr. Halsted opened a discussion as to 
whether Euclid was a suitable text-book for elemen- 
tary geometrical instruction; — Mr. Fine read a paper 
on Synthetic solution of a class of problems in max- 
ima and minima on the partition of a segment of a 
circle; — Professor Macloskie, Notes on _ biological 
articles in recent scientific serials; — Dr. McCay, 
_ Analysis of beer made in state of New Jersey;— Mr. 
MeNeill, Determination of co-ordinates of certain 
stars by the meridian circle; — Professor Scott, The 
lamprey (the peculiar flattened shape of the spinal 
cord in the lamprey arises late in larval life, and is 
an acquired peculiarity. In the embryo the dorsal 
roots of the spinal nerves are all connected by a com- 
missure, which also connects the tenth, ninth, and 
seventh nerves together, and with the spinal nerves. 
This commissure apparently forms the lateral nerve. 
The third nerve arises independently, and would 
“seem to be of segmental value); — Professor Osborn, 
A method of double injection of anatomical speci- 
mens (by first injecting the veins through the arteries 
with blue gelatine, then injecting the arteries with 
plaster of paris, which is stopped at the capillaries, 
the veins and arteries can be readily distinguished) ; 
— Professor Young, The cause of the unusual sun- 
sets, On the spectrum of the Pons-Brooks comet. 
Ottawa field-naturalists’ club. 
Jan. 17.— The paper of the evening was by Mr. 
E. Odlum, M.A., of Pembroke, ‘On the sand-plains 
and changes of water-level of the Upper Ottawa;’ 
the portion of the river specially referred to being a 
stretch of some forty miles opposite the town of Pem- 
broke, and extending from the head of the Coulonge 
Lake to the entrance of the reach known as the Deep 
