62 



NATURE 



{May i8, 1876 



containing articles of value should be sent. No newspapers 

 should be sent, as the Admiralty will send a sufficient supply. 



The University of Oxford is to confer upon Ur. Warren De 

 la Rue the degree of M. A. by diploma. 



The Annual Meeting of the Victoria Institute is postponed 

 from the 22nd to the 29th of May. 



Lieut. Cameron will, on Tuesday next, read to the Anthro- 

 pological Society a paper on the Anthropology of Central 

 Africa, in the theatre of the Royal School of Mines, Jermyn 

 Street, at 8.30 p.m. 



DocENT Theel, zoologist, a member of the Swedish Expedi- 

 tion of last year, to Novaya Zemlya, Docent Arnell, botanist, 

 and Dr. Trybom, entomologist, have left Stockholm for Riga, 

 whence they proceed overland to Siberia, where they will remain 

 till autumn, making scientific observations and collections, and 

 returning by the steamer Ytner, which Prof. Nordenskjold has 

 chartered for a voyage to the Yenisei. 



M. Janssen, although he has not yet obtained possession of 

 his regular observatory, has established large photographising 

 telescopes at his residence at Montmartre. He found that 

 during the cold period from the beginning of May up to the 

 loth, the sun had no spots at all. The photographs are about 

 twenty centimetres in diameter. 



C. M. Stuart, of Harrow School, has been elected to the 

 Natural Science Exhibition at St. John's College, Cambridge. 

 A second exhibition was at the same time conferred on J. Nail, 

 of Manchester Grammar School. 



At a recent meeting of the French Academy, M. Lecoq de 

 Boisbaudran communicated some further facts regarding the new 

 metal gallium. The specimen he had formerly presented owed its 

 solidity to the presence of a small quantity of foreign bodies. 

 Pure gallium, of which he had now prepared nearly ten centi- 

 grammes, melts at about 29°'5 C. ; hence it liquefies when it is 

 seized between the fingers. It is very easily held in superfusion, 

 which explains how a globule has been kept liquid for weeks in 

 temperatures descending occasionally almost to zero. Electrolysed 

 gallium from ammoniacal solution is identical with that obtained 

 from potassic solution. Once solidified, the metal is hard and 

 resistant, even at a few degrees under its melting point ; but it 

 can be cut, and has a certain malleability. Melted gallium 

 adheres easily to glass, on which it forms a beautiful mirror, whiter 

 than that produced by mercury. Heated to a bright red in 

 presence of air, gallium oxidises but very superficially, and does 

 not volatilise ; it is not sensibly attacked in the cold state by 

 nitric acid, but in heat the solution operates with liberation of 

 nitrous vapours. The density'of the metal (determined approxi- 

 mately from a specimen weighing sixty-four milligrammes) is 

 47 at 15°, and relatively to water at 15°. The mean of the den- 

 sities of aluminium and of indium is 4*8 at zero. Thus the 

 density confirms theoretical prevision, while the extreme fusi- 

 bility is a fact completely unexpected. 



The Marine tanks of the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, are 

 being rapidly filled with water brought from Brighton by Messrs. 

 Hudson, who supplied the Crystal Palace. For some time past 

 many of the fresh-water tanks have been stocked, but the first 

 marine fish has but quite recently arrived. It is a somewhat rare 

 one in captivity — the Motella tricerata ( Yarrell), commonly called 

 the spotted leopard fish. It is placed in a central tank, so that the 

 peculiarity of the " fin " in the neck can be well seen. Couch, 

 in his " History of Fishes," refers to this fin as being always in 

 rapid action, but with this particular specimen it is often 

 at rest. He points out that while its intimate structure shows 

 that it is destitute of any power of propulsion or of regulating 

 motion, it is well furnished with nerves which render it acutely 

 sensible to impression. The functions of the fin have, so far as 

 we know, not been determined. 



