Nov. 14, 1878] 



NATURE 



47 



*''e fees), which is about the average of the stipends in the 

 'eges recently established; and that of each lecturer at 150/. 

 ; annum. A further sum will be required for class expenses 

 and for the general expenses of the college. A college consist- 

 ing of the staff recommended would therefore require a per- 

 manent income of at least 3,000/. per annum, necessitating a 

 capital of 75,000/. This estimate does not include the cost of 

 erecting any building for the purposes of the college, or the 

 rent which might have to be paid for the necessary accommoda- 

 tion pending such erection. The committee suggest the desira- 

 bility of deferring for the present the question of the government 

 of the college, and they recommend that the management be 

 placed in the meantime in the hands of a committee to be ap- 

 pointed by the adjourned town's meeting. The report was 

 adopted and a committee appointed to carry out its objects, 



A MEETING was held on Monday, in the City, for the pur- 

 =e of formally constituting the "City and Guilds of London 

 titute for the Advancement of Technical Education." The 

 eting was, in fact, the first held by the Board of Governors 

 which the provisional committee of the Guilds had recom- 

 mended should be constituted as the supreme governing body 

 of the new institute. This body consists of representatives 

 from the subscribing Livery Companies, nominees from the 

 Court of Common Council, the Lord Mayor, and other 

 City officials, with a president and twelve vice-presidents. 

 The amount of available income already promised is over 

 12,000/., but it is anticipated that as soon as any actual progress 

 i-. made in the work, contributions will be given by the com- 

 panies who have not yet joined in the scheme. The pro- 

 posals which the committee have before them include the 

 establishment in London of a central technical school, the 

 establishment and assistance of evening classes, trade schools, 

 <S:c., and the development of a system of technical exami- 

 nations such as that now carried on by the Society of Arts, 

 All these proposals were made in the provisional com- 

 mittee's report, and it was proposed to carry them all into 

 execution as soon as sufficient funds were obtained. It was 

 stated at the meeting on Monday that the Commissioners of the 

 185 1 Exhibition were proposing to erect a building at South 

 Kensington in which would be included a technical school, and 

 it was, therefore, understood that either some arrangement 

 v>ould be come to with them or the execution of the proposals 

 connected with the London school would be deferred till it was 

 definitely knowm what direction the action of the Commissioners 

 wotild be likely to take. It may be assumed, therefore, that the 

 I proposals of the executive committee will embody the other 

 recommendations of the provisional committee, and will include 

 a detailed scheme for carrying them out. 



The New South Wales correspondent of the Colonies states 

 that, in consideration of the necessity which is now felt] for 

 extending the curriculimi of Sydney University and augment- 

 ing its teaching powers, the Colonial Government have con- 

 sented to ask Parliament for an additional annual grant of 

 S,ooo/. This will enable the Senate to make the following 

 additions to the present coiurse of study : — Mental philosophy, 

 law, history, and English literature ; (2) all the education neces- 

 sary for the medical profession ; (3) a complete course of natural 

 philosophy, coupled with mechanics and engineering ; (4) the 

 ; addition of organic chemistry and metallurgy to the chemical 

 school ; and (5) biology, including anim il and vegetable phy- 

 siology. The Senate will also be in a position to establish a 

 faculty of science, and to confer the degrees of Bachelor and 

 Doctor of Science, and also degrees in medicine, on those who 

 have received their education in Sydney. 



We have received a "Calendar" of Anderson's College, 

 Glasgow, containing much information as to the founder and 

 ! the curriculum of that useful institution. It shows that a very 

 complete and thorough education may be obtained there at a 

 very moderate cost. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Zoological Society, November 5. — Mr. A. Grote, vice-pre- 

 I sident in the chair. — A communication received from Mr. J. H. 

 I Gumey, F.Z. S., contained a memorandum from the late Mr. E. 

 ! C. Buxton, stating that Asturinula monogrammtca, observed on 

 I the Eastern Coast of Africa, had a song which was heard morning 



and evening. — An extract was read from a letter addressed to the 

 Secretary by Dr. A. B. Meyer, C.M.Z.S., respecting a sup- 

 posed new bird of paradise, obtained on the West Coast of 

 New Guinea. — An extract was read from a letter addressed to the 

 Marquis of Tweeddale by Mr. A. H. Everett, stating that 

 the anoa of Celebes (Anoa depressicorms), or an allied species, 

 was found in the Island of Mindoro, Philippines, — Prof. 

