Oct. 31, 1889J 



NATURE 



659 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The Smith's Prizes have been adjudged as 

 follows:— To H, F. Baker, B.A., of St. John's College, for 

 his essay entitled "The Complete System of 148 Concomitants 

 of Three Ternary Quadrics, in terms of which all others are 

 expressible as Rational Integral Algebraic Functions, with an 

 Account of the Present Theory of Three such Forms." To J. 

 H. Michell, B.A., of Trinity College, for his essay entitled 

 "The Vibrations of Cur%'ed Rods and Shells." The adjudi- 

 cators place the two names in alphabetical order, not desiring 

 to assign precedence to one essay over the other. Mr. Baker 

 and Mr. Michell were bracketed Senior Wranglers in 1887. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Revue a Anthropologic, troisieme serie, tome iv., cinquieme fasc. 

 (Paris, 1889). — A chart of the colour of the eyes and hair in 

 France, by M. Topinard. The author explains at length the 

 methods he has adopted in elaborating the great mass of materials 

 supplied him by the 2000 collaborators, at home and abroad, 

 who responded to his appeal when, in 1886, at the suggestion of 

 Dr. Beddoe, he undertook to examine the relations between the 

 colour of the hair and the eyes among different peoples. In this 

 chart of the general distribution of the blonde and the brunette 

 types in the several departments of France, the variations be- 

 tween the extremes of these elements are clearly indicated by 

 various shades from white to black. We are thus able at a 

 glance to observe that while France generally admits of being 

 divided into two great zones, the one occupying the north-east 

 and the other the south-west of the French territories, each 

 includes one or more departments in which an opposite type 

 crops up. In most instances this anomaly may be accounted 

 for by the early history of the invasions and foreign settlements 

 to which France was subjected before its various parts were 

 welded together. Thus it appears that the blonde races entered 

 both by land from the Low Countries on the east, and by sea from 

 Belgium, the Franks and Burgundians having invaded the 

 country on one side, while Franks, Saxons, Normans, and 

 Britons advanced on the opposite side. Similarly, men of the 

 brunette type entered France on one hand from the Ligurian 

 coasts of the Mediterranean, and on the other from Iberia. A 

 curious fact is mentioned by M. Topinard — that, while the blonde 

 races followed the left bank of the Rhone valley, the dark races ad- 

 vanced along ths Bay of Biscay as far as the Vendee, where the two 

 came into contact, the latter being soon repulsed, and forced to 

 follow the course of the Loire as far as Blois. By a comparison 

 f the various tables it appears that some departments show a 

 predominance of one colour in relation to the eyes, and an 

 opposite one in regard to the hair. There is, however, only one 

 department which can be classed as being blonde in relation to 

 the hair and brunette in regard to the eyes. This, and various 

 other anomalies, presenting great interest from an ethnological 

 point of view, have been considered by M. Topinard with his 

 usual ability, and although he treats only of the relative distri- 

 bution of colour in the eyes and hair among the French people, 

 his paper is a model for similar investigations, and worthy the 

 gratitude of all ethnological inquirers, — Kashgaria, and the 

 passes of Tian-Shan, by Dr. N. Seeland. In this concluding 

 number of his contributions to our scanty knowledge of this 

 part of Turkestan, the writer describes his visit to ths city of 

 Aksou, lying on a plain 3500 feet above the level of the sea, and 

 not far from the River Aksou-Daria. — The Stone Age in Italy, 

 by M. P. Castelfranco. This is a concise, yet comprehensive, 

 description of the human and other osseous remains, and of the 

 various objects found in the Palaeolithic stations of Italy in 

 recent years, giving all necessary details concerning the times 

 of discovery, and the character of the several caves and stations 

 where they occurred. As yet there is no evidence of the exist- 

 ence of man in Italy in the Tertiary age ; his appearance there 

 being apparently not earlier than the close of the Quaternary, 

 and contemporaneous with Urstis spelceus. The period of the 

 Cave-dwellers must, however, have coexisted with certain phases 

 of civilization, since, in Liguria more especially, jade arms are 

 found blended with bone and stone weapons and other imple- 

 ments in the graves of these Italian Troglodytes, whose remains 

 closely resemble those of the Cro Magnou men. Thus far, the 

 finds in Italy, which the author describes at great length, do 

 not admit of being referred with any exactitude to the successive 

 periods of the Palaeolithic Age recognized elsewhere. The 



value of M. Castelfranco's treatise is increased by an appen dix 

 of bibliographic notices, which will be found of great use to the 

 English reader. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 21. — M. Des Cloizeaux, 