Mr. WALPOtE, on Tuesday, moved for leave to introduce 

 "A Bill for making further provision respecting the University of 

 Cambridge and the Colleges therein." Following the recom- 

 mendations of the Duke of Devonshire and the Oxford and Cam. 

 bridge University Commissions, he indicated the nature of the 

 changes desired as follows : — The extension of the professoriat, 

 and a complete organisation of the system of inter-collegiate lee- 

 tures and classes, for which provision would have to be made 

 oAer and above that which had already been made, for museums, 

 libraries,n ad the other apparatus which might be necessary for 

 the prosecution of scientific investigation. The following are the 

 names of the seven Commissioners it is proposed to appoint : — 

 The Bishop of Worcester, Lord Rayleigh, the Lord Chief Justice, 

 the Right Hon. E. P. Bouverie, Prof. Stokes, Rev. Prof. Light- 

 foot, and Mr. G. W. Hemmings. Mr. Cross said the Bill might 

 be regarded for all practical purposes as a Government measure. 



The animals deposited in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, include, among others, 

 two Musk Deer {Moschus tjtoschiferus) ; two Thar Goats {Capra 

 jemlaica) ; four Indian Elephants {Elephas indicus), aged about 

 7, 6, i| and i^ years; five Tigers, [Felts Hgris) ; a Cheetah {F. 

 jubatd) ; a Viverrine Cat [^F. viverrina) ; five Leopards (F. par- 

 dus) ; an Indian Civet Cat {Viuerricula indica); two Dwarf 

 Zebus {Bos indicus) ; seven Indian Antelopes {Antilope cefvi- 

 capra) ; three Axis Deer {Cervus axis) ; three Ostriches [Struthio 

 camelus) ; several pairs of Impeyan Pheasants {Lophophorus im- 

 peyanus) ; Cheer Pheasants (FAasianus wallichii) ; Horned 

 Tragopans {Ceriornis salyra) ; Chukar Partridges {Caccahis 

 chukar). Besides the Prince's specimens, the following are the 

 most important additions of the week : — Two Secretary Vul- 

 tures {Serpentariiis reptilivorus), presented by Mr. M. G. Angel ; 

 an Egyptian^ Cobra (Naja haje), presented by the Rev. G. H. R. 

 Fisk; and a Maholi Galago {Galago maholi), presented by Dr. 

 R. A. Zeederberg, all from S. Africa. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, May 4. — On the Modification of the Excita- 

 bility of Motor Nerves produced by Injury, by G. J. Romanes, 

 M.A., F.L.S. 



It has long been known that when a nerve is cut, or otherwise 

 injured, its excitability at or near the seat of injury undergoes a 

 marked increase. No one, however, has attempted to determine 

 the relative degree of this increase towards make and towards 

 break of the current respectively. The author tound that when 

 the nerve-section rested on the kathode, the increase of excita- 

 bility was manifested towards make, and scarcely at all towards 

 break ; while, conversely, when the section rested on the anode, 

 such increase was manifested towards break, and scarcely at all 

 towards make. These facts are of considerable interest in rela- 

 tion to the theory of electrotonus. The degree of the latter 

 increase, however, is out of all proportion greater than that of 

 the former ; for while the ratio of excitability before and afcer 

 cutting was represented by the numbers 36 ; 46 in the case of 

 the kathodic make, such ratio was represented by 2 : 32 in the 

 case of the anodic break. Mr. Romanes explains this dispropor- 

 tion by the consideration, that as the sensitiveness to the kathodic 

 make is so much greater than is that to the anodic break be/ore 

 nerve-section, after the general sensitiveness of the nerve has been 

 increased by section, the increase has not so much room to assert 

 itself in the former as it has in the latter case, before it reaches 

 zero of the stimulating current's intensity. Thus the figures 

 2 : 32 : : 36 : 46, though not expressing any numerical propor- 

 tion, may yet express a ;va/ proportion, if the zero of the current's 

 intensity be represented say by 50 in the above scale of nervous 

 excitability, and if it be granted that the value as a stimulus of 

 any given increment of current is determined by the proportion 

 which such increment bears to the intensity of current that is 

 required to produce adequate stimulation. This explanation is 

 confirmed by a method of graduating the galvanic stimulus other 

 than that of graduating the intensity of the current, viz., by 



