66 



NATURE 



{_Nov. 21, 1878 



Be this as it may, the idea of Daniel Bernoulli has been deve- 

 loped into a beautiful theory — the kinetic theory of gases — a 

 theory which has shed a sudden clearness, an unexpected light, on 

 matters which seemed to be veiled in the deepest obscurity. 

 The molecules, as already stated, are invisible. Never- 

 theless, attempts have been made to pene rate this invisible 

 world by the force of scientific reasoning, and by an effort 

 which does honour to the human mind, even if it be destined 

 to remain barren. The illustrious authors of the kinetic theory 

 of gases have sought to determine, not only the velocities of the 

 caseous molecules, and the prodigious number of their collisions 

 during a unit of time, but likewise their distances, their abso- 

 lute dimensions, and their number in a given volume. And 

 here we arrive at results which bewilder the imagination, but 

 which, in this lecture, I must not attempt to unfold. 



Permit me only to add that these great labours mark a resting 

 place in our course, and are, perhaps, an approach towards the 

 solution of the eternal problem of the constitution of matter — 

 a problem which dates from the earliest ages of civilisation, and 

 though discussed by all the great thinkers of ancient, as well 

 as of modern, times, still remains unsolved. May we not 

 hope that in our own time this problem has been more 

 clearly stated and more earnestly attacked, and that the labours 

 of the nineteenth century have advanced the human mind in 

 these arduous paths, more than those of a Lucretius, or even 

 of a Descartes and a Newton. From this point of view, the 

 discoveries of modern chemistry, so well expressed~and sum- 

 marised by the immortal conception of Dalton, will mark an 

 epoch in the progress of the human mind ; and to one of the 

 most important among these discoveries — that of the liquefaction 

 of the gases — grateful posterity will for ever join the glorious 

 name of Faraday. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Biologists will be pleased with the frank recognition of Dr. 

 Foster's services contained in the statute proposed by the Council 

 of the Senate at Cambridge for the new Professorship of Physiology 

 to be founded by Trinity College. It is to be permanently re- 

 corded that Dr. Foster's lectures have always been open to the 

 entire University, and that he "has successfully promoted" 

 the study of physiology. Thus the continued self-denying effort 

 and enthusiasm which have in eight years developed a school of 

 over seventy students, and which have called forth the original 

 talents of a score of ardent young investigators, will find still 

 fuller scope. We understand that Dr. Foster resolutely de- 

 clined to sanction any arrangement by Trinity College to secure 

 for him the first tenure of the professorship, preferring to leave 

 the University perfectly unfettered in its choice. But the Coun- 

 cil of the Senate, which is a thoroughly representative body, 

 chooses to signify the inseparable connection of the work with 

 Dr. Foster's name by the very wording of the statute. The 

 professor is to be elected by a board consisting of the Vice- 

 Chancellor, of four members nominated by the Council, and four 

 nominated by the Board of Natural Science Studies. One of 

 each four must be neither resident in the University nor officially 

 connected with it. 



The Cambridge mechanical workshops, organised by Prof. 

 Stuart, bid fair to become of importance to research in the 

 country generally, as well as in Cambridge, Prof. Stuart, on 

 his own responsibility, has completely fitted up the workshops 

 with all machinery necessary for the construction of philosophical 

 apparatus. He has engaged a number of the most competent 

 workmen as teachers, and to construct apparatus required by 

 professors and investigators who are often deterred from re- 

 searches because of lack of appliances or time to make what 

 they want. Classes are formed for the regular instruction of 

 university men in the use of tools and the construction of 

 machines, and these are attended at present by a dozen students, 

 several of whom intend to become engineers, 



Mr. a. C. Haddon, of Christ's College, has been nominated 

 oy the Board of Natural Sciences Studies, Cambridge, to study 

 at the Zoological Station at Naples during the ensuing season. 



Dr. Greenfield, of St. Thomas's Hospital, has been 

 appointed by the Senate of the University of London to succeed 

 Dr. Burdon Sanderson as Professor of Comparative Pathology at 

 the Brown Institution. 