 President, in the chair. — Researches on the relations existing 

 between the physical characters of plants and the proportion of 

 elements of fertility in the soil, by M. G. Ville. The composi- 

 tion of the soil influences colour, size, weight, general aspect, 

 the amount of carotine, and that of chlorophyll. In plants with 

 nitrogen predominating (hemp, wheat, &c. ), least carotine is 

 found when a manure without nitr(^en has been used ; in those 

 with potash predominating (potato, vine), when potash has been 

 suppressed. The variations in chlorophyll correspond to those 

 of carotine. For each plant there is a time when the con- 

 trasts of colour reach their maximum. M. Ville shows, in a 

 diagram, how a hemp plant varied with different manures. — 

 Observations of Barnard's comet (September 2, 1888) 1889, I.^ 

 made with the o'38 m. equatorial of Bordeaux Observatory, by 

 MM. G. Rayet and Courty, by M. G. Rayet. — On a method of 

 measuring the flexure of a mural circle, independently of the 

 telescope, by M. Perigaud. A rigid rod, the length of the dia- 

 meter, is attached to the axis, so as to be able to turn round it 

 and be fixed in any position. Divisions traced on it, near the 

 ends, are examined through two microscopes 180°, apart. After 

 one reading, the circle is turned 180°, and a second reading; 

 taken. — On the invariants of a linear and homogeneous differ- 

 ential equation, by M. Mittag-Leffler. — On surfaces of whicb 

 the ds- is reducible in several ways to Liouville's form, by M.. 

 G. Koenigs. — On the simultaneous synthesis of water and hydro- 

 chloric acid, by MM. P. Hautefeuille and J. Margottet. Mix- 

 tures formed by adding chlorine to the gaseous elements of water^ 

 or oxygen to the elements of hydrochloric acid, were exposed 

 to the electric spark. If the volume of chlorine is more than 

 half the hydrogen, the ratio of the numbers of equivalents of 

 water and hydrochloric acid formed is always less than unity, 

 and it diminishes rapidly with increase of the chlorine ; when 

 it is double the hydrogen, the water ceases to be appre- 

 ciable. When oxygen is added to the elements of hydrochloric 

 acid, the above ratio is always less than unity, but varies only 

 between narrow limits, in increasing the ratio of volumes of O 

 and H from \ to 3, — On the existence of sulphate of phospho- 

 nium, by M. A. Besson. Dry gaseous phosphoretted hydrogen 

 passed into sulphuric acid kept at 20° to 25° below zero, is largely 

 absorbed, the liquid becoming syrupy. The product is then 

 pretty stable, and may be kept at a few degrees below zero. 

 On decanting, a white very deliquescent crystalline mass is 

 found, which seems to be sulphate of phosphonium. Thrown 

 into water at ordinary temperature, it is decomposed with a 

 crackling noise, liberating phosphoretted hydrogen without reduc" 

 tion of sulphuric acid. The white mass, as it rises to the ordinary 

 temperature, decomposes with reduction of sulphuric acid and 

 oxidation of phosphorus. — On the action of ammoniacal sulphate 

 of copper on sorbite and on mannite (a reply), by M. Guignet. 

 — On the role of ammonia in the nutrition of the higher plants, 

 by M. A. Miintz. He finds, by experiment with bean, maize, 

 hemp, &c., that such plants can directly absorb ammoniacal 

 nitrogen by their roots ; the nitrification of ammonical manures 

 not being indispensable to their utilization. — On the mucous 

 canals of Cyclopterides, by M. F. Guitel. There are three 

 systems of these, two maxillo-opercular (one on each side), and 

 one median, with symmetrical halves. Each half of the latter 

 system (in Liparis) has eleven orifices, and each maxillo-oper 

 cular system seven, making thirty-six. Full details are given. — 

 New contributions to the geological study of the Lower Alps, 

 by M. W. Kilian. In the Upper Jurassic epoch there seem to 

 have been a series of coralligenous reefs in the position of the 

 mountains of Ubaye ; and a shallow part of the Oolitic sea is 

 here indicated, The eastern limit hitherto assigned to the 

 Lower Cretaceous sea should be put back considerably. — On a 

 new way of preparing oxamide and oxamic acid, by M. E. 

 Mathieu-Plessy. Oxalate of ammonium is introduced into fused 

 nitrate of ammonia, and the whole kept four hours between 170° 

 and 175°. — Attempt to produce an iodide of nitrogen photometer, 

 by M. G. Lion. This is based on comparison of the volumes 

 of nitrogen produced in equal times, by the light examined, 

 and by a light standard. — Volumes on the life and works of 

 D'Alembert (Bertrand), and on the flight of birds (Marey), &c.,. 

 were presented. 



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