Long ago H. D. Rogers showed that the coal regions of Pennsylvania are divided into longitudinal basins or troughs. The first series embraces the area between the Great Valley and the Alleghany Mountains and contains the several anthracite fields as well as the semi-bituminous fields of Broad Top and the Potomac River. Beyond the Alleghanies are six well marked basins containing bituminous coal.

Along a line from central Ohio, eastward to the Potomac coal field, one finds noteworthy variations in dip, the amount being insignificant in Ohio, but very great in the first series of basins. The increase is not regular, there being no change practically from the coke basins of eastern Pennsylvania until within three or four miles of the Potomac field, where the dip becomes very abrupt. This line shows the extremes of variations, for further northward there is in all of the basins a diminution of disturbance, even in the anthracite areas, while southward there is a similar decrease, except in the last.

Analysis of coal samples from the Pittsburg bed, in the several basins, show a progressive decrease in proportion of volatile matter toward the east or southeast. H.D. Rogers regarded this decrease as due to influence of steam or other gas escaping from crevices made during the folding of the rocks, for he asserted that the volatile increased as the flexures diminished in strength. Stevenson in 1877 showed that no such relation exists. Lesley in 1879 thought that earth

heat might have caused the change, as coals in the anthracite region were buried under a very deep covering of rocks; but there is no evidence that the coal measures were thicker at the east than in western Pennsylvania, while there is every reason for supposing that the coal measures were thinner there than at the southwest. There is therefore no good ground for supposing that the earthheat would be effective, for in Virginia, where the thickness is very great, the coals at the bottom of the column are very rich in volatile matter.

Professor Lesley has suggested that the change in the coal might have been due to oxidation. The rocks of the anthracite region are consolidated gravels with little of argillaceous matters, whereas those of the bituminous area are largely argillaceous, which, being undisturbed, lute down the coals, preventing percolation of water and the escape of gases. But in fact the bituminous fields afford all types of coal from highly bituminous to hard anthracite, and sections in many portions of the anthracite fields show more clay beds than do those in S. W. Virginia where the coal is highly bituminous.

It is not necessary to regard metamorphism as the sole cause of anthracite. It is not called in to explain a variation of ten per cent. in the same beds within short distances, and it cannot explain the occurrence of bituminous in one bench and of anthracite in another in the same opening in Sullivan County, Pa., or equally of semibituminous and dry anthracite in different benches of the Mammoth. It does seem as though the conversion of the coal must have been practically complete before entombment; otherwise the variations of coal of the same age in different areas would seem to be inexplicable.

In Pennsylvania the decrease in volatile bears no relation to the extent of plication, but it bears close relation to the thickening

of the coal. The decrease in all of the areas is toward the old shore line at the north and northeast. In the anthracite area it is very gradual until one passes the prongs in the southern field, where the thickness of coal increases abruptly. With that abrupt increase in thickness is an equally abrupt change in the amount of volatile. It seems probable that the anthracite of Pennsylvania is due to the long continuance of coal-making periods during which the chemical change was unchecked, leading eventually to complete loss of the hydrogen and oxygen.

At the conclusion of the paper, discussion followed, but failed to shake the speaker's main points. A paper by J. E. Wortman, on 'The Geology of the Bad Lands,' was postponed until the next meeting. J. F. KEMP, Secretary.

SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.

BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MATHE-
MATICAL SOCIETY, MARCH.

Arthur Cayley: PROFESSOR CHARLOTTE ANGAS
SCOTT.

The Theory of Functions: PROFESSOR W. F. OSGOOD.

On the Introduction of the Notion of Hyperbolic Functions: PROFESSOR M. W. HASKELL. Notes; New Publications.

THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, APRIL.

The Superiority of Barium Hydroxide Solution as an Absorbent in Carbon Determinations in Steel: JAMES O. HANDY.

The Contributions of Chemistry to the Methods

of Preventing and Extinguishing Conflagration: THOMAS H. NORTON.

Note on the Estimation of Iron and Alumina in Phosphates: K. P. MCELROY.

Some Practical Points in the Manufacture of Nitroglycerol: J. E. BLOMÉN.

Methods for the Examination of Glycerol for use in the Nytroglycerol Manufacture: G. E. BARTON.

Estimation of Tellurium in Copper Bullion: CABELL WHITEHEAD.

The Use of Sulphurous Acid (HNaSO3) in Manufacture of Glocose Syrup and GrapeSugar: HORACE E. HORTON.

The Furfurol-Yielding Constituents of Plants:

C. F. CROSS, E. J. BEVAN and C. BEADLE. The Separation of Solid and Liquid Fatty Acids: E. TWITCHELL.

Improved Methods of Water Analysis: IRVING A. BACHMAN.

A Cheap Form of Self-Regulating Gas Generator: W. W. ANDREWS.

Some of the Properties of Calcium Carbide: F.
P. VENABLE and THOMAS CLARKE.
Note on the Determination of Zinc: P. W.
SHIMER.

On the Determination of Cane-Sugar in the
Presence of Commercial Glucose: H. A.
WEBER and WILLIAM MCPHERSON.
On the Action of Acetic and Hydrochloric Acids
on Sucrose: H. A. WEBER and WILLIAM
MCPHERSON.

Method of Determining Chromium in Chrome
Ore: EDMUND CLARK.
New Books; Notes.

NEW BOOKS.

Manual of Geology. JAMES D. DANA. Fourth Edition. New York, American Book Co. 1895. Pp. 1087.

A Course of Elementary Practical Bacteriology. A. A. KANTHACK and J. H. DRYSDALE. London and New York, Macmillan & Co. 1895. Pp. xxii+181. $1.10. Elementary Biology. EMANUEL R. BOYER. Boston, D. C. Heath & Co. Pp. xxi + 235.