The subscriptions already received or promised for the ex- 

 tension of the buildings of University College, London, amount 

 to upwards of 14,000/. 



By the will of the late Mr. Charles Randolph, engineer, 

 60,000/. has been left to the building fund of Glasgow 

 University. 



The third annual report of the Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, issued by President Gilman, is of the highest interest, 

 and shows that the attempt to establish a purely philosophical 

 university has been eminently successful. Our readers are no 

 doubt familiar with the principles on which this institution has 

 been based. It was not sought to add one more to the many 

 colleges already existing in the United States, but to found a 

 genuine university in which those who had the inclination and 

 the capabilities would have every facility for carrying their 

 elementary or collegiate studies into the region of research in 

 the various departments of human knowledge. The method of 

 work has been carefully planned ; the best men obtainable have 

 been got to superintend the work of the students, who are 

 admitted only on showing that they are really able and willing 

 to pursue the courses which have been arranged. It is a 

 many-sided and active centre of the highest learning, and cannot 

 but have an invigoratirg result on science in all its depart- 

 ments in the United States. We would recommend those of 

 our readers interested in the higher education to procure a copy 

 of this report, which deserves a more detailed notice than we 

 have space for. 



The Budget for Public Instruction will be deposited this week 

 in the Bureau of the French Chamber of Deputies. A large 

 increase is asked for in favour of public instruction. The credit 

 granted will exceed two milHons sterling. In 1823 it was only 

 two thousand pounds, consequently in a little more than half a 

 century it has been multiplied a thousand-fold. M. Bardoux 

 will propose the creation in each department of a high school for 

 popular education according to the models which have proved so 

 successful in Paris. The benefit of the organisation realised in 

 the capital will be extended to the whole of France if the 

 scheme of the active minister is adopted, as will most probably 

 be the case. 



At Stockholm the " Free " University was opened on October 

 14 last. The funds collected for its foundation now reach the 

 sum of 820,000 Swedish crowns. It is intended to establish a 

 similar university at Gothenburg. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The American yournal of Science and Arts, October. — Besides- 1 

 two valuable papers by Professors Mayer and Draper, reproduced: \ 

 in our columns, we have here an account of the curious artificial" \ 

 mounds of North-Eastern Iowa, by Mr. McGee. They consist 

 of tumuli, smaller conical mounds, embankments, and animal j 

 mounds, and from numerous measurements the Ijuilders seem 

 to have used a unit which either was, or grew out of, the pace j 

 or yard. A slow southerly migration of the mound-builders is 

 supposed to explain the evident increase in geometrical know- 1 

 ledge attested by various works found in passing across thej 

 United States from north to south. — Prof. Young fumishesi 

 details of observations of the Princeton Eclipse Expedition. — ^ 

 The flour-mill explosion at Minneapolis in May was probably due 

 to the running diy of a set of stones which ground middlings, 

 one of six sets discharging into a spout which communicated 

 with a dust -house. Mr. Peckham studies the case, pointing out 

 that there is greater danger with middlings, because it is dryer, 

 and is ground at a higher temperature, and finer. The dry 

 stones may heat the last part of the grist remaining, sufficiently 

 to make it like tinder, so that it readily ignites on receiving a 

 spark from the stones. The practical problem is how to prevent 

 or detect dry stones, especially those for middlings. — Mr. Becker 

 indicates the rationale of correction for vacuum in chemical 

 analysis. — Prof. Smith writes on the composition of the new 

 meteoric mineral, Daubreelite, and its frequent, if not universal, 

 occurrence in meteoric irons. — Prof. Watson gives a more 

 careful determination (than previously) of the intra-Mercurial 

 planets. 



Annalen der Physik und Chemie. — No. 9, 1878. — Tht. 

 excitation of electricity on contact of solid and gaseous! 

 bodies, forms the subject of an opening paper by Hercj 

 Beetz, who thinks the case is either one of differences] 

 of tensions produced by different conducting liquids, or of 

 change of metals by gases which have ceased to be in the 

 gaseous state, either through occlusion in the metals, or con^ 

 densation on their surface. — From experiments on production 01 



