354 



NATURE 



[Feb. 13. 1879 



fuffice to give the most successful student a high place in the 

 Cambridge list of Wranglers. No doubt, in the near future, 

 English girls all over the land will have as few obstacles in the 

 way of their higher education as English boys, 



Mr. H. T. Wood, of the Society of Art«, writing to Col. 

 Donnelly, of the Science and Art Department, South Kensing- 

 ton informs him that sufficient funds will be provided by the 

 City Companies for the payment of teachers of classes for in- 

 struction in technology, on the same scale as that on which 

 teachers of science classes are now paid by the Science and Art 

 Department, and without any proportionate reduction, as stated 

 in the Society's Programme of Examinations (p. 14), on the 

 ground that all the amount at the disposal of the Society might 

 be insufficient to allow of the full payment in all cases. Mr. 

 Wood asks that this important fact be brought under the notice 

 of the Secretaries of Science Classes and Schools. The arrange- 

 ment will apply to the examinations held in May next. 



Dr. T. Lauder Brunton, who was recently appointed to 

 the Thomson Lectureship in the Aberdeen Free Church College, 

 delivered the opening lecture on Monday, the 3rd inst. The 

 course will consist of ten lectures. 



The University Library at Strassburg, founded after the 

 recent Franco-German War, numbered no less than 470,000 

 volumes at the end of 1878. 



We are glad to see that in the second number of the Uni- 

 versity College of Wales Magazine science finds a corner in the 

 shape of " Museum Notes." One of these, by Prof. Riidler, 

 is a brief resume of what is known of the Moa, apropos of a col- 

 lection of moa-bones in the College Museum. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Journal of the Franklin Institute, January. — The error of 

 some wild statements made about the size and cost of the cable 

 that would be needed to convey the power of Niagara Falls 

 several hundred miles by electricity is here shown by Professors 

 Thomson and Huston, who calculate, e.g., that 1,500 to 3,oco 

 horse- power could be conveyed 1,000 miles (50 per cent, out of 

 3,000 horse-power) with a copper cable about i inch in thick- 

 ness. LcFS than \ inch would suffice for 500 m. For con- 

 sumption of i,coo,ooo horse-power a 3-inch oable would suffice. 

 The same authors describe a curious thermo-magnetic motor, and 

 an induction apparatus for reversed currents. — Dr. Henry 

 Morton finds the coating of the "luminous clocks " sulphide of 

 calcium attached with some resinous medium, and seems hopeful 

 that advances in this direction may by and by give us houses lit 

 at night by phosphorescent walls. — Mr. Huston gets some re- 

 markable effects (needing confirmation from repeated tests) in 

 subjecting iron to a continued and constantly increasing strain. 

 — Dr. Dudley considers toughness, rather than hardness, the 

 essential quality for durability of steel rails. — An automatic 

 machine for playing the game of tit-tat-to is described by Mr. 

 Freeland. 



Reale Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere, vol. xi. fasc. xix., 

 XX. — On some derivatives of ethyl-paraoxybenzoic aldehyde, by 

 S. Corbetta. — The English sanitary laws, by Dr. Zucchi. — On 

 the use of salts of berberine as febrifuge, and on tumours of the 

 spleen from malarian infection, by Dr. Zucchi. — Studies on 

 milk at the Pavian laboratory of cryptogamic botany, by Drs. 

 Pirotta and Riboni. — Value of two meteorological instruments 

 of Bellani, by Prof. Cantoni. — Observations on the seismic 

 microphone of De Rossi, by Prof. Cantoni. 



Vol. xii. fasc. i. — Studies on milk (continued), by Drs. 

 Pirotta and Riboni. — New physio-pathological researches on 

 pulmonary phthisis, by Prof, de Giovanni. — First lines of intro- 

 duction to the study of the Italian bacteria, by S. Trevisan. — 

 On modular equations, by S . Klein. — On pentahedral equations 

 of surfaces of the third order, by Prof. Beltrami. 



