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Rate coefficients have been measured for the alkaline hydrolysis of a comprehensive series of methyl 2-acyl- and 2-aroyl-benzoates and closely related esters in 70%(v/v) dioxan–water at several temperatures. The entropies and enthalpies of activation have been evaluated. The effect of substitution in the 2-acyl system has been correlated with the steric substituent parameter, Es. The relative rates of hydrolysis, activation parameters, substituent effects, solvent isotope, and solvent effects have been used to delineate the importance and extent of neighbouring-group participation by the keto- or formyl-carbonyl groups in the alkaline hydrolysis of the esters under study.

A study of the hydroxyl- and carbonyl-stretching frequencies of a number of 8-substituted 1-naphthoic, cis- and trans-ortho-substituted cinnamic acids, and their methyl esters has been made. These results confirm the occurrence of reversed dipolar substituent effects in these systems. The pKa values of a series of cis- and trans-ortho-substituted cinnamic acids have been measured in 80% 2-methoxyethanol–water at 25°. These extend our observations of reversed dipolar substituent effects. The conformations of the cis-acids are discussed.

Students of the history of science and philosophy are familiar with the stages through which an strikingly novel hypothesis or proposal is likely to pass. At first it is either still-born or peremptorily rejected. Presently it becomes the subject of partizan discussion within a small circle, the majority seeking to justify its rejection. Later comes the stage of more general and relatively unprejudiced discussion. And finally, if it has survived all this, the idea or proposal is quietly accepted and needs no defence. Several generations, perhaps even centuries, may elapse between the first and final stages of such a history, and meanwhile the climate of opinion has changed. Many factors contribute to this change, including for instance, technical or social progress, but among them may usually be reckoned the new idea itself, acting as a hidden ferment even while rejected. And it is for this reason that it is useful to reach far back and examine new hypotheses even while they are still at the stage of entanglement with error and ignorance or superstition. This is the justification for a'~study of the controversy that arose among English divines and virtuosi during the late seventeenth century concerning the origin of the major surface features of the earth, a controversy centering upon Dr. Thomas Burnet's at first sight far-fetched book, 'Telluris Sacra Theoria,' published in 1680. This work continued to challenge attention far into the eighteenth century, and the date of the sixth complete English edition (with the author's replies to his critics) coincided with that of the birth of one of the founders of modern geology, James Hutton. The last edition appeared in 1759, wnen Hutton was already thirty-three, while the date of the latter's own 'Theory of Earth' (which borrowed Burnet's title) was 1785. In 1680, of course, the climate of opinion was dominated by religious beliefs, which for the vast majority in this country meant acceptance of the biblical narrative as in its literal sense inspired. To such people the question of the origin of continents, oceans and mountain chains was one that simply did not arise. The oceans were gathered into their own place and the dry land appeared on the third day of Creation. In Riccioli's massive 'Geographia Reformata' (1661) the subject is not mentioned, while in Varenius' 'Geographia GenerahV (1650), which remained a standard textbook in England for a century, it is only glanced at although attention is paid to the subject of denudation and accretion and the various factors affecting it. Burnet's novel views on the earth's crust may be said to stem from Descartes, whose New Philosophy had been the subject of lively discussion in English University circles during the twenty years following the Restoration. It was Descartes who was the first "world-maker," declared one of the supporters of the orthodox view of Creation, and the Frenchman had indeed shown how the origin and motions of our globe could be explained on mechanical principles. But he covered himself (just as Copernicus or his editor had done

(2) The cusps seem to form most easily when there is a vertical stratification of material, with relatively coarse shingle at the surface and a mixed, impermeable layer a few inches beneath. This can be quite simply explained in terms of the mobility of the material in the swash zone; an underlying impermeable layer reduces the percolation of the swash through the beach and so increases the power of the waves to move the shingle. Further the heaped shingle on the cusp promontories is more permeable than the thinner layer in the bays, and consequently is less subject to erosion. This con? tributes to the relative permanence of the cusp system. (3) Waves whose height is too great for the dimensions of the cusps tend to sweep over the cusp promontories and destroy them.

