Nov. 28, 1878] 



NATURE 



87 



umbrageous habit and wide-spreading branches it is extremely 

 valuable as a shade tree. The wood is soft and of little value 

 except as firewood, and the pod is sweet, like that of the carob 

 (Ceratonia siliqua), and may probably prove valuable as a food 

 for cattle, for which purpose, indeed, these pods are used in the 

 West Indies. For this reason, and not for that of gatheruig and 

 dispersing moisture (for which the tree became momentarily 

 celebrated), it is probable the tree may_be generally planted. 



The additions to the Zoological Societ}-'s Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynoinolgus) 

 from India, presented by Mr. Theodore Beck ; a Black-crested 

 Cardinal {Gubernatrix crUtatella), two Red-crested Cardinals 

 (Paroaria ctunllatd) from South America, purchased ; a Macaque 

 Monkey {Macacus cynomolgus) from India, deposited ; a Baker's 

 Antelope {Hippotragus bakeri) from Nubia, received in exchange. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The proposals of the Cambridge Mathematical Studies Syn* 

 dicate for completing the new scheme for the mathematical 

 tripos have been carried. The following sunamary of the whole 

 scheme of thfe mathematical tripos which will come into opera- 

 tion in the year 1882 is given in the Times. It will consist of 

 three parts, the examination for each part occupying three days. 

 The subjects of the first part are to be confined to the more 

 elementary parts of pure mathematics and natural philosophy, 

 the subjects to be treated without the use of the differential cal- 

 culus and the methods of analytical geometry. The examina- 

 tion in Part II. will only be open to thjse who have passed 

 Part I. so as to deser%-e mathematical honours, and the subjects 

 are algebra, trigonometry, plane and spherical, theory of equa- 

 tions, the easier parts of analytical geometr)', plane and solid, 

 including cur\'ature of ciu^'es and surfaces, differential and 

 integral calculus, easier parts of differential equations, statics, 

 including elementary propositions on attractions and potentials ; 

 hydrostatics, dynamics of a particle, easier parts of rigid dyna- 

 mics, easier parts of optics and spherical astronomy. Those 

 who pass this second part will be arranged as wranglers, senior 

 optimes, and junior optioies in order of merit. Both the ex- 

 aminations in Parts I. and II. will take place in June. The 

 examination in Part III. will be held in Januar)', and be open 

 only to those who are classed as wranglers. It will last three 

 days. On the tenth day after the end of the examination in Part III. 

 the moderators and examiners, taking into account the examination 

 in that part only, shall publish in three divisions, each division 

 arranged alphabetically, those examined and approved. The 

 moderators and examiners may place in the first division any 

 candidate who has shown eminent proficiency in any one group 

 of the subjects in Schedule III. 



The University College of Wales Magazine, the first number of 

 which lies before us, is a neat little publication of fifty two 

 pages, doing credit to the Oswestry press from which it issues, 

 as well as to the enterprise of the Aber>stwith Institution, and 

 the ability of its members. We do not suppose its promoters 

 expect a large general circulation, though there is no reason w hy 

 the magazine might not be so conducted as to meet with consider- 

 able favour in the principality. Curiously enough, the first paper 

 after the introduction is on Persian literature, while one on 

 Welsh literature occupies the sixth place. There is a paper on 

 Cambria at Paris, .showing what a good appearance she made 

 at the recent exhibition; a Welsh story, an Oxford letter, 

 college news, &c. We wish the magazine success ; and it might 

 do good service by devoting itself to research in various direc- 

 tions in regard to Wales. We should like to see the science 

 professors in this college fill up some of its pages. 



The First Annual Report of the Dulwich College Science 

 Society IS, on the whole, satisfactory ; the appended lists, form- 

 ing the bulk of the volume, show that the Society has several 

 diligent collectors, and we hope it will continue to do genuine 

 work and nourish in the scho 1 a lasting love of real science. 



Prof. H. G. Seeley completed on Friday at the College for 

 Men and Women, 29, Queen Square, Bloomsbury, a course of 

 .six lectures on some of the principal forms 'of extinct animals 

 Which resemble reptUes and birds, and have 'no representatives 



now living. The subjects have been as follows : — Lecture I. — 

 On the Geological Distribution of Fossil Reptiles and Birds ; 

 and concerning points in which Extinct Reptiles difler from 

 those which now inhabit the Earth. Lecture II. — The Ichthyo- 

 saurians and Animals of the Open Ocean. Lecture III. — The 

 Plesiosaurians and Animals of the Sea Shore. Lecture IV. — 

 The Dinosaurians and Allied Types of Land Animals. Lec- 

 ture V. — The Ornithosaurians and other Flying Types of Life. 

