22 



NATURE 



S^Nov. 7, 1878 



any reliable fact connected with the remains of the wonderful 

 animals may be of value to the biological student.3 



On the low hills and flats north-east of the gorge of the 

 Rakaia, from 1854 to 1858, there were quantities of gizzard- 

 stones lying in small heaps on the surface of the ground ; for 

 years no one collected them for scientific purposes, but boys or 

 bush-hands sometimes turned over the heaps, and picked out a 

 " few pretty ones " that happened to take their fancy. 



In April, 1S57, with two friends, I went up the course of the 

 Rakaia, followed the southern stream, then throu;j;h the country 

 west of Mount Plutt and Mount Somers, returned to the 

 "plains " by the Ashburton or Haketere River ; this was then 

 all new country, not taken up. On the southern side of the 

 Ashburton or Haketere River, on the flats above the gorge, a 

 vast number of moa bones lay exposed on the surface of the soil ; 

 after I had taken up a run there, I used frequently to pick up 

 'specimens from amongst these bones and throw them into heaps, 

 with the view of making a selection therefrom at some future 

 time. 



It may be worth mentioning that near that spot, at a now well- 

 known place called "Paddle Hill," I found a paddle made of 

 totana (Podocarpus totana), with a longer handle and much 

 broader blade than any hoe that I have seen used by natives ; 

 it seemed too large for a paddler kneeling or squatting ; it had 

 probably been used to propel a moki or raft. 



The Pahu. — The Hauhaus at the Hikurangi meeting were 

 called to their place of worship by the beating of the pahu ; it 

 i s a long, sonorous piece of wood, made (when possible) from 

 an aromatic tree called porokaiwhiria {Hedycaria dentata). It 

 is hung from a cross pole supported at either end by a forked 

 stick. The sound may be heard to an extraordinary distance. 

 It is produced from this rough kind of wooden drum being beaten 

 on its edges by several persons furnished with short batons. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The Cambridge Syndicate appointed to consider the 

 higher mathematical studies and examinations of the university 

 have issued a further report in which they state that they have 

 been led by the observations of members of the Senate in the 

 Arts School, and by the results of the voting on the .scheme 

 of examination recommended in their report of March 29, to 

 believe that in the opinion of the Senate the examination in 

 Part III. of the Mathematical Tripos should be independent of 

 the preceding parts, and also that the Senate would be averse to 

 any scheme in which it was not provided that all the subjects 

 should be included in the examinations of each year. They have 

 framed regulations in accordance with these principles in substi- 

 tution for those rejected by the Senate on May 29, under which 

 it is provided that from the results of the examination in Parts 

 I. and II., the candidates shall be arranged in order of merit as 

 Wranglers, Senior Optimes, and Junior Optimes. Only 

 Wranglers are to be admitted to the examination in Part III., 

 and from the result of the examination in that part only, the 

 Moderators and Examiners shall publish in three divisions, 

 each division arranged alphabetically, a list of those examined 

 and approved. Power is given to the Moderators and Exa- 

 miners to place in the first division any candidate who has shown 

 eminent proficiency in the subjects of any one group in Schedule 

 III. In each of the papers in bookwork in Part III. a limit is 

 to be fixed to the number of questions to which any candidate 

 shall be permitted to send in answers, such limit to be printed at 

 the head of each paper. The subjects in Part III. are grouped 

 in four divisions. Group A consists of differential equations, 

 calculus of variations, higher algebra, higher parts of theory of 

 equations, higher analytical geometry (plane and solid), finite 

 differences, higher definite integrals, elliptic functions, theory of 

 chances, including combination of observations. Group B, 

 Laplace's and allied functions, attractions, higher dynamics, 

 Newton's " Principia," book i. sec. ix.-xi,, lunar and planetary 

 theories, figure of the Earth, precession and nutation. Group C, 

 hydrodynamics, including waves and tide, sound, physical optics, 

 vibrations of strings and bars, elastic solids. Group D, expres- 

 sion of functions by series or integrals, involving sines and 

 cosines, thermodynamics, conduction of heat, electricity, magne- 

 tism. From the discussion which took place on the subject on 

 November 2, opinion seems to be pretty much divided at 

 Cambridge as to the advisability of the proposed alterations. 



