November i8, 1897] 



NATURE 



69 



was 4i°'4' Numbers of fowls caught while roaming about 

 averaged 41° "3, liut these of course were always warmed up 

 previously by a little violent exercise. Turkeys stand about 

 the same level ; ducks are stated, on good authority, to be lower ; 

 but I have found for these birds, from a fairly large number of 

 observations, an average of 42°"i. The temperatures of birds of 

 the more intelligent orders is generally somewhat higher. If 

 we exclude the birds of prey, we might say that in all orders 

 above the anseres, gralk^ and gallince the temperature ranges 

 over 42°. It would be a matter of interest to secure some 

 observations of the temperature of the apteryx, in order to 

 determine whether the lowest of birds shows by its body warmth 

 in some degree the same reptilian affinity which the mono- 

 tremes exhibit. In that case there would be reason to believe 

 that the rest of the Ratit?e would correspond closely to the 

 Marsupials, being a connecting link, but much closer to the 

 higher forms than to the lower. 



In a very general way, and not forgetting numerous limitations 

 and contradictions, it may be said that bodily activity depends on 

 body temperatures, that creatures such as insects and reptiles 

 are active only when warmed up from without, but become 

 torpid with decreasing temperature. The type in which activity 

 is generally habitual, maintains its own body tempenture. This 

 is seen in the mammaU, but more still in the birds. But this 

 warmblooded active condition was produced by no sudden 

 emergence ; the monotremes and marsupials form a gentle 

 gradation between the reptile and the carnivore or ungulate ; 

 while, so far as indications point, there is reason to believe that 

 the lower birds still are reminiscent of a once existent chain of 

 links which equally joined the cold-blooded lizards to those 

 warmest- blooded of all creatures, the passeriformes and 

 fringilliformes. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — Dr. W. T. Brooks has been appointed Litchfield 

 Clinical Lecturer in Medicine. 



The Welsh Prize for Human Anatomy for 1897 has been 

 awarded to Mr. A. T. Waterhouse. 



W. K. Spencer, of Bailey Grammar School, has been elected 

 to a Demyship in Natural Science at Magdalen College, and A. 

 J. Webb, of Dulwich College, to an Exhibition. 



Convocation has conferred the degree of M.A., by decree, on 

 Mr. A. A. Rambaut, the newly-appointed Radcliffe Observer. 



Prof. Gotch and Dr. Buckmaster have been appointed 

 Examiners in Physiology, and Prof. Allbutt and Dr. Ormerod in 

 Medicine for the M.B. Examinations from 1898-1900. 



Mr. N. V. Sidgwick, Ch. Ch., is President of the Junior 

 Scientific Club for the present term. The other officers are : 

 Treasurer, Mr. A. E. Boycott (Oriel) ; Editor, Mr. A. R. 

 Wilson (Wadham) ; Secretaries, Mr. A. Hartridge (Exeter), 

 and Mr. F. Nunneley (B.N.C.). 



Cambridge. — Dr. Shore, of St. John's College, has been 

 appointed Chairman of the Examiners for the Natural Sciences 

 Tripos, and Dr. Ilobson, of Christ's College, for Part II. of the 

 Mathematical Tripos. 



The Arnold Gerstenberg Studentship, for natural science 

 students who distinguish themselves in Moral Philosophy, has 

 been awarded to Mr. C. F. G. Masterman, of Christ's College. 



By the will of Mr. Joseph Gedge, M. B. , who died at Khartoum 

 in 1870, while acting as medical officer to Sir Samuel Baker's 

 expedition, a sum of 1000/. has now come to the University for 

 the foundation of a biennial prize in Physiology. The recipient 

 is to be a graduate of the University of not less than five or 

 more than seven years' standing from matriculation, who sends 

 in the best essay embodying original observations in physiology, 

 including histology, physiological chemistry, and physiological 

 phjsics. If the prize is not awarded on any occasion, the 

 accumulated income of the fund is to be given to the Museums 

 of Anatomy and Physiology. 



At St. John's College the following awards in Natural Science 

 have been made to students not yet in residence : — 80/. scholar- 

 ships, Williams, of Pocklington School, and Wakely, of St. 

 Olave's School ; 70/. scholarship, Gregory, of University College, 

 Bristol ; 50/. minor scholarships, Crocker, of Llandovery College, 

 and Macalister, of Charterhouse ; 50/. exhibition, Browning, of 

 Dulwich College. 