 Lecture VI. — The Classification of Reptiles and Allied Fossil 

 Animals, as illustrating some Aspects of the Doctrine of 

 Evolution. 



Prof. Wurtz was charged some time since by the French 

 Minister of Public Instruction, to make an inquiry into the 

 organisation of the laboratories and practical instruction given in 

 the several universities of Germany and Austro-Hungary. 

 Prof. Wurtz accordingly made several journeys to the great 

 seats of learning in these two countries, and the Journal 

 Officid of last Saturday publishes at full length his report. 

 Prof. Wurtz insists strongly on the danger of creating large estab- 

 lishments, A\here students are taught something of everything, 

 and on the necessity of creating special foci for every large sec- 

 tion of experimental science. He shows the advantage of special 

 institutes, and insists upon the organisation of chemical, physical, 

 physiological, anatomical, and pathological institutions such as 

 flomrish on the other side of the Rhine, and may be established 

 in Alsace-Lorraine. He ends his report by describing the 

 Munich Hygienic Institute. 



The French budget of Public Instruction has been voted 

 au pas accelere. The resolutions proposed by the Commission 

 were voted v.ithout any material alterations. The estimates 

 reach about 2,000,000/. 



The University of Bern celebrated, on November 1 5, the forty- 

 fourth anniversary of its foundation. It numbers among its 

 students, about twenty ladies, mostly Russians, who study 

 medicine. 



According to a new law, all children who finish their education 

 in any school of the Canton of Bern are submitted to an examina- 

 tion. This year 4,610 boys and 4,446 girls were examined (total 

 population of the Canton 537,000), and the results proved unsatis- 

 factory. The Canton continues to occupy the eighteenth and 

 twenty-first places in the Cantons of the Swiss confederation. 



A WEALTHY Serbian, Ilija Milosavljewitch Kolaraz, who 

 died a month ago at the ripe age of eighty-two, has left the sum 

 of loo.coo ducats for educational purposes, lo.ooo ducats for 

 the publishing of valuable works in the Serbian language, and 

 60,000 ducats for the foundation of a Serbian university at 

 Belgrade, which is to be known as Kolaraz' Universit}'. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



yournal of Anatomy and Physiology, July, 1878. — Dr. Ogston, 

 of Aberdeen, gives an account of the growth and maintenance 

 of the articular ends of adult bones. He believes that the arti- 

 cular cartilage produces the osseous tissue beneath it, forms the 

 epiphyses, supplies their waste, and maintains them in their 

 proper size and bulk during adult life. — Prof. Cleland describes 

 the brain in cyclopians or one-eyed monsters, including speci- 

 mens of human kind, dog«, lambs, and pigs. He finds that 

 there is no trace of a retina in the cyclopian eyeball, and that 

 moreover there is an arrest of the development of the first 

 cerebral vesicle. — Dr. Creighton gives an exhaustive account of 

 the formation of the placenta in the guinea-pig, and refers very 

 prominently to its early development in connection with the 

 structure of the ovaries and supra-renal bodies. — Prof. Turner 

 contributes notes on the foetal membranes of the reindeer, and 

 on the oviducts of the Greenland shark. — Mr. David Newman's 

 paper on the functions of the kidney gives an account of the 

 physical influences which promote secretion, so far as can be 

 demonstrated by experiments with animal membranes and the 

 kidneys of animals recently killed. — Dr. Dodds' historical and 

 critical analysis of our knowledge upon the localisation of the 

 functions of the brain deals with the anatomy of the brain in 

 this number. 



October. — Dr. Cunningham, of Edinburgh, gives his deduc- 

 tions on the intrinsic muscles of the mammalian foot, derived 

 from a large number of dissections ; and fiirther describes the 

 muscles of the foot of cuscus and thylacine. — Prof. Miall and 

 Mr. Greenwood conclude their valuable memoir on the anatomy 

 of the Indian elephant, dealing with the alimen'ary canal and 