A PosT-MASTERSHlPat Merton College, Oxford, for Natural 

 Science, has been awarded to Mr. Geo. Howson, a pupil ' 

 Giggleswick School. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Memorie della Societa degli Spetlroscopisti Italiani, April, 1S78, 

 contains a table showing the solar spots and faculse for each day of 

 observation for the months of January, February, and March 1877. 

 A note by Prof. Tacchini on the solar spots of the first three 

 months of 1877, compared with those or the same months in 

 1878. — An account of the observations of solar prominences 

 made at Palermo during the first three months of the present 

 year. — Drawings of the chromosphere for the months of March, 

 April, May, and June, 187 1. 



May.— This number contains full accounts of the transit of 

 Mercury of May 6, 1878, as observed at Rome, with notes on 

 the same by Respighi, St. Ferrari, Millosevich, and Tacchini. 

 — Drawings of the chromosphere for June and July 1871. 



June. — Tables of solar spots and faculoc for April and May, 

 1878. — Note on the spots and solar eruptions of April, May, and 

 June, 1878, by Prof. Tacchini. — A long paper on a cause for 

 the appearance of bright lines in the solar spectrum, by Mr. 

 Meldola. 



July. — A paper containing tables of the solar prominences 

 observed at Palermo in April, May, and June, 1878, by Prof. 

 T»cchini. — A long paper by Schiaparelli on the observations of 

 the rotation and topography of the planet Mars made at Milan 

 during the opposition of 1877. 



August. — Spectroscopic observations of the chromosphere made 

 at Palenno during the months of April, May, and June, 1S78. 

 Tables showing the number of protuberances and spots on the sun 

 for each day of observation for the months of Augiist, Sep- 

 tember, October, November, and December, as seen at Rome, 

 with notes thereon. — Drawings of the chromosphere for the 

 last part of July, 1871, made at Palermo. 



Bulletin de VAcademie Roy ah de Belgujue, No. 7, 1878. — It 

 has been affirmed by more than one observer that, during 

 aurorje boreales, the intensity of scintillation of stars has been 

 considerably increased ; a singular influence, if real. M. Mon- 

 tigny, testing such statements, observed twice such an increase 

 (en the nights of April 5, 1870, and June i, 1878). He notes 

 the fact that this increase coincided with a lowering of tem- 

 perature of the r.ir in the locality. In the one case this fall 

 occuiTcd exactly at the moment of the aurora and observatioa 

 of the scintillation; in the other case it preceded the aurora, 

 but was more marked the night of it, and a few hours 

 after observation of the increase in question. He considers 

 the increase due to the cooling, which must have affected first 

 the upper regions of the atmosphere through which the stars* 

 rays pass; and this a/rees with the fact that the stars 

 furthest above the horizon showed the increase most. — 

 MM. Spring and Durand study some obscure points in the com- 

 po.>ition of oxygenated compounds of nitrogen. Finding that the 

 products of reaction, with water, of the body formed by action 

 of chlorine on nitrite of silver, are exclusively nitric acid and 

 chlorhydric acid, their surmise was verified that the chlorine is 

 substituted for the silver of the nitrite, atom for atom, forming 

 nitric chloride. Hence the structure of the group NOg of nitric 

 acid is inferred to be the same as that of its correspondent nitrous 

 acid, and the rational formulae of these two substances must be 

 written respectively HO.N = O and HO.O — N = O. M. 

 Melsens seeks to refute M. du Moncel's statements about the 

 cost of his system of lightning-conductors, as applied to the 

 Hotel de Ville, in Brussels, and criticises the instructions of the 

 Paris Commission for erecting conductors on public buildings. 

 — Some letters in a controversy between M. du Moncel and 

 MM. Navez on the theory of the telephone, appear in this 

 number. — M. Malaise announces the discovery of Brachiopoda 

 of the genus Lingula in the Cambrian formation of S tavelot. 



No. 8. — The digestion of albuminoids in some invertebrates 

 forms the subject of a paper here from Dr. Fredericq. From a 

 combination of his results with those got by Hoppe-Seyler and 

 Plateau, it appears that the mechanism of digestion is the same 

 throughout the animal kingdom, and the transformation of food 

 in invertebrates is effected through substances that have the- 

 greatest similarity to the dige.-tive ferments of vertebrates (solu- 

 bility in water, precipitation by alcohol). Digestion by means of: 



