Personal and Scientific News. 63 
to the whole that they will give a clear insight into the char- 
acter of the waters tested. 
The United States Geological Survey is now considering 
these points with especial reference to the possihility of devising 
methods of determination which can he carried on in the field 
and which shall be sufficiently accurate for most purposes. The 
experience of the Survey thus far is that a large number of de- 
terminations of approximate accuracy are, in the aggregate, far 
more useful than a few determinations made according to re- 
fined methods. 
Acting along these lines, the Survey has endeavored to in- 
terest the attention of various chemists in the country in this 
matter, and a widespread discussion has been carried on con- 
cerning the most useful determination and the most advantag- 
eous means by which rapid and approximately accurate results 
can be reached. The opinions of these chemists are being col- 
lected, and from them there is in process of construction a 
scheme by which large areas can be chemically surveyed. 
These inquiries cover the organic as well as the inorganic 
determinations, and therefore the scope of the work will be 
such as to meet the needs of those interested in domestic 
water supply as well as those who are seeking information con- 
cerning the best waters for use in boilers. A number of meth- 
ods for field analysis have already been proposed and are being 
practicallv tested, and there is reason to believe that within a 
short time this work will have advanced to a point at which 
it can be placed before the various chemical authorities in the 
countrv as a practicable system and a widespread chemical sur- 
vey of almost incalculable value will have been set on foot. 
New York Academy of Sciences. The regular meeting 
of the Section of Geology and Mineralogy was held at the 
American Museum of Xatural History at 8: 15 P.M.. May 18. 
with professor James I 7 . Kemp in the chair. The first paper 
of the evening was by Dr. George I. Finlay of Columbia Uni- 
versity, and was upon "The Geology of the Xephelite Syenite 
Area at San Jose, Tamaulipas, Mexico." 
In this paper Dr. Finlay said in part : "The town of San 
Jose in the State of Tamaulipas. Mexico, lies in a hollow sur- 
rounded on all sides bv mountains, and is about seventy miles 
from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The range of peaks im- 
mediately to the south of it, and extending for fifteen miles in 
that direction, is of nephelite syenite. The range is known as 
the San Carlos mountains. San Jose itself is on the site of an 
eroded laccolith of andesite (locally known as 'porphyry'), in- 
truded into lime-tone. Some limestone masses stand on end 
within the area of the laccolith, and are thought to have floated 
or worked their way down to their present position during the 
intrusion of the igneous rock. There are two or three hundred 