NO. 1464, VOL. 57] 



At Trinity College the corresponding awards are as follows : — 

 75/. minor scholarship, Harrison, of Royal College of Science, 

 London; 50/. minor scholarship, Hamill, of St. Paul's School ; 

 40/. exhibitions, Keeling, of Bradford School, and Scott, ot 

 Rugby School ; sizarship, While, of Royal College of Science, 

 London. 



The death is announced of Dr. Arthur Scheffer, formerly 

 professor of chemistry and medical physics in the University ot 

 Kiefif. 



The Calendar for the seventeenth .session (1897-98) of the 

 University College, Nottingham, has just been published at 

 Nottingham by Mr. J. Sands. 



Mr. Arthur Hamii,ton White has been appointed 

 professor of pathology in the school of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, Ireland, in the place of Dr. Thomas Myles, resigned. 



A LABORATORY for experimental psychology has been opened, 

 under the direction of Dr. W. O. Krohn, in the Illinois Eastern 

 Hospital for the Insane, at Hospital, 111. 



At a meeting of the Court of the Victoria University, held at 

 Owens College, Manchester, Prof. D. J. Leech was re-elected a 

 member of the Council. It was resolved : " That the colleges 

 of the University be invited to take such steps as may be 

 necessary to secure the inclusion of the colleges in the list of 

 institutions at which Royal exhibitions and national scholarships 

 can be held." 



The Kingsley Laboratory of the Worcester Academy was 

 dedicated on October 30 Addresses were delivered by 

 President Eliot, of Harvard University ; President Hall, of 

 Clark University, and President Mendenhall, of the Worcester 

 Polytechnic Institute. The building is said to be the best 

 equipped for the study of science possessed by any secondary 

 school. 



Gehei.mer Bergrath Bruno Kerl, professor of metallurgy 

 at the Berlin School of Mines, has retired after more than fifty 

 years constant professorial work at Clausthal and Berlin. He 

 has been a voluminous contributor to the literature of metallurgy, 

 and for thirty-eight years he was one of the editors of the MitiUtg 

 and Metallurgical /oiirtial of Leipzig. On his retirement the 

 German Emperor bestowed on him the Order of the Red Eagle 

 in recognition of his great services to metallurgy. 



The following appointments abroad are noticed : — Dr. 

 Charles W. Dabney, recently assistant secretary of agriculture, 

 to be president of the University of Tennessee ; Dr. Arthur 

 Allin, of Ohio University, to be professor of psychology and 

 pedagogy in the University of Colorado ; Dr. Hermann ^lunk 

 to be full professor of physiology in the University of Berlin j 

 Dr. Hettner, of Leipzig, to be assistant professor of geography in 

 the University of Tubingen, Dr. Max Busch to be assistant 

 professor of analytical chemistry and chemical technology in the 

 University of Erlangen ; Dr. Zwaardemaker to be professor of 

 physiology in the University of Utrecht : Dr. Frank K. Cameron, 

 late associate professor of chemistry in the Catholic University cf 

 America at Washington, to.be research assistant in physical 

 chemistry in Cornell University ; Dr. O V. Darbi.shire to be 

 lecturer (privat-docent) in botany at the Prussian University of 

 Kiel ; Dr. A. R. Hill has been appomted to succeed Prof. 

 Wolfe at the University of Nebraska. The chair vacated by 

 Prof. Hill at the Osh-Kosh Normal School has been filled by 

 the election of Dr. F. D. Sherman. 



The Report of the Council of the London Society for the 

 Extension of University Teaching, for the session 1896-97, has 

 reached us, and is of an encouraging nature. The number of 

 courses for the session under review was 160, as compared with 

 148 for 1895-96, and the number of students for the two periods, 

 in the order named, was 14,150 and 13,238. The slight falling 

 off in the number of certificates awarded (1807 in 1896-97, as 

 against 1906 in 1895-96) is explained by the alterations made 

 in the Regulations of the Education Department with regard to 

 the Queen's Scholarship Examination. Candidates are now only 

 allowed to take the University Extension examination as an 

 alternative to the Queen's Scholarship examination in the same 

 subject, whereas formerly the possession of a sessional cer- 

 tificate secured a block of sixty marks in addition to those ob- 

 tained in the ordinary examination. The Council anticipated 



