I50 



NA TURE 



\yune 13, 1889 



as well as a purely medical discipline. Their students are for 

 the most part older than those of the Arts Faculties, they have 

 more of a common life, and they are wholly engaged in the 

 studies of the place ; whereas a large number of the nominal 

 students in the two Colleges are buyers of scraps of knowledge, 

 rather than University students as the phrase is understood at 

 Oxford, at Edinburgh, or at Leipzig. 



The chief difficulty which the minority of the Commissioners 

 have evidently felt is that, by the constitution of the existing 

 University, candidates are admitted to most of its degrees who 

 have passed the several examinations, whether they have been 

 educated in Colleges or no, and whether in London or elsewhere. 



But it must be remembered (i) that this was not the original 

 constitution of the University, but a later modification ; (2) that 

 the change has never been carried out in the Faculty of Medicine, 

 which is confessedly the most successful of the four, and that 

 practically it has been confined to the Faculty of Arts, which is 

 confessedly the weakest ; (3) that there is no insuperable difficulty 

 in the same University granting degrees to collegiate students 

 and to non- collegiate, to local students and to others ; for Oxford 

 and Cambridge give the same degrees to men from College and 

 to those who are ' ' unattached, " and the University of Dublin has 

 for many years admitted graduates from outside as well as 

 students of Trinity College ; (4) that when a teaching University 

 for London has been organized, the number of collegiate students 

 will steadily increase, while that of outsiders will diminish ; for 

 local centres will gradually develop and claim independent 

 existence, as they have already at Manchester, at Calcutta, and 

 at Bombay. 



Surely, when the first feeling of disappointment has passed 

 away, the Professors of University and of King's Colleges will 

 see that they have still a splendid position waiting for them to 

 occupy. Together with the medical schools, they will enter 

 upon the vantage-ground which fifty years have gained for the 

 present University of London. They will influence, and almost 

 direct, it, if agreed among themselves ; and if now and then 

 Doctors and even Teachers find that they cannot have their 

 way in everything, may not the few exceptions be just 

 those in which it is well for the most liberal and enlightened 

 professorial, or clerical, or professional opinion to be moderated 

 by the judgment of laymen ? 



London needs a University worthy of the greatest city in the 

 world. Three constituents, and three only, are necessary to its 

 formation ; and it is not too much to say that no two can make 

 it, but that any one of the three can mar it. To obtain this 

 great public object, the existing University will have to give up 

 many of its prejudices and many of its powers ; the medical 

 schools will have to give up some of their independence ; 

 University and King's Colleges will give up little but a grievance. 

 In the long run, by united forces, each healthy and vigorous 

 co.istituent of the renovated University will share in the pros- 

 perity and the progress of the whole. The strongest and the 

 best will have the largest share. 



June 6. A London Teacher. 



A Lizard Swallowed by a Viper. 



As it appears from the "Notes" in the last number of 

 Nature that the swallowing of a lizard by a viper is not 

 usual, I may mention an instance which came under my own 

 obfervation. Many years since, I captured a viper on Cannock 

 Chase, in Staffordshire. The animal was rather sluggish, so I got 

 it into a box unhurt, and carried it home. There I shook it out on 

 to the ground. There came out first the slimy body of a Lacerta 

 vivipara, followed ly a thinner and livelier viper than that which 

 hadentered the prison. This result was not surprising, for the victim 

 was about half as long as the swallower, which may explain the 

 ejection of the former when the latter exchanged the fresh air of 

 the Chase for a stuffy box. The lizard, however, in this case 

 was dead, and digestion had begun. T. G. Bonney. 



Remarkable Meteors. 



The spring of 1889 has afforded a very unusual number of 

 fireballs, though it is somewhat rare to find the vernal season 

 prolific in these phenomena. In the autumn, it is true, we fre- 

 (^uently hear of conspicuous meteors, but the earlier months of 

 the year are by no means rich in such apparitions. 



On March 11, 6h. 36m., a fine meteor of the colour and 

 brilliancy of Venus was seen at London. 



March 13, loh. 25m. Large, bright meteor, without sparks^ 

 or trail, observed at Dublin. 



March 22, 24, 27, and 31. Fireballs appeared at Wexford, 

 Dublin, &c. 



April 15, I2h. 24m. Very brilliant fireball observed at Bris- 

 tol, Bath, Dublin, Lincoln, London, Ramsbury, Worthing, and 

 other places. Though the full moon was shining, the meteor 

 burst out with startling effect, and lit up the sky and landscape 

 for several seconds with a degree nearly equal to daylight. 



April 27, 8h. 51m. Fireball equal to Venus seen at Bristol 

 and Trowbridge. It fell vertically and moved slowly from a 

 radiant probably at R.A. 119°, Decl. 28° N., a few degrees east 

 of Castor and Pollux. 



May 22, loh. 8m. A very slow-moving meteor, as bright as 

 Jupiter, and having a great length of path, observed at Bristol, 

 Reading, Clifton, &c. 



May 29, loh. 45m. Fireball, fully 12' in diameter, and shaped 

 like a club, noticed at Leeds. It travelled with extreme slow- 

 ness, occupying 9 seconds in traversing the 26° from 141° -t- 20°^ 

 to 113° -V 23^°. Its probable radiant was either at 176° 4- 9° or 

 210° -5°. 



Of these various bodies, the most remarkable were those of 

 April 15 and May 22. The former was undoubtedly one of the 

 most brilliant fireballs seen in recent years. The descriptions of 

 its apparent path are not, however, sufficiently precise and ac- 

 cordant to enable its height to be ascertained. It appears tO' 

 have emanated from a radiant point near Arcturus, and to have 

 been very low in the atmosphere at the time of its final outburst 

 and disappearance. 



With regard to the meteor of May 22, it displayed some rather 

 exceptional characteristics, though in point of brilliancy it was 

 certainly inferior to several of the fireballs which have beei> 

 lately recorded. As observed by the writer at Bristol, it passed 

 about 6° below Vega, and was lost sight of behind buildings, 

 which intercepted the view, when close to tj Ophiuchi. Its path 

 of 62° was performed in 16 seconds, so that the motion was ex- 

 tremely slow. As the nucleus sailed slowly along, it distributed 

 a train of yellowish sparks in its wake. At Reading, the meteor 

 was seen by Mr. G. T. Davis while observing coloured stars. 

 He noticed its course with particular care as from about 1° west 

 of Corona to between j3 and 5 Scorpii, and gives the points of 

 the observed beginning and ending as 226° -f 31° and 239° - 24°, 

 length of track 56". He notes, however, that this line of flight 

 should probably be extended to include the whole visible arc of 

 the meteor's course. The duration was estimated as 15 seconds. 

 A yellow train of 15° in length followed the head of the meteor 

 as it slowly trailed across the sky, and Mr. Davis describes the 

 whole effect as a splendid one. At Clifton an observer watched 

 the object as it passed from the northern [??] sky to the star 

 Vega, and from thence into the north-east confines of Scorpio. 

 He remarks that the most curious point in connection with its 

 career was its long duration, which must have been 18 or 20 

 seconds. 



Comparing the pair of observations at Bristol and Reading, it 

 is found that the radiant point of this conspicuous meteor was at 

 63° -f 35°, in azimuth 153!° (reckoned west from south), and 

 altitude 1°. It was therefore pursuing a course very nearly 

 parallel with that part of the earth's surface above which it 

 appeared. When first seen at Bristol it was passing over a point 

 6 miles east of Oxford at a height of 50 miles. The Reading 

 observer caught sight of it when 6 miles east by south of 

 Farnham, the height being the same. When the object was 

 obscured by houses at Bristol, its height had increased to about 

 55 miles. At Reading it was last seen when above a point 10 

 miles west of Orleans, in France at a height of 58 miles. The 

 rapidly increasing distance of the meteor prior to its disap- 

 pearance was of course due to the earth's curvature. 



The real length of path observed at Bristol was 196 miles, 

 described in 16 seconds, so that the velocity was 124 miles per 

 second. At Reading the length was 249 miles in 15 seconds — 

 velocity 16^ miles per second. Parabolic velocity would be 

 about 20 miles per second, so that it is probable the meteor was 

 revolving in an ellipse of very slight eccentricity — in fact, the 

 orbit appears to have been nearly circular in form. 



The radiant point of this meteor is situated some 7° south-east 

 of 6 Persei. The position is a very unusual one for a meteor 

 shower occurring at this period of the year. When the effects 

 of zenithal attraction are allowed for, the radiant is found to 

 be several degrees below the position as above assigned 

 from a simple projection of the two paths, and within about 



