Notices of Books. 
LOdtober, 
556 
so short a time of exposure to the adtion of the sea should produce 
no decided adtion ? We must therefore utterly repudiate his 
“ obvious conclusion ” that the conditions under which these 
substances were formed exist no longer. 
“ Verifier ” next takes his stand upon metamorphism, by which 
he says, “ sandstone may have been converted into quartz-rock, 
or even into granite.” He ought to be aware that sandstone or 
quartz alone can never form granite, as two other constituents 
are requisite. To some, he tells us, “ hot water charged with 
chemical carbonates seems to have been the agent ” of meta- 
morphism. Why some carbonates should be designated as 
“ chemical ” we are not sufficiently versed in pseudo-scepticism 
to comprehend. He asserts that “ it has been impossible to realise 
metamorphism, or even to imitate it in the laboratory,” and 
Imagines he has reached “ one unmistakable conclusion, viz., that 
metamorphism is a thing of the past, its processes not now dis- 
coverable, and it must therefore be dismissed from the category 
of ‘ Causes now in adtion.’ ” 
If, however, the author had taken the trouble to make himself 
acquainted with the results of modern scientific research, he 
might have become a wiser and a less confident man. The re- 
searches of Messrs. Daubree, Sterry Hunt, and others have 
decidedly proved that metamorphism can be imitated in the 
laboratory, and that neither a large quantity of water nor a very 
high temperature is requisite. We would recommend him to 
read the “ Annales des Mines ” (Ser. 3, vi., 78 ; Ser. 5, xii. , 289 ; 
Ser. 6, vi., 78), “ Memoires Academie des Sciences ” (xvii., 
i860), “ Bulletin de la Soc. Geol. de France ” (Ser. 2, iii. , 547), 
“ Ann. de Chimie ” (xxiv., 258), “ Quart. Journal Geol. Soc. of 
London ” (xv., 488). His assertion that metamorphism is not 
still going on is utterly unproven, and it is, to say the least, con- 
trary to all probability. There are certainly metamorphitic 
rocks which have been produced at comparatively recent dates. 
From the very nature of the case we cannot expedt to “ assist ” 
— in the French sense of the word — at the process. Why meta- 
morph products should be more common among the older than 
the more recent formations must be self-evident to every 
geologist. 
Turning to another part of the book, we find the assertion 
that earthquakes are most common in plains and low grounds. 
This is exadtly the reverse of the truth : the great earthquake 
regions — the western coast of South America, the West Indies, 
New Zealand, Iceland, Japan, the Malay Islands (excluding 
Borneo, which is more level), Calabria, the Iberian Peninsula, 
and the Greek Islands — are all mountainous. On the other 
hand, the vast plains of Eastern South America, of Central and 
Eastern Europe, and Northern Asia, are almost free from earth- 
quake adtion. 
There can surely be no occasion for us to wade further through 