Bulletin de VAcadhnie Royale de Belgique, No. II, 1878, — 

 Besides M. Montigny's paper on variations in the scintillation of 

 stars (referred to last week), this number contains a valuable 

 memoir by M. Fredericq on the organisation and physiology of 

 the poulpe (or octopus), which he studied at the laboratory of 

 Roscoff. The arterial blood yields a blue colouring matter (called 

 hcemocyanine), which corresponds somewhat to haemoglobin, but 

 contains copper, not iron. Both respiration and nutrition of 

 tissues depend on it. The heart has both accelerating and 

 moderating nerves. The blood pressure is considerably greater 



than in cold-blooded vertebrates ; the venous system shows 

 rhythmic contraction ; exterior water does not mix with the 

 blood ; the urine contains neither urea nor uric acid, but a sub- 

 stance like guanine, &c. M, Fredericq localises the centres of 

 the respiratory movements, and gives some interesting observa- 

 tions on the " chromatic function." — M. Van der Mensbrugghe 

 finds confirmation of his theory of the variations of potential 

 energy of liquid surfaces, in some peoiliarities of liquid sheets, 

 which he accounts for on thermodynamical principles.-^M. 

 Lienard communicates researches on the structure of the diges- 

 tive apparatus of Mygales and Nephiles, and M. Longchamps 

 concludes his synopsis of the Gomphine>. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, January 30. — "On the Effects of Heat on 

 the Di-iodide of Mercury, PIgIg," by G. F. Rodwell, Science 

 Master, and H. M. Elder, a pupil, in Marlborough College. 



The authors, in continuation of experiments of a similar 

 character previously communicated by one of them to the 

 Society, on the anomalous expansion of the iodide of silver, 

 have examined the iodide of mercury with a view to the detec- 

 tion of similar anomalies. This body is dimorphous, existing in 

 the form of yellow prismatic crystals, which change under 

 external mechanical influence, or during the process of cooling, 

 to brilliant scarlet octohedrons with a truncated summit. The 

 mass melts at 200° C. to a red-brown liquid, which volatilizes at 

 a slightly higher temperature. The following volumes were 

 determined at the temperatures given : — 



Volume. Specific Gravity 



Liquid at 200' C 1*1191147 ... 5*286 



Solid „ „ 1*0190453 ... 6*179 



Yellow prismatic condition at 



260 C ^"«>"i"u" '^M 1*0115378 ... 6-225 



Red octohedral condition at 126° C. 1*0043337 ... 6*276 

 „ „ ,, ato°C. 1*0000000 ... 6*297 



Thus the di-iodide of mercury possesses one coefficient of ex- 

 pansion = •0000344706 for 1° C. between 0° and 126° C, it then 

 undergoes a sudden expansion = "00720407 in changing from 

 the red octohedral to the yellow prismatic variety, while between 

 126° C. and the melting-point (200° C), it expands under a higher 

 coefficient than before = '0001002953 for 1° C. 



"A Comparison of the Variations of the Diurnal Range of 

 Magnetic Declination as recorded at the Observatories of Kew 

 and Trevandrum." By Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy in Owens College, Manchester, and 

 Morisabro Hiraoka. 



1. Generally speaking, maximum points or risings in the 

 one curve must be associated with maximum points or risings in 

 the other, rather than with minimum points or depressions. 

 Indeed, the researches of Broun and others, from a different 

 point of view, strengthen this conclusion, which is, however, 

 abundantly supported by a glance at the curves themselves. 



2. The oscillations of the Trevandrum curve are greater than 

 than those of the Kew curve. 



3. In many cases where there is a want of striking likeness 

 between the oscillations of the two curves, there are yet notice- 

 able traces in the one curve corresponding to the oscillations of 

 the other. There are, however, a few cases where there is a 

 want of apparent likeness. 



4. In general, though not invariably, the oscillations of the 

 Trevandrum curve follow rather than precede the corresponding 

 oscillati ons of the Kew curve. 



February 6. — "Absorption of Gases by Charcoal. Part II. 

 On a new Series of Equivalents or Molecules." By R. Angus 

 Smith, Ph. D., F.R.S. ' 



In the Transactions of the British Association, 1868, 

 Norwich, on p. 64 of the "Abstracts," there is a preliminary 

 notice of an investigation into the amount of certain gases 

 absorbed by charcoal. I made the inquiry from a belief pre- 

 viously expressed in a paper of which an abstract is in the 

 Proceedings of the Royal Society, p. 425, for 1863. I 

 said in that paper that the action of the gas and charcoal was on 

 the border hne between physics and chemistry, and that chemical 

 phenomena were ai» extension of the physical ; also that the 

 gases were absorbed by charcoal in whole volumes, the ex- 

 ceptions in the numbers being supposed to be mistakes. The 

 results given were : — . ^ 



I 