 Newton, F.R.S., exhibited and made remarks on a supposed 

 hybrid between the red grouse and ptarmigan, lately shot in 

 Sutherland by Capt. Houston. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.Z.S., containing a description of a 

 new species of Indicator, with remarks on other species of the 

 genus. — A second paper by Mr. Sharpe contained a note on 

 Pceoptera lugubris. — A communication was read from Mr. G. B. 

 Sowerby, Jun., wherein he gave the descriptions of ten new 

 species of shells from various localities. — Mr. A. G. Butler, 

 F.Z.S., read a paper in which he gave the description of a 

 remarkable new spider, obtained in Madagascar by the Rev. W. 

 D. Cowan, for which the name of Ccerostris avernalis was pro- 

 posed. — A communication was read from Lt.-Col. R. H. Bed- 

 dome, C.M.Z.S., containing the description of six supposed new 

 species of snakes of the genus Silybura, family Uropeltidae, firom 

 the Peninsula of India. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., containing the description of a 

 collection of marine shells, made by Capt. L. W. Wilmer, in the 

 Andaman Islands. — Mr. F. Moore, F.Z.S., communicated a 

 list of the lepidopterous insects collected by Mr. Ossian Lim- 

 borg in Upper Tenasserim, with descriptions of new species. — 

 Mr. George French Angas, C.M.Z.S., gave the descriptions of 

 six species of bivalve shells in the collection of Mr. Sylvanus 

 Hanley, F.L.S., and of a Helix from the Solomon Islands. 

 Mr. Angas also read descriptions of ten species of Marine Shells 

 from the Province of South Australia. Mr. Angas likewise read 

 a list of additional species of marine mollusca to be included in 

 the fauna of the Province of South Australia, with notes on 

 their habitats and local distribution, in continuation of former 

 papers on this subject. — Dr. G. E. Dobson read a note on 

 Myxopoda aurila, a new form of chiroptera from Madagascar, 

 remarkable for possessing suctorial disks, as in Thryroptera. 

 Mr. Dobson also gave descriptions of some new or rare species 

 of bats based on specimens in the Museum of Naturab History 

 of Paris. To the new species the following names were given : — 

 Fteropus germaini from New Caledonia, Cephalotes minor firom 

 New Guinea, Emballonura raffrayana from Gibolo, and 

 Schizostovta brachyote from Cayenne. 



Cambridge 



Philosophical Society, October 28. —Annual General 

 Meeting, Prof. Liveing, president, in the chair, — The following 

 were elected Officers and new Members of Council for the ensuing 

 year. — President, Prof. Liveing ; Vice-Presidents, Prof. Stokes, 

 Prof. Ne-vvton, and Prof. Clerk Maxwell. Treasurer, Dr. J. 

 B. Pearson. Secretaries, Mr. J. W. Clark, Mr. Coutts Trotter, 

 and Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher. New Members of Council, Prof. 

 Humphrey, Prof. Cayley, Mr. W. M, Hicks.— Prof Cayley 

 made a communication to the Society upon the transformation 

 of co-ordinates. He investigated the formulae for the transfor- 

 mation between two sets of oblique co-ordinates in three 

 dimensions, which, when presented in the notation of matrices, 

 assumed a very elegant form. The paper also contained 

 developments relating to certain expressions that were involved 

 in the transformation. — Mr. J. W. L. Glaisher made a com- 

 munication to the Society on Henry Goodwyn's " Tabular 

 Series of Decimal Quotients" and " Table of Circles " (London, 

 1823). The first contains the value, to eight decimal places, of 

 every vulgar fraction, whose numerator and denominator, when 

 the fraction is expressed in its lowest terms, do not exceed icoo. 

 This table, in which the fractions are arranged in order of 

 magnitude, was intended to extend to \, but only the first part, 

 which ends at ^, was published. The " Table of Circles " 

 contains all the complete periods corresponding to the denomi- 

 nators, prime to 10, up to 1024. The object of the tables was 

 the conversion of vulgar firactions into decimals, the complete 

 quotients being shown. In the first table the fractions are 

 arranged in order of magnitude, and Mr. Goodwyn was thus 

 led to a remarkable theorem, viz., that if all the fractions in 

 their lowest terms having their numerators and denominators 

 both not exceeding a given quantity « be arranged in order of 

 magnitude, then each fraction is equal to the fraction formed 

 by adding together the two ntunerators and the two denominators 