term Atlas was borrowed from the title-page of a similar but later publication compiled by his friend Gerard Mercator, and quickly established itself as the general designation of a book of maps. Rather over a century elapsed before the first large general atlas to be launched in England was announced by the London bookseller Moses Pitt from his shop at the Sign of the Angel in St. Paul's Churchyard. It was to be called 'The English Atlas,' a title which John Ogilby had already used for the set of descriptive geographies (including his famous Road Book) which he began to publish in 1670. It is probable there? fore that Pitt chose it for his own proposed atlas only after Ogilby's death in September 1676. The new undertaking, grandiose in its scope (for six hundred maps on nine hundred sheets were at one time spoken of), was to prove a melancholy failure. Of the eleven volumes finally planned only four actually appeared, nor is a reason difficult to find. Moses Pitt was neither a scholar nor a carto? grapher: he lacked capital, he lacked suitable premises, he could not com? mand the services of skilled map-draughtsmen, nor of qualified geographical writers. Hence while it is true that he did not lack good advice he was unable to profit by it. It was indeed idle for any English publisher to dream that he could, at a single bound, reach the level of the world-famous cartographical establishments of Holland and France, with their learned personnel and long experience. Yet certain circumstances were in Pitt's favour, for by 1678, the date of his first prospectus, copies of the two most magnificent contemporary atlases, those of Jansson and Blaeu, both printed at Amsterdam, were rapidly becoming unprocurable. Both houses had ceased publication. In the case of the Blaeu atlas, this was due to a destructive fire in the printing house in 1672 followed not long afterwards by the death of the head of the firm. The last of the Janssons had died in 1660, leaving the business to his widow and his three sons-in-law, the brothers Waesberg, who also styled themselves Jansson a Waesberg. Not one of the co-heirs had the qualifications of the famous scholar-cartographers who had built up the reputation of the firm. The Jansson atlas had its origin in that of Mercator himself, enlarged subsequently by the work of two generations of the family of Hondius into which John Jansson entered by marriage. The Blaeus too had been scholars. The first founder of their Atlas, William Janszoon Blaeu, when commencing business as a young globe-maker, had studied under the famous Tycho Brahe himself. By the middle of the seventeenth century the two rival Dutch atlases had alike reached the cumbersome dimensions of eleven volumes, and in 1661 Jansson's heirs took the practical step of publishing an 'Atlas Contractus* from the existing plates before allowing the greater work to lapse. The worn

WHEN the sequence of symbols employed to represent orographical features on a map is studied, it is seen that the reduction of such symbols to the almost meaningless convention current before the intro? duction of modern hachures and contours was the work of the great carto? graphers of the Flemish and Dutch Schools. Many of the maps drawn in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries give a vivid, if rough, interpretation of the relief of the land, such as is entirely wanting in a map of Ortelius or Mercator. The usual method of indicating the topography was by a semi-pictorial representation of mountains or hills; but a fifteenth-century map of Italy, very similar to that in the Berlinghieri rhymed Ptolemy of 1478-80, shows the elevated land by means of a linear outline and a shaded wash of brown. The same convention is employed in the maps of Italy and Umbria in a Florentine MS. Ptolemy of about the same date. In the absence of a colour wash, the device of emphasizing the edge of the uplands by a combination of hill-shading and hill-foot outline was sometimes employed with good effect. A map of the latter type forms the subject of the present notes. Of the many early printed editions of the Text and Maps of Ptolemy's Geography, that issued from Strasbourg in 1513 is of particular importance, on account of the remarkable collection of twenty Modern Maps?Tabulce Novm?which it contains. Such maps had, indeed, appeared in earlier editions, but they were few, while the Strasbourg Ptolemy included among them a group of relatively large-scale regional maps?termed Chorographical?which were drawn with surprising accuracy, and are of unique interest for the skilful delineation of landforms. The maps that particularly attract attention are those of Lorraine, and of the Rift Valley of the Rhine, while the general map of France is also very striking. With regard to the Rhine maps, a point worth emphasis is the selection by the cartographer of a definite physical, as opposed to political, unit. The area embraced is the trough from Basel to Bingen, with the full width of the bordering block mountains, their parallel escarpments being carefully emphasized. The Rift Valley is, of course, so remarkable a natural geographical unit as to be very easy of recognition, yet the successors of the cartographers of 1513 failed to recognize it, or at least they failed to place it in recognizable form on their maps. This can be confirmed by an examination of the map of Europe of 1553 assigned to Natalis Bonificius; the large-scale provincial maps of Mercator; those of Ortelius, and so on. Another morphological entity which stands out on the older and disappears on the newer maps, is the " Bohemian Diamond," which the modern maps re-discover.

