ABSTRACTS

Authors of scientific papers are requested to see that abstracts, preferably prepared and signed by themselves, are forwarded promptly to the editors. Each of the scientific bureaus in Washington has a representative authorized to forward such material to this JOURNAL and abstracts of official publications should be transmitted through the representative of the bureau in which they originate. The abstracts should conform in length and general style to those appearing in this issue.

GEODESY.-Descriptions of triangulation stations in Georgia. C. H. SWICK. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication No. 45. Pp. 43, with 1 illustration. 1917.

This volume is supplementary to Triangulation in Georgia, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Special Publication No. 43, abstracted in a preceding number of this JOURNAL (7:584. 1917), and contains all available descriptions of the triangulation stations in Georgia whose geographic positions are given in the previous volume. Practically all of the triangulation data in Georgia, the observations for which were made before 1917, are now in published form and so are readily available for the use of engineers, geographers, and surveyors.

C. H. S.

GEOLOGY.-The De Soto-Red River oil and gas field, Louisiana.

GEORGE CHARLTON MATSON and OLIVER BAKER HOPKINS. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-C. Pp. 40, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917.

The De Soto-Red River oil and gas field lies in the northwestern part of Louisiana. In 1912, gas was discovered in De Soto Parish near Naborton at a depth of about 800 feet. Deep drilling resulted in the discovery of small quantities of oil, and on May 10, 1913, the completion of the Gulf Refining Company's Jenkins well No. 2 proved the presence of a notable oil pool. The producing oil and gas bearing sands are in the Gulf series of Upper Cretaceous age.

The shales associated with the sands and in some places the sands themselves contain considerable organic matter which was apparently derived chiefly from vegetation, and it is believed that the oil and gas were formed from this organic matter by slow chemical changes, which may have been facilitated by moderately high temperature and the

pressure caused by the load of sediments that overlie them, and by the thrusts to which they have been subjected.

The gas and oil in the De Soto-Red River field were probably accumulated under hydraulic pressure. This hypothesis is supported by the relations of these substances to the structure and by the occurrence of the oil in very productive pools of small area. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-The Bowdoin dome, Montana, a possible reservoir of oil or

gas. ARTHUR J. COLLIER. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-E. Pp. 17, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917. The Bowdoin dome is situated on Milk River, in northeastern Montana, on the main line of the Great Northern Railway between Malta on the west and Hinsdale on the east. A well drilled here for water several years ago has been yielding a small flow of gas ever since, and it is thought that the region offers a chance of success to the driller of deeper wells. In 1915 a large gas well was drilled at Havre. Only the Upper Cretaceous Claggett shale, Judith River formation, and Bearpaw shale, and some of the more recent surficial deposits are exposed in the immediate vicinity of the Bowdoin dome. The structure revealed by the Judith River formation in its outcrop around the valley of Milk River is that of a very broad, flat dome. The dips of the sandstone are so low as not to be detected by the unaided eye and are best recorded in feet to the mile. There is no place around the dome where a dip as high as 1 degree has been found.

The Bowdoin dome has a structure which if found in Oklahoma or Ohio would be regarded as favorable for the accumulation of oil or gas. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-The Corsicana oil and gas field, Texas. GEORGE CHARL

TON MATSON and OLIVER BAKER HOPKINS. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-F. Pp. 43, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917.

The Corsicana oil and gas field, in Navarro County, Texas, measures 20 miles from north to south and 10 miles from east to west. Oil was first discovered here in the city of Corsicana, and the field has been productive for more than twenty years.

The oil and gas are obtained from the upper part of the Upper Cretaceous, the light oil and the gas in the Corsicana oil pool and in the Chatfield and Edens gas pools probably coming from the Taylor marl and the heavy oil and the gas in the other pools from the Navarro

formation. This field continued to yield almost the entire production of Texas until 1909, when the gas fields of Clay County were developed. The Lower Cretaceous formations have not been reached in any of the wells in the Corsicana field.

The strata in the Corsicana field dip in general to the southeast at a rate of 50 to 100 feet to the mile. The uniformity in direction and amount of dip is interrupted at a number of places by folds,, but none of the folds are continuous over large areas. The greatest dips observed on the folds are at the rate of 560 feet to the mile, and these high dips are confined to small areas. The irregularities in the normal position of the strata seems to have been produced by forces acting in two directions, as two systems of folds are determinable one approximately parallel to the dip of the rocks and the other at right angles to it. So far as observed, there is no evidence of faulting, or breaking of the rock strata, in this field.

A review of the discussion of the structure or a study of the structure map of the Corsicana field shows that oil and gas occur in this field under two different structural conditions. They have accumulated along the crests of well-defined anticlines, as in the Burke pool, and also in beds of fairly uniform dip, as in the Corsicana pool. Drilling has shown, however, that the sands of this field are lenticular and vary in porosity and thickness from place to place.

