Review of Recent Geological Literature. 
271 
virtue to be extracted by placing in pure whiskey or brandy after 
which it is to be drank. Mr. G-says he has seen it tried repeat¬ 
edly and never knew it fail making a cure.” [First annual report of 
the Geological and Agricultural survey of Texas by S. B. Buckley, p. 
122.] The report upon the Carboniferous area is also unworthy of 
the price paid for it. 
Two papers in the volume however deserve a better place of publi¬ 
cation. The first of these is an excellent statement of the upper Creta¬ 
ceous coal field of the lower Rio Grande by Mr. J. Owen, a practical 
and successful miner who has made considerable study of structural 
geology. The other is upon the iron ores of eastern Texas by R. A. 
F. Penrose Jr., and throws much light upon their extent and origin. 
An idea of the report as a whole may be gleaned from the plan of 
operations of the survey, as published on page 4, where it reads that: 
“The work will be particularly directed first to a search for ores, min¬ 
erals, oils, coals, clays, and other materials possessing a commercial 
value. * * * The collection of fossils and study of geologic strata * 
* * will be made subordinate and subsidiary to the economic 
features of the survey.” 
The work gives no credit whatever to the investigations of previous 
geologists in Texas, although their results are frequently restated; nor 
does it acknowledge the extensive services of those who have at its 
request, given it gratis much time and labor. As a whole however, 
the work is a decided advance over any previous attempt, and its de¬ 
fects may be excused on the grounds of haste, and the inexperience of 
the state geologist. That its object is more to secure an appropriation 
than to disseminate geologic information is apparent throughout. By 
a state geologist, unless he be independent of the problematic ways of 
state Legislatures, this object must always be kept in mind, but it 
should not be allowed to dominate the scope and direction of the 
work. These two ideas, the study of the actual geology, and the prev¬ 
alent partiality for the “mineral incubus,” have sometimes come into 
collision, to the detriment of both. No survey can run solely on one 
of these ideas, but like the militia in time of peace, the “incubus” has 
its place if kept subordinate to law. In Arkansas the incubus had run 
wild without law, until subordinated by Prof. Branner. In Texas it is 
in a fair way to take the law into its own hands. 
Les modifications et les transformations des granulites du fttorbihan; par 
Charles Barrois. (From the annals of the SociSte geologique duNord; 
Lille, vol. xv.) After giving in detail his observations in the field and 
illustrating the stratigraphy by several sections and the distribution of 
the massive rocks by geological maps of the areas considered, M. Bar¬ 
rois concludes the study with the following general results : 
The preceding observations show that the great masses of granulyte, 
having an area of several hundred square kilometers, present modifica¬ 
tions, according as they are studied at the center or on their borders, 
modifications at once of composition and structure. The small, gran- 