The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota. N. H. WINCHELL. Minneapolis, Harrison & Smith. 1895. Pp. 254.

years and centuries even, if we broaden our view sufficiently to include those of Europe. Such indeed are the customs, the traditions and the general policy of a great university with decades or centuries of history behind it. Every ancient seat of learning has a character peculiarly its own. There is an indescribable charm attaching to crumbling, ivy-cumbered walls; to time-stained libraries, that point with motionless fingers back toward their more silent authors; a subtle influence in the steady gaze of the famous sons of the college, as they look down on the younger generation from the deepening canvas in the memorial portrait hall. Who that has a fibre of his soul tuned to vibrate in unison with melodies of the past can fail to feel an energetic thrill as he stands among the distinguished sons of the Harvard of former years ranged around the walls of 'Memorial Hall,' or as he walks softly through the portrait gallery of Christ Church College in Oxford? These influences are not to be despised. They are an inheritance from the long past and are still potent. Addison still walks under the arching trees by the quiet stream at the back of Magdalen College; Wolsey and Wesley and Gladstone still linger in the noble hall of Christ Church; and Newton's rooms remain near the imposing gateway of Trinity College in Cambridge. I love to step within the charmed circle of such subtle influences, to yield to the magic spell, and to count myself a part of all this glorious past.

But the modern spirit prevades the oldest institutions, and great seats of learning are rising on new foundations. In both old and new the most marked characteristic of the teaching of the present is the scientific method. It has pervaded every department and has proved the leaven that, being taken and hid in the ancient curriculum, as inert as the three measures of meal, has leavened the whole. Till the introduction of serious scientific study with laboratory

facilities, the educational methods which had prevailed for centuries were still current. As late as twenty-five years ago in a respectable New England college it was not possible for a student to learn his science by means of laboratory study. All this has now changed, and no less important a change has taken place in the teaching of language and literature. It is significant that this advance in pedagogical practice, the introduction of the method by investigation as compared with mere memoriter acquisition, has been coincident with the introduction of the serious study of science into our American colleges and universities. Twenty-five years ago the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the way by introducing the physical laboratory into the study of physics. Some progress had already been made in the teaching of chemistry by direct contact with chemical reactions at the work table. It is only fifty years since Liebig inaugurated the system of studying chemistry by the laboratory method, and it is highly probable that the physical laboratory established by William B. Rogers in Boston marked the introduction into the regular curriculum of instruction in physics by experiment.* I venture to say that no greater success has followed any new departure in education. The physical laboratory is now a necessary part of every institution devoted to higher learning; its growth has been phenomenal. Enormous sums of money have been expended for physical laboratories and their equipment. The example set by this oldest branch of science has had a most beneficent influence in several directions. It has improved the quality of the work in the secondary schools. The physical laboratory is now a necessary part of every first-class high school equipment. It has also stimulated and advanced original work. Every

*Professor Mendenhall in The Quarterly Calendar of the University of Chicago, August, 1894.

instructor competent to fill a professor's chair in physics is now expected to add something to the stock of knowledge by his independent investigations. It has thus made graduate instruction possible in American universities, a movement having the most hopeful outlook and of the most profound educational import.

A third and most complete leavening influence is that the method by experiment and original investigation adopted by science has compelled other departments of learning to become its imitators, so that now the laboratory method prevails in nearly every department of learning. This result is too patent to be questioned even. Psychology, language and history have yielded to the powerful example set by physics and chemistry. Archæology has its work-room, its laboratory; language its photographs, its projections, its casts and reproduction of ancient life and times; while psychology has appropriated not only the methods, but the apparatus of the physicist.

Now a movement which has been such a powerful operator in solving the problem of education in every branch of learning has a significant value in the intellectual training of American youth. In fact, the value of science in any system of liberal education is so generally admitted that it is an almost needless expenditure of energy to enter into a discussion relative to its merits. new comer for whom room is benevolently or patronizingly made in order that it may display its powers and demonstrate its worth. It acknowledges other claimants as peers, but admits no superiors. It came long ago to stay.

It is no

I should like to point out two or three aspects of the study and pursuit of science not often alluded to or recognized, but on which I lay much stress. The first relates to the cultivation and chastening of the faculty of imagination. Sir Benjamin Brodie said in a presidential address to the Royal

Society many years ago: "Physical investigation, more than anything besides, helps to teach us the actual value and right use of the imagination-of that wondrous faculty which, left to ramble uncontrolled, leads us astray into a wilderness of perplexities and errors, a land of mists and shadows; but which, properly controlled by experience and reflection, becomes the noblest attribute of man, the source of poetic genius, the instrument of discovery in science, without the aid of which Newton would never have invented fluxions, nor Davy have decomposed the earths and alkalies, nor would Columbus have found another continent." It would be a grievous mistake to suppose that the cultivation of science contributes only to accuracy and exactness; to the development of the habit and power of observation, and to the education of the reasoning faculty as applied to the concrete to the objects and phenomena of nature. All of these constitute a valuable training and are demonstrable results of an honest effort to understand and coördinate the phenomena of nature. But as soon as the student of science passes beyond the mere elements he must train himself to the habit of conceiving things which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man." He must emancipate himself as much as possible from the domination of his sensations, and must learn that sense-perceptions should not be projected into the outer world of nature, but that they are only symbols of objective phenomena presented to consciousness, which the imagination, aided by reason and reflection, must interpret. Not only is the imagination called into activity by the common occurrences of the natural world lying along the level and the horizon of man's experience, but it is powerfully stimulated by the more remote phenomena above him and below him. Man contemplates the starry firmament on high, the spangled heavens,