In the Corsicana district there are at least two productive sands which are believed to belong to the Taylor formation-the Corsicana and Edens sands. The Corsicana sand is the principal producing sand and yields light oil and a small amount of gas at a number of places, particularly toward the north end of the district.

The oil of the Corsicana field is believed to have originated from organic matter in the shales that inclose the sands and to a minor extent in the sands themselves. R. W. STONE.

GEOLOGY.-Structure of the northern part of the Bristow quadrangle, Creek County, Oklahoma, with reference to petroleum and natural gas. A. E. FATH. U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 661-B. Pp. 31, with maps, sections, and illustrations. 1917.

The rocks exposed at the surface in the Bristow quadrangle and those beneath it to a depth of 2500 feet or more are a part of the Pennsylvanian series, the series to which belong the surface rocks throughout the oil fields of northeastern Oklahoma. The strata dip slightly north of west about 50 feet to the mile, or a little more than half a degree.

However, the westward slope of the beds is modified by variations in the rate of dip, by local folds, and by small faults. Accumulations of oil and gas are generally found in close relation to local irregularities in the general structure of a region, and it is to such folds and irregularities that attention is principally directed in this paper..

R. W. STONE.

PARASITOLOGY.-Life history of Ascaris lumbricoides and related forms. B. H. RANSOM and W. D. FOSTER. Journ. Agr. Research 11: 395-398. November 19, 1917.

The development of A. lumbricoides and closely related forms is direct, and no intermediate host is required. The eggs, when swallowed, hatch out in the alimentary tract; the embryos, however, do not at once settle down in the intestine, but migrate to various other organs, including the liver, spleen, and lungs. Within a week, in the case of the pig Ascaris, the migrating larvae may be found in the lungs and have meanwhile undergone considerable development and growth. From the lungs the larvae migrate up the trachea and into the esophagus by way of the pharynx, and this migration up the trachea may already become established as early as a week after infection. Upon reaching the alimentary tract after their passage through the lungs, the larvae, if in a suitable host, presumably settle down in the intestine and complete their development to maturity; if in an unsuitable host, such as rats and mice, they soon pass out of the body in the feces. Heavy invasions of the lungs by the larvae of Ascaris produce a serious pneumonia which is frequently fatal in rats, mice, and guinea pigs, and apparently caused the death of a young pig one week after it had been fed with numerous Ascaris eggs. It is not improbable that ascarids are frequently responsible for lung troubles in children, pigs, and other young animals. Age is a highly important factor in determining susceptibility to infection with Ascaris, and susceptibility to infection greatly decreases as the host animal becomes older.

B. H. R.

PARASITOLOGY.-Oil of chenopodium and chloroform as anthelmintics. M. C. HALL and W. D. FOSTER. Journ. Amer. Med. Associat. 68: 1961-1963. June 30, 1917.

Oil of chenopodium as an anthelmintic should be accompanied by large doses of castor oil, and when so given is a very effective and safe remedy against ascarids. Chloroform in castor oil was found to be more effective against hookworms than any other remedy tested.

B. H. R.

PARASITOLOGY.-The occurrence in the United States of certain nematodes of ruminants transmissible to man. B. H. RANSOM. N. Orl. M. & S. J. 69: 294-298. October, 1916.

Attention is called to the fact that three of the four species of the nematode genus Trichostrongylus that have been recorded as parasites of man are of more or less common occurrence in ruminants in the United States, indicating the probability that they also occur in human beings in this country but have been overlooked.

B. H. R.

PARASITOLOGY.-The zoological position of the Sarcosporidia. HOWARD CRAWLEY. Proc. Acad. Phila. 68: 379-388. August 14, 1916.

The Sarcosporidia are usually assigned to the Neosporidia, one of the two subclasses recognized as making up the class Sporozoa, but it is considered by the present writer that they belong in the other subclass, Telosporidia and should be placed in the order Coccidiomorpha, which accordingly would include three suborders-Coccidia, Haemosporidia, and Sarcosporidia. The probability is suggested in view of certain evidence given that the Sarcosporidia in their normal life cycle depend upon an alternation of hosts, at least one of which must be a carnivorous animal. B. H. RANSOM.

PARASITOLOGY.-Serum

therapy for trichinosis. BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ. Journ. Amer. Med. Associat. 69: 884-886. September 15, 1917.

Serum from animals convalescent from trichinosis when injected. into other animals did not produce immunity to trichinosis in the latter. Trichinous meat mixed with serum from animals during the active or convalescent stage of the disease proved to be still capable of producing the disease. Animals once infected and harboring trichinae in their muscles were not immune to further infection when fed trichinous meat. Serum from a trichinous animal had no observable ill effects on the larvae freed from their cysts by artificial digestion. None of the results of the experiments appears to be in harmony with the assertions made by Salzer (1916, 1917) concerning the value of serum from convalescent animals as a prophylactic or curative. agent in trichinosis. B. H. RANSOM.