92 



NATURE 



[November 25, 1897 



tint although the Society had only been in existence for about 

 three weeks, it now numbered more than seventy members. The 

 next meeting of the Society will take place on Saturday, 

 December 4, when Mr. R. S. Clay will deliver an experimental 

 lecture, entitled " Soap Bubbles," 



The opening meeting of the winter session of the General 

 Medical Council was held on Tuesday, Sir William Turner pre- 

 siding in the absence of Sir Richard Quain, the president. The 

 cliairman read a letter from the president expressing regret at the 

 fact tliat, though his health had improved, he could not under- 

 take the risk of presiding at the meetings during the present 

 session. In the course of his communication Sir R. (,)uain re- 

 ferred I o the progress that had been made with regard to the 

 question of disciplinary or penal powers exercised by the various 

 licensing bodies. Following the example of the University of | 

 Cambridge, the University of Durham had now obtained a 

 charter under which it had the power of taking away any degree \ 

 from a graduate who had been convicted of a crime for which he j 

 had been sentenced to penal servitude or imprisonment. Similar | 

 steps, he was informed, were being taken by the Victoria Uni- 

 versity, its court having decided to make application for the 

 necessary amendment of its charter ; so that in a very short time 

 that University also would be in possession of extended powers. 1 

 In Scotland, also, some further steps had been taken in regard 

 to this question. The Universities of Aberdeen and St. Andrews 

 would, no doubt, be prepared to adopt a course of action similar 

 to that taken by Edinburgh and Glasgow. With regard to the 

 new edition of the " British Pharmacopoeia," the arduous and 

 important work of preparation that had occupied about three 

 years, was now well nigh finished, and if the Council accepted 

 the draft that would be placed before them in the course of the 

 present session it might be expected that the work would be 

 published at an early date. 



Since the passing of the Local Taxation Act (1890), twenty- 

 three municipal science and art and technical schools have 

 been established. In a number of localities (states the Record) 

 the teclinical schools have been, or will be, erected as a part 

 of general schemes whicli include the provision of other in- 

 stiiutioiis for' public or municipal use, for example as free 

 libiaries, museums, art galleries, gymnasiums, &c. In several 

 localities, on account of the development of the work since 

 the erection of the technical institutions, considerable exten- 

 sions have been, or are about to be, made to the buildings ; 

 the total sum spent or. involved for these extensions in the 

 seven districts amounts to over 33,000/. In some cases local 

 science and art and technical schools or classes have been trans- 

 ferred to the respective local authorities for municipal manage- 

 ment and control since the passing of the Technical Instruc- 

 tion Act, 1889; in Chesterfield the local technical institution, 

 which was erected at a cost of 13,000'., was subsequently 

 purchased by the Corporation for the sum of 4000/. In 

 Lancaster a splendid institution was built and fitted up and pre- 

 sented to the Corporation by Sir Thomas Storey, and in North- 

 wich and Winsford sites were secured and technical schciols were 

 erected and furnished at the expense of Sir Joseph Verdin, Bart. 

 The total amount of money which has been provided by these 

 means for tlie erection of schools and institutions in seven of 

 these localities (excluding Lancaster) is as much as 81,000/., the 

 schools in Burslem, Lancaster, and Southport serving as per- 

 manent memorials of Her Majesty the Queen's jubilee of 1887. 

 Excluding Bridgwater and Lancaster, the total sum involved in 

 the erection of technical schools in the thirty-six boroughs and 

 urban districts not included in the above statement is as much as 

 331,000/. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, November.- — The 

 rainfall of October, 1897. This was so exceptiojially small 

 that all records received up to date showing a total fall of less 

 than an inch for the month have been tabulated. The lowest 

 values, expressed in inches, are found in the extreme south- 

 east of Kent, -32; Sussex, -34; Hants, -49; Essex, -51; 

 Suffolk, -59 ; Surrey, "60. At least a quarter of the stations 

 quoted, spread over England and Wales, nearly 240 in number, 

 record less than an inch. — Austrian hydrography. This is a 

 jummary of the reports of a comparatively new organisation, 

 dealing with the rainfall of the principal watersheds for the 

 year 1895 ; the stations number between two and three thou- 



NO. 1465, VOL. 57] 



sand, and the results are contained in fifteen large folio parts. 

 Each part, except the introductory one, includes a large-scale 

 shaded rainfall map, and the whole work probably surpasses 

 anything of the kind in any other country. 



IViedemantt' s Annalen der Pkysik und Chemie, No. 11. — 

 Retardation of spark discharge, by E. Warburg. The period 

 elapsing between the establishment of the necessary difference 

 of potential and the corresponding discharge is called the 

 " retardation." It varies from a few minutes to a fraction of a 

 second, and is due to a non-luminous partial discharge. This 

 preliminary discharge is greatly influenced by ultra-violet light, 

 and also by a magnetic field.— Photo-electric properties of 

 fluorspar and selenium, by G. C. Schmidt. Although fluorspar 

 acquires a positive charge in some parts under the influence of 

 light, and a negative charge in other parts, it only dissipates 

 negative charges under the action of light, and even selenium 

 shows no sign of dissipating a positive charge — Mutual influence 

 of kathode rays, by J. Bernstein. The apparent repulsion 

 between two kathode beams running side by side is due to some 

 action of the metallic kathode upon the origin of the other beam, 

 and not to any mutual action of projected particles. This may 

 be proved by allowing them to proceed parallel to each other 

 from opposite ends of the tube, when their path remains straight. 

 —On the nature of the salts coloured by kathode rays, by R. 

 Abegg. The coloration of NaCl and KCl salts by kathode 

 rays is not due to the formation of sub-chlorides, since no 

 chlorine is evolved. It is a physical change. — On the carbon 

 electric arc, by R. Herzfeld. The counter E.M.F. produced by 

 the air is not due to the deposition of carbon particles on the 

 kathode, since they may be deflected by a strong electric field 

 without affecting the E.M.F. The growth on the kathode is 

 due to the lack of oxygen necessary for the complete combustion 

 of the carbon.— Conductivity of electrolytes for rapid oscilla- 

 lations, by J. A. Erskine. An oscillator is placed in a basin 

 filled with petroleum, and another dish containing the resonator 

 immersed in the electrolyte is placed on the top of it. The 

 electric resistance of the electrolyte is directly proportional to 

 the thickness required to produce a given amount of damping. — 

 Absorption of electric oscillations by luminescent gases, by E. 

 Wiedemann and G. C. Schmidt. Gases excited to lumiriescence 

 in a vacuum tube screen other tubes from similar excitation, but 

 flames do not, neither does the dark kathode space. A similar 

 screening is produced by Goldstein's " canal rays." 



Metcorologische Zeitsckrift, October.— Some results of the 

 five years' observations on the Eiffel Tower, by A. Woeikof 

 Tlie author compares the daily periods of temperature and wind 

 force for certain selected inonths ; in the winter the minimum 

 wind force at the summit of the tower occurs about the time of 

 t'ne highest daily temperature ; while in summer it takes place 

 considerably earlier, about 9h. or loh. The force then in- 

 creases gradually until the time of highest temperature, and 

 afterwards more rapidly, until evening. The times of the 

 maxima at the summit and on the ground do not exhibit any 

 decided seasonal range, but in the case of the minima a seasonal 

 range is clearly shown. During May to July the mean time is 

 1-3 hours earlier than during November to February. At the 

 summit the occurrence of the minimum is earlier in summer than 

 in winter, and the interval is greater, viz. 4-5 hours. An ex- 

 planation of these phenomena is suggested by Dr. Woeikof.-— 

 The total variation of temperature in the Arctic and Equatorial 

 oceanic climate, by A. Woeikof. The variations considered are 

 those shown by hourly observations for certain representative 

 months for Batavia and Sagastyr (mouth of the Lena). Dr. 

 Woeikof finds that summer and spring have nearly the same 

 variation in the Equatorial and Arctic climate, and that the uni- 

 formity of summer temperature in polar regions is exhibited by 

 this investigation. The total variation is even somewhat smaller 

 than at Batavia, while the non-periodic portion is not twice as 

 great.— Dr. W. Trabert contributes an article on the extra- 

 ordinary rainfall in Austria between July 26 and 31 last, which 

 caused destructive floods in several districts.— Among the 

 smaller notices, Prof. G. Hellmann gives a formula for the 

 conversion of Fahrenheit to Centigrade degrees, which is 

 simpler than that usually employed, viz. : to half the difference 

 between the reading and 32° add the tenth and hundredth part 



of this difference, e.g. ^2^-^ =21-1- 2-i + '2 - 23°-3, the 

 value given in the tables. For an explanation of the rule we 

 refer our readers to the original notice. 



