242 



NATURE 



{Jtme 27, 1 8 78 



and we think there can be no doubt of its uUimate complete 

 success. The Marquis of Ripon spoke cheerfully both of the 

 present and future of the college, and gave the students some 

 excellent advice as to the aims they should set before them in 

 pursuing their studies. 



On the same day a similar ceremony was held at Owens 

 College, Manchester, when much surprise was expressed that 

 the Yorkshire College should oppose the Manchester University 

 scheme. 5 There need be no surprise at this, though we think 

 that, if the two institutions thought of nothing but the educa- 

 tional welfare of the north of England, they would not find it 

 so difficult to see eye to eye. 



The Kirgis tribes of Siberia have contributed about 3,ocxd/. to 

 the university of Kasan, to serve as a fund for stipends for 

 Kirgis students. 



The continued existence of duels in the German univer- 

 sities is a sad blot on modern Teutonic civiHsation. Within 

 the past few weeks two deaths from pistol duels have occurred 

 at the universities of Erlangen and Pest. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Erganzung Band viii. StUck 

 4. — In an inaugural dissertation, with which this number opens, 

 Dr. Less investigates the heat conductivity of some seventeen 

 varieties of stone, and several kinds of wood, his method being 

 a refinement on that of Hopkins, with whose results (for 

 stone) his own generally agree, only the numbers obtained for 

 different varieties of one rock vary much more. In general, 

 density and compactness favour the passage of heat, though the 

 effect evidently does not depend on this alone. Stones of crys- 

 talline texture conduct better than those mechanically mixed, and 

 fine-grained better than coarse-grained stones. In his table, 

 marble from the Pyrenees is put at the top, its conductivity being 

 reckoned 1,000; then follow Saxon granite (804), Carraran 

 marble (769), &c., down to common clay {275). Tyndall's obser- 

 vation of a difference in conduction in two directions (with and 

 at right angles to the fibres) in wood is confirmed, but the differ- 

 ences are found considerably less. The ratios of the galvano- 

 meter deflections are much greater in the better-conducting than 

 in the worse- conducting woods, making it very probable that 

 these deflections are proportional, not to the conductivities them- 

 selves, but to a somewhat higher power of them. — In two papers 

 dealing with magnetic induction and Clausius a^id Weber's fun- 

 damental laws of electro-dynamics, M. Lorberg, by a develop- 

 ment of the theory of two experiments, arrives at results throwing 

 doubt on Clausius' law, and endeavours to show that Weber's is 

 the only possible one. — M. Sadebeck contributes a lengthy paper 

 on the crystallisation of markasite, and its regular growths with 

 iron pyrites ; and M. Schonn describes the absorption of light 

 by water, petroleum, ammonia, alcohol, and glycerine. 



Bulletin de V Acadhnie Royale de Belgique, No. 3, 1878. — In 

 this number MM. Navez further describe their new system of 

 telephony, by which they claim to speak at distances which are 

 beyond the power of Bell's instruments, with an intensity equal 

 to that of persons speaking face to face. The sender is a 

 modified form of Edison's. A steel bar, supported in a tube, 

 rests vertically on some rundles of retort carbon on the plate, 

 which is copper covered with silver, and to which the sound of the 

 voice passes through a tube of vulcanised caoutchouc attached 

 below ; bar and plate are of course in circuit, as also an induc- 

 tion coil. The plate is pinched between hardened caoutchouc 

 and mahogany, which latter supports, on rundles of caoutchouc, 

 a zinc disc with central tube for the steel bar. — Reviewing the 

 geographical distribution of Balsenopterse, M. van Beneden 

 shows that we cannot consider any of the four species of 

 Balscnopterse and the one Megaptera, frequenting the North 

 Atlantic, as proper to Europe. They all, or nearly all, visit 

 the east coasts of North America, as well as the west coasts of 

 Europe, and proceed, both eastwards and westwards, into the 

 Pacific. The North Atlantic species have all representatives in 

 the North Pacific, and Rachianedes alone has no representative 

 beyond the Pacific. — Among other zoological papers M. Frai- 

 pont furnishes the second and third portions of his researches 

 on the Acetinians of the Ostend coast (three of the forms de- 

 scribed are new to science), and M. Longchamps makes addi- 

 tions to the synopsis of the Cordulinse. — In an interesting 

 memoir reported on by MM. van der Mensbrugghe and Folic, 



M. Lagrange concludes that a deformable mass, subjected to the 

 attraction of another deformable mass, in rotation takes a 

 motion of rotation in the same direction, which result he pro- 

 poses to apply to explain the origin and establishment of astro- 

 nomical movements. 



Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Sur- 

 vey oj the Territories, vol. iv. No. 2, Washington, May, 1878, 

 contains the following articles : — The geographical distribution of 

 the mammalia considered in relation to the principal ontological 

 regions of the earth and the laws that govern the distribution of 

 animal life, by J. A. Allen. — Descriptions of new extinct ver- 

 tebrata from the upper tertiary and Dakota formations, by E. D. 

 Cope (describes a large number of new reptile, bird, and mam- 

 malian forms).— Notes on a collection of fishes from the Rio 

 Grande at Brownesville, Texas, and a catalogue of the fresh- 

 water fishes of North America, by Dr. D. Jordan. — Description 

 of a fossil passerine bird from the insect-bearing shales of Colo- 

 rado, by J. A. Allen, with a plate. — The coleoptera of the 

 Alpine regions of the Rocky Mountains, by Dr. J. L. Le Conte. 

 — On the orthoptera of Dakota and Montana, by Prof. Cy. 

