Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-08-18
SCIENCE.
Second Days Session of the American Sol
enilfie Association.


INDIANAPOLIS, August II. - The
American Scientific Convention scOn-
vened to-day. Professor Asa Grey,
the President of this, the twentieth
meeting of the Association, took the
chair about 10 O'Clock and read letter
from the officials of the Louisville and
Nashville railroad, rendering the cour-
tesies of the road to the members of
the Association for trip to the Mann
moth Cave.
On motion, a vote of thanks was
returned for the invitation.
The President announced that a
meeting of the standing committees
will be held at 9 o'clock Monday
morning, to decide upon the place for
the next meeting of the Association,
and to nominate officers for the next
year.
The standing committees submitted
a report recommending the acceptance
OF the invitation extended by the citi-
| zens of TerFe Haute to make an ex-
cursiOn tomorrow, as invited in the
programme issued by the local COM
mittee.
On motion the thanks of the assOci-
alton We're rendered the citizens of
TerrerHaute and the railroad COM
pany for invitations. The President
announced that it was intended that
the business sessions of the assOcia-
ton should be held at Terre Haute,
and that there would probably be a
lecture delivered in the evening.
The General Secretary read num-
h1vz g,Fv, hTvN hn
mating Committee, for membership p
of the association, making the number
of new members, including those ad-
mitted yesterday, seventy-three.
Professor Putnam, the General Sec
rotary, reported that additional papers
had been handed to him for entry,
which runs the number up to eighty
four.
The regular session of the associa-
ton then adjourned until O'Clock
pm, under the rules adopted yester-
nay, and the members separated into
sections.
SecG B was called to order by the
President, Professor Swallow, who
requested the section to choose a
temporary chairman for each day.
Subsequently Professor McCheSny was
nominated and elected President pro
TEN.
Professor Elliott Couts' paper on
"The Mechanism and Extension Of
Birds Wings" was then read in his
absence by General Secretary Putnam.
Prot. Eugene W. Hilgard, of Missis-
sippi, then read his paper on the geo.
logical history of the American Gulf,
which he illustrated by maps showing
the formation of the Mississippi EN-
bankment from Cairo to the Gulf
coast. The great embankment was
originally a portion of the Gulf, which
heads at Cairo, and is bordered chiefly
by carbOniferOus rocks. 1t has been
filled up by successive depositiOns o.
the cretains, tertiary and quaternary
formations. Its study is specially inn
pOrtant for comparison with the In.
terror of the continent. The subdiVis-
ions Of cretains in Mississippi and Al
abama are parallel to those OF the in.
terror. In Louisiana they probably
embrace the rock-salt beds, as well as
the sulphur and gypsum OF Calcasieu.
Most of the succeeding territory is of
Ignite character, but always inter-
spersed with marine beds. No marine
tertiary later than the eOcene exists
on the Gulf. The grand gulf group of
rocks fills the whole interval to the
drift. 1t is of a brackish character,
almost devoid of fossils, and proves
the Gulf to have been at that time sep.
arated from the Atlantic. Next came
the orange sand, or stratifed drift,
the strict equivalent of the North
western modified drift on q very large
scale, covering the whole Gulf States
to q considerable depth. GeOlogists
should agree as to more precise use of
the word drift, so as to embrace the
whole period from the tertiary TO the
Champlain era OF depressions. Dur
ing the latter were formed the Port
Hudson palUdal and littoral deposits,
extending along the coast as well as
up to the principal valleys; for exam
pie, up to Memphis and Shreveport;
above these lies the loess or bluff
The present coast, as a whole, rather
advances than recedes, the Missis-
sippi delta, by the strange &C.
tio1 of mud lump upheavaI.
This paper ELECTED quite an extended
discussion, which was participated in
by Professors Swallow, Winchell,
Hilgard, White, Perry, Little, An
drews, Wells and others. Professor
Edwin s. Morse then gave an abstract
illustrated by drawings on the black
board of his paper, on the develop.
ment of the tarsil and corpal bones in
birds.
In the discussion that followed
Professor White, of Iowa, Professor
Hilgard and Professor E. d, Cope
took part, the latter giving an illus
tration on the blackboard of the tran
sition of the bird. Papers were also
read by Professor TheO. Gill on the
characteristics of the primary groups
of the class Of mammals, and by Pro-
fessor Edward D. Cope on the pri-
mary system of fishes.
Section A was called to order by the
permanent chairman, Professor ].
Lawrence Smith, and papers were
read on the following subjects: BY
Professor Daniel KirkwOod, on the
distribution of the mean distance of
the minor planets; by Professor E. B.
Elliott, on the rates OF interest real
lied to inventors In the securities Of
the United States; by Professor John
n. StOckwell, an inquiry concerning
the physical relation between masses
and mean distances of the different
planets; by Professor Samuel D T1l-
man, on chemical equivalency; by
Professor P. II. Vanderweyde, on
the invisible coloric extreme OF the
solar spectrum and the non-coloric
lines or bands In the same; by F. FL.
Safiard, the relation between the dis.
tances and the proper motions Of the
stars; by Professor James Henry, on
the rainfall in the United States; by
Professor Edward r. Taylor, on the
improvements upon Egertz's methods
of determining carbon ia steel. The
members of the association will leave
by a special train on the Terre Haute
and Indianapolis railroad at z O'Clock,
visiting the coal fields and furnaces
in Clay county, arriving at Ierre
Haute tomorrow afternoon, and re-
turn to this city Saturday evening.
A searching investigation has been