Oct. 24, 1889J 



NATURE 



627 



respect : the names of Prof, Cayley, F.R.S., and of Prof. W. 

 Burnside will be submitted to fill up the vacancies caused by 

 the retirement of Dr. E. J. Routh, F.R.S., and Prof. Hart, of 

 Woolwich. 



The Library of the Royal College of Surgeons will, as an 

 experiment, be, for the remaining portion of the present year, 

 open in the evening. On each week-day except Saturday the 

 hours will be from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. ; on Saturdays the Library 

 will be closed at i p.m. 



A Physical Society is to be formed in Liverpool. It will 

 hold its meetings at University College, and Prof Oliver Lodge 

 has consented to be nominated as first President. The prelimin- 

 ary meeting will be held in the Physics Theatre of Univer- 

 sity College, at 8 o'clock on Wednesday evening, November 6, 

 Prof Oliver Lodge in the chair. The Secretary [pro tern.) is 

 Mr. Thomas Tarleton, i Hyde Road, Waterloo, Liverpool. 



Mr. John W, McCoy, who died in Baltimore lately, be- 

 •queathed his library, with ioo,ooo dollars, to the Johns Hopkins 

 University. 



On Monday a statue of J. B. Dumas, the chemist, was un- 

 veiled at Alais, his native town, by M. Faye, French Minister 

 of Agriculture. 



Like many other schools, Fettes College, Edinburgh, has 

 long been provided with chemical laboratories, but has had no 

 room specially adapted for the teaching of physical science. 

 This want has been met by the construction during the summer 

 of a well-appointed physical laboratory fitted up both for lectures 

 and for practical work by boys themselves. There is a well- 

 arranged supply of gas and water, several stone slabs for delicate 

 instruments affected by oscillations, screens for projection ex- 

 periments, a helioslat window and system of blinds for darkening 

 the room for experiments on light. A smaller room leading off 

 from the main room is reserved for special work, and is also 

 fitted up as a dark room for photography. The laboratory is 

 close to the boys' workshop, and to the workshop of the resident 

 carpenter and mechanic. 



An interesting Report by Sir Brandford Griffith, Governor of 

 the Gold Coast, has lately been issued by the Colonial Office. 

 It describes at considerable length a tour through the interior of 

 the colony, undertaken for the purpose of investigating the gold 

 deposits and examining the gold-mines at work. The Governor 

 comes to the conclusion that the country is rich in gold, and 

 that it is merely a matter of the necessary time and scientific 

 application for the metal to pay well for extraction. He finds, 

 also, that "earnest and well-considered attempts" are now 

 being made to secure success. An appendix containing a special 

 Report on the Winnebah district and its mineral wealth is 

 added. 



At the first meeting of the new session of the Geological 

 Society of Glasgow, Mr, John Young exhibited a fine series of 

 specimens of Polyzoa and Monticuligrora, comprising over 

 twenty species, which he had this summer discovered at Kirk- 

 lonhelm. East Kilbride. He remarked that the shale which 

 holds these organisms lies between the first and second Calder- 

 side limestones. Most of the specimens were taken from blocks 

 of shale which had been partially burnt in the lime-kilns, the 

 rock in its natural condition being of a gray colour, but 

 changed by contact with heat into yellowish gray. From this 

 change of colour the fronds of the Polyzoa, with their lace-like 

 structure, stand out much more prominently than when the shale 

 is in its original state. They have also the advantage of being 

 very much, hardened, whereas the shale is naturally very friable, 

 decomposing almost whenever it is exposed to the action of the 

 weather. Mr. James Bennie, of the Geological Survey of Scot- 

 land, read a paper, "Things New and Old from the Ancient 

 Lake of Cowdenglen." Up to 1867 the picturesque little valley 



of Cowden, beyond Crofthead, on the road to Ayrshire, was not 

 known to possess any features of special geological interest, but 

 in that year, having been chosen as the route of the direct rail- 

 way to Kilmarnock, it was invaded by the navvy with pick and 

 shovel, to the utter destruction of all its natural beauties. The 

 gradients being steep, the excavations were extensive, and at one 

 point the bed of an ancient lake was cut through, containing 

 deposits of mud and peat lying between two distinct layers of 

 boulder clay. These stratified deposits were found to contain 

 numerous remains of animal and vegetable life, both of higher 

 and lower forms, and, as their presence afforded strong evidence 

 of the great ice age, a controversy arose between the upholders 

 of a single glacial period and those who believed in two or more. 

 Of late years there has been a revival of interest in old lake 

 deposits, which led the author to re-examine the subject and the 

 specimens of the deposits in his possession. Always a sup- 

 porter of the " interglacial " or successive theory of ice periods, 

 he re-stated his case in the present paper, bringing forward a 

 fresh accumulation of proof 



Messrs. King, Mendham, and Co., of the Western Elec- 

 trical Works, Bristol, have sent us a sample of a very convenient 

 pocket galvanometer which they are now making, Tt is about 

 the size of an ordinary watch, the ring suspender acting also as 

 a binding screw. It is not only a detector galvanometer, but 

 can be used for the absolute measure of currents up to one 

 ampere. The dial is accordingly graduated one half in degrees, 

 and the other in milliamperes, and is so made that either half 

 can be brought to the top whilst the needle remains in a vertical 

 position. The front portion carries the dial and magnetic needle, 

 and the back part of the case contains the bobbins wound with 

 copper wire, the resistances of which have been measured and 

 particulars furnished with the instrument. Small stands are 

 also supplied for laboratory use if required. The instrument is 

 beautifully finished, and we strongly recommend it to all who 

 use batteries in any shape or form. To those who use electricity 

 for medicinal purposes, where the current is of prescribed 

 strength, such an instrument must be indispensable, and its im- 

 portance to electric-bell fixers and telephone and telegraph worker 

 is obvious. To economical users of batteries it will recommend 

 itself, as many a good cell may be saved by the detection of the 

 one which is really at fault. Full instructions are supplied with 

 each instrument. 



A GOOD word has at last been said for the sparrow in America. 

 In England this impudent bird is decidedly popular, but our 

 kinsfolk in the United States consider him an unmitigated 

 nuisance. Captain W. F. Segrave, British Consul at Baltimore, 

 writing on the subject in a recent Report, warns the Americans 

 that their policy in waging war against the sparrow may prove 

 to be a mistake. "The great 'blizzard' of March 1888," he 

 says, " destroyed multitudes of sparrows, and as a consequence, 

 the past and present summers have seen a vast increase in grubi 

 and caterpillars. Already in many large cities the inhabitants 

 through the public press are complaining of the destruction of 

 their ornamental trees, the diminished number of sparrows being 

 unable to keep in check the vast increase which has taken 

 place in noxious grubs, worms, and caterpillars," 



The third and concluding portion of Prof Kikuchi's (of 

 Tokio) work on geometry has just reached us. It is entitled 

 " Rittaikikagaku," or *' Solid Geometry." He has not been able 

 to derive assistance in its compilation from the work of the 

 Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching, as the 

 syllabus of this subject is yet in an embryo state. If we may 

 judge from the figures, he has adapted portions of Euclid xi, , 

 1-21, and of Wilson's " Solid Geometry," with a brief treat- 

 ment of the regular solids and the elements of spherical geometry. 

 There is an appendix of the equivalents of English terms written 

 in Japanese and Roman letters. 



