EDITORIAL. 
287 
proved,  reports  were  received  from  the  various  committees,  and  other  usual 
business  of  an  annual  meeting  transacted.  The  new  and  beautiful  certifi- 
cate of  membership  was  ready  for  distribution  to  the  members,  intended  to 
be  put  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  their  dispensary  stores  as  a  guarantee  of 
'professional  qualification  to  the  medical  profession  and  the  public.  The 
college  have  also  published,  the  past  year,  a  uniform  scale  of  prices.  Its 
affairs  seem  to  be  in  a  very  prosperous  condition  ;  and,  having  the  confidence 
of  the  medical  profession,  it  bids  fair  to  wield  a  powerful  influence,  in- 
creasing in  usefulness  and  professional  advancement.  City  physicians 
favorable  to  the  college  would  do  well  to  write  their  prescriptions  upon 
paper  furnished  them  by  any  of  its  members  gratis,  with  the  names  of  their 
dispensers  printed  upon  it." 
Elements  of  Chemical  and  Physical  Geology.    By  Gustav  Bischof,  Ph.  D., 
Prof,  of  Chemistry  and  Technology  in  the  University  of  Bonn.  Translated 
from  the  MS.  of  the  author  by  Benjamin  II.  Paul,  F.C.S.,  and  J.  Drum- 
mond,  M.D.    Vol.  1.  London  :  1854.    Printed  for  the  Cavendish  Society. 
This  is  the  first  of  the  three  volumes  which  are  to  constitute  the  work  in 
its  English  dress.    When  the  Cavendish  Society  entertained  the  idea  of 
publishing  a  translation  of  Bischof,  they  determined  to  consult  the  author, 
and,  as  his  first  volumes  had  been  published  several  years,  to  get  him  to 
prepare  the  copy  for  an  English  edition,  which  should  not  exceed  1500  pages 
in  extent — the  German  edition  extending  to  3300 — which  was  accordingly 
done.    The  author  remarks,  "The  present  edition,  indeed,  is  by  no  means 
a  mere  translation  or  abridgement  of  the  German,  but  an  independent  work, 
in  which  the  chemico-geological  facts  ascertained  since  the  preparation  of 
the  latter  have  been  taken  up  so  far  as  space  permitted. "    The  earnest 
Neptunian  opinions  of  the  author  are  sustained  by  very  numerous  observa- 
tions and  arguments,  and  some  of  his  developments  in  regard  to  the  remark- 
able influences  of  gases  in  solution  in  water,  and  in  the  atmosphere,  are 
exceedingly  interesting,  and  have  led  him  to  many  views  as  novel  as  they 
at  first  are  startling,  as  in  the  following  paragraphs  : 
"  When  all  these  facts  are  considered,  we  cannot  but  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  sulphur  is  in  no  case  a  primitive  production,  but,  as  far  as  regards  its 
principal  localities,  has  resulted  from  the  decomposition  of  sulphuretted  hy- 
drogen." 
"  Like  carbon,  sulphur  appears  to  owe  its  existence  in  a  free  state  to  the 
organic  kingdom.  Carbonic  acid  is  decomposed  by  living  plants;  sulphates 
are  decomposed  by  dead  organic  matter.  In  this  instance,  as  in  so  many 
others,  the  important  influence  of  the  organic  kingdom  upon  the  inorganic  is 
perceptible,  aud  the  existence  of  sulphur,  prior  to  organic  life,  appears  verv 
doubtful." 
Liebig  and  others  have  referred  the  origin  of  the  diamond  to  organic  matter, 
that  chemist  attributing  it  to  a  gradual  isolation  of  the  carbon  by  .the  re- 
moval of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  by  a  process  of  decay.  Our  author  combats 
this  view  by  showing  that  the  only  rock  in  which  the  diamond  has  been  found 
in  situ,  is  of  far  later  date  than  the  coal  formations  in  which  we  would  most 
likely  be  induced  to  look  for  them,  and  refers  their  formation  rather  to  the 