Rate coefficients have been measured for the alkaline hydrolysis of methyl 3′- and 4′-substituted 2-benzoylbenzoates in 70%(v/v) dioxan–water at 30 °C. The pKa values of the corresponding acids have been measured in 80%(w/w) 2-methoxyethanol–water at 25 °C. The effects of substitution have been assessed by means of the Hammett equation. Comparison of the reaction constants obtained with those for the reference systems, benzoic acids and their methyl esters, indicates clearly that, in the alkaline hydrolysis of the methyl 2-benzoylbenzoates, the rate-determining step involves direct or pre-equilibrium attack at the keto-carbonyl group.

THE Great Fire of London changed many lives. John Ogilby, the elderly Master of the King's Revels in Ireland, lost the entire stock of his printing and bookselling establishment in Fleet Street, and had to start business afresh. Fortunately however there was plenty of work to be done. Both Ogilby and his young kinsman and assistant, William Morgan, obtained from the Corporation of London appointments as "sworn viewers" of the devastated City, in which obliterated property boundaries had to be re-established. Almost simultaneously Robert Hooke, then Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society, accepted a City Surveyorship in connection with the rebuilding schemes. His promptly produced model (or rather plan) of a New London, exhibited at the Royal Society's meeting on 19 September 1666, had struck members of the Corporation invited there to see it as a far finer piece of work than the official plan submitted by their own chief Surveyor. Hence this new appointment. Circumstances thus brought Ogilby and Hooke into close professional contact, and opportunity arose for the latter's universal genius to be brought to bear upon the cartographical projects which were soon to be associated with Ogilby's name. Nearly a century had passed since Saxton first surveyed the English counties. Ogilby proposed to re-survey them, and to prepare besides a series of accurate plans of the principal cities of the realm.

Navigation, according to the old definition, is to conduct a sufficient ship speedily and safely to her destination: and that is the essence of the navigator's task to-day. The idea of what constitutes a "sufficient ship" changes of course through the ages, and Plate i shows how royalty was carried overseas more than 700 years ago. You will notice that the helmsman and the sailor busy with the rigging are quite confident that they have a sufficient ship, but the passengers are obviously needing a little reassurance from the Master. In the oldest English technical dictionary, compiled in the reign of Queen Anne, navigation is further defined as being of two kinds, proper and improper. And by the latter the author meant the method of navigation employed in conducting such a vessel as you see here, with no other helps than the sounding lead and the familiar landmarks coupled with the Master's knowledge of wind and sky. Proper navigation was instrumental navigation, navigation by the chart, navigation across vast oceans. Yet we must not fall into the common error of supposing that the "improper" sailors of antiquity always hugged the shore. What John Harris the dictionary maker calls improper navigation sufficed to carry the Greeks regularly over the 350 miles between Rhodes and Alexandria, and the Vikings over the yet wider channel between Iceland and Greenland where they picked up the landmark Hvitsark ?White-shirt?on the far side of Denmark Strait.