New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-09
n,a,e disnersop is obtained four times great as

Mate DISPERSION is obtained four times as great as
when they take the opposite course
Prof C. A. Seely presented illustrations OF New
Method of Filtration. The ordinary mode OF Ultra
t,on is defective in that onc-haf of the paper en-
nIovod 10 not utilized. and that the filtration is
somewhat INSTRUCTED by contact Of the paper with
the funnel. These and other objections obviated
by the devices proposed. For the funnel a tube is
useo, an inch or moro in diameter and about 10
inches long. One end of the tube is covered with
fltering paper, held in place by piece of Swiss
muslin fastened by rubber ring or stout twine
The upper end of the filter-tube has rubber cork
carrying a small rubber tube which leads TO simple
pressure apparatus. To support the tube, rubber
ring fitting il is stretched over upright rod or
peg set into the table or shelf The rapidity of fill
tration may he varied at will by varying the diam
etcr of the tube and the pressure.
Prof Albert X. Leeds described a method which
he had recently devised for the Rapid and Complete
Fabrication of Mercury. II consists in the filtration
of the mercury under atmospheric pressure, through
acIduated water and plugs of cotton wool so as to
remove entirely all the dust dirt and foreign met
ais, well the water other liquids, and TO rem
der large quantities of mercury perfectly dry and
clean IN a very short time.
NETWORK LYCEUM OF NATURAL History:
GEOLOGICAL SECTION March 16.-The President of
the Lyceum, DR.. j. S. Newberry, presented an ex-
tended discussion on Circles of Deposition in
Secondary Sedmentary Rocks, American and
Foreign In this account DR.. Newberry describes
the extension, to these later formations of the views
presented by him at the last meeting of the Ameri
can Association Portland, 1S73 and published iii tho
proceedings thereof and also set forth, with especial
reference to the Paleozoic rocks, in Vol. OF the
Final Report of the Ohio Geological Survey.
The first conception of this theory had been de-
rived 10y him from the succession of Cretaceous
beds, studied in their great development in the
far Southwest. Everywhere he had found the
lowest member to be heavy sandstone and con-
glomerate full of fossil wood and leaves, so abund-
ant and well preserved to prove that they had not
been carried far from their original place of growth
Over this series equivalent to No. l Of Meek and
Hayden comes great limestone, rich in marine fos-
sils Nos and g. NJ. and H.; and this in turn Is
overlaid by clays shales and mixed sediments cor
responding to Nos and of the Upper Missouri
rocks. The record is simple and clear-a great sub
mergence of the land beneath the waves of gradu-
ally encroaching sea. This lays down. of neces-
sity, first great sheet Of fragmental beds formed
from the wear of the land, and containing the re-
mains of the vegetation that clothed that land;
then If the sea continues to advance, these beach
deposits VIII reach further and furtherinland while,
as the water grows deeper they will he followed 10y
the lime-deposits IF clear, open Seas, with the
shells, etc, that there occur. The third series,
shales and mixed sediments, represents the gradual
withdrawal of the sea, and the concluding stage OF
the great cycle of deposits
This peculiar and suggestive succession he had al
ready shown TO exist i'll each of the great PalGozoic
ages Ohio Final Report, Vol. l here 1t is seen TO
perfection in the Crctaceous of the West and South
West 1t can likewise be seen, though less perfectly,
in the Cretaceous of the Atlantic coast. The Trias
of the far Southwest had also shown him alike sue
cession though with certain peculiarites of differ
ence These were all discussed and tabulated at
length
Tic distribution Of Mcsozoic rocks abroad was
then taken mp and treated of in like manner. The
facts of this kind of succession had Tor some time
been familiar to BIOLOGISTS, but their origin had
never been fully understood or presented as the
simple aud inevitable consequence OF great periodic
inyaSiOns Of the ocean. Eaton. years ago, had re-
marked tie succession of three types of formations,
calling Them in their order, siiicious, calcareous,
and caIbOnaceOus scTes.' PTOfs Dawson and Hall
have recognized the same facts distinctly; while Ill
Europe MurchisOn and his cOiaborers in Russia have
described the Pcrmian as having trlnal character,
similar to hat Of the rrias, which, as every student
of the science knows, derives its name from this
three-fold divisOn--sandstone, limestone, and
extended tables of both the PaIaeozoic and later
rocks of England and the Continent based on this
system of grouping.
OF course the operations of nature are every
where complicated by countless minor circnm-
stances, which tend to break tho regularity and
simplicity Of such outlines We find smaller cycles
sometimes within the greater las notably In the
coal measures, periods Of rest or Of repression III
the course OF these movements. But the great out
lines are there and may DC clearly read by the OBJ
servant eye and mlnd. =,
4 paper was read by Prof ID. $. Martin from Mr..
J. c. White Of West Virginia, on the "Coal-ncas-
Ures of Beaver Co., Penn giving interesting sec
lions along the Beaver River. in which the lower
coal be is and their los ierOuS interval locks are
finely exposed for study.