Oct. 



1889] 



NATURE 



•o3 



Comparing the average difference, 167 per cent., be- 

 tween the marks of the examiners in Enghsh essay, with 

 the average difference, 9-5 per cent., for the same boys, 

 between the marks of the medical examiners, it seems 

 fair to conclude that the marks assigned by the latter are 

 at least as trustworthy as those given for English essay, 

 which may be taken as a sample subject in a literary 

 examination. 



It is hoped that similar experiments will be undertaken 

 at other places, so that materials may be obtained for the 

 comparison and discussion of different systems of mark- 

 ing, and for the construction, ultimately, of the best sys- 

 tems. Such experiments would be rendered all the more 

 valuable by the introduction of fresh points of examina- 

 tion, and by variations in the method of assigning the 

 marks for the different points. 



NOTES. 



At a meeting of the Council of the Royal Society held on 

 October 24, it was resolved that a Committee should be 

 appointed to consider the desirability of raising some national 

 memorial of the late Dr. Joule, and to take such action there- 

 upon as they might think advisable. Sir Henry Roscoe was 

 appointed the provisional Organizing Secretary. 



The W alker Engineering Laboratories in connection with 

 University College, Liverpool, will be opened on November 2. 

 The Lord President and Council of the College will entertain Sir 

 Andrew Barclay Walker, Sir John Coode, the members of the En- 

 gineerii^ Committee, and other distinguished guests at luncheon, 

 served in the Walker Laboratories ; and in the afternoon a public 

 meeting will be held in St. George's Hall, at which Sir John 

 Coode, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, will 

 deliver an address, and the annual distribution of medals and 

 prizes will take place. In the evening there will be a reception 

 at the Walker Laboratories, when the formal declaration of 

 opening will be undertaken by the Hon. Lady Walker. 



The annual exhibition prepared by the South London Entomo- 

 logical and Natural History Society was opened at the Bridge 

 House Hotel, London Bridge, S.E., yesterday, and will be 

 open again this evening. These exhibitions have become so 

 popular that on the last several occasions upwards of 2000 

 visitors have attended each evening. 



Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia, has been elected 

 President of the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, 

 which will meet in Washington in September 1891. 



As it is expected that the Forth Bridge will be opened for 

 passenger traffic in the spring of 1890, it is intended that the 

 event shall be celebrated by the holding of an International 

 Exhibition in Edinburgh, specially devoted to electrical and 

 general inventions and industries. The Exhibition is"under the 

 patronage of the Queen ; and the Marquis of Lothian, Secretary 

 of State for Scotland, is the President. The Vice-Presidents 

 include the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the Lord Provost of 

 Glasgow, the Lord Mayor (elect) of London, Mr. Edison, and 

 Sir John Fowler. The executive have secured a site of about 

 ninety acres in extent, within easy walking distance of the centre 

 of the town. On Monday, at a special meeting of the Elec- 

 trical Trades Section of the London Chamber of Commerce, a 

 resolution was agreed to, appointing a Committee to consider 

 the conditions on which it might be advisable to take part in 

 this Exhibition. 



A conversazione will be given by the Geologists' Associa- 

 tion on December 6. 



A STATUE of the PVench chemist, Nicolas Leblanc, is about 

 to be unveiled at Saint-Denis. Leblanc was born at Issoudun in 

 1753, and died in 1806. He had a manufactory at Saint- 

 Denis. 



The following Science Lectures will be given at the Royal 

 Victoria Hall during November :— November 5, Mr. A. P. 

 Laurie, on " Dust" ; November 12, Mr. W. Fumeaux, on "The 

 Heart, and how it beats"; November 19, Prof. Judd, "The 

 Forge of the Blacksmith God " ; November 26, Mr. J. E. Marr, 

 " Greenland's Icy Mountains." 



The Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women, 

 adjoining the Victoria Hall, has begun a very vigorous life. 

 Over 450 students have joined within three weeks of the opening 

 day. In fact they come in with somewhat embarrassing rapidity, 

 and volunteers (both ladies and gentlemen) are urgently wanted, 

 both to teach classes and act as librarians. Six librarians are 

 wanted to take one evening a week each, from 8 to 10. The 

 library has received a valuable present from Mr. Passmore 

 Edwards, who has given 1000 books. Others have given smaller 

 parcels, so that the book-cases which have been provided are 

 quite inadequate, and more are needed. 



Mr. William Burgess, the founder and proprietor of the 

 Midland Counties Fish Culture Establishment, died on Sunday, 

 at Malvern Wells. 



Lloyd's Agent at the Dardanelles telegraphed as follows on 

 October 28, 9.45 a.m. :— " An earthquake was felt here on 

 Saturday. Very little damage has been done. Sigri Light- 

 house, Mytilene, destroyed, alsD loss of life in island." 



Prof. H. G. Seeley finds that the pubic bone, which is of 

 large size, does not enter into the acetabulum in the Plesio- 

 saurian genus Colymbosaurus from the Oxford Clay. In that 

 genus, the clavicle and inter- clavicle are developed as small 

 separate ossifications, on the visceral aspect of the large scapular 

 arch, and hence are not usually seen. 



At the recent meeting of the Congress of German Men of 

 Science and Physicians at Heidelberg, Herr O. Ammon sub- 

 mitted to the Anthropological Section some interesting results 

 of observations he had made in Baden. These observations re- 

 lated to 5000 soldiers. The tall men had generally long skulls, 

 or skulls of medium length, whereas the short men had round 

 skulls. Most of the round-skulled men came from the Black 

 Forest ; the long-skulled usually belonged to the valley of the 

 Rhine, and were especially numerous in towns and in the 

 neighbourhood of the castles of ancient families. From this fact 

 Herr Ammon concluded that the round-skulled men had been 

 the original inhabitants of the Rhine valley, that they had been 

 driven from it by long-skulled invaders, and that the latter had 

 established themselves near the settlements of their victorious 

 leaders. Having shown that there is a certain relation between 

 the height of the^figure and the shape of the skull, Herr Ammon 

 went on to indicate the relation between fair hair and blue eyes. 

 No fewer than 80 per cent, of the men with blue eyes had fair 

 hair. He found also that physical growth is generally quicker 

 in the case of the brown-eyed than in that of the blue-eyed type. 



At the last aiieeting of the Andersonian Naturalists' Society 

 of Glasgow, amongst the papers read was one by Mr. R. Turner 

 Vice-President, on the Uredinese and Ustilagineae. He ex- 

 plained the relations of these microscopic Fungi to other plants, 

 and their position in the vegetable kingdom. They are all para- 

 sitic upon some living plant, and consist of two essential elements 

 —spores and mycelium. The spores are very diverse, the myce- 

 lium very similar. The same mycelium gives rise to several 

 different kinds of spores, each of these being formeriy regarded 

 as a different genus. The production of cluster-cups and of the 

 spermagonia, with their so-called spermatia, was described. It 

 was shown that these spermatia have been by no means esta- 

 blished as equivalent to pollen in function. As an example of 

 heteroecism, the life-history of Pticcinea gi-aminis was traced r 

 first, the cecidiospore stage on the barberry, then the rust on 



