The various views put forth prior to 1893 to account for the origin of Indian laterites have been clearly and sufficiently discussed in Oldham's edition of Medlicott & Blanford's Manual of the Geology of India (pp. 369 et seq.). Since that year the only contribution of importance to the literature of lateritic genesis in India is a paper by Mr. Thos. H. Holland, F.R.S., the present Director of the Indian Geological Survey, having for its text the conclusions of Bauer. In it the author suggested that laterite might owe its origin to “some lowly organism,” but no sufficient data were advanced in support of the suggestion. Bauer's specimens indicated a certain amount of dehydration in laterites, and this fact, together with the absence of hydration products from certain peridotites in Southern India, was deemed to indicate a general dehydration for the bauxitic laterites of the Deccan. The gibbsite (Al2 O3, 3 H2O) of laterite was supposed to be dehydrated to diaspore (A2 O3, H2O), and it was assumed that “this irregular loss of water is probably the cause of variation in bauxite.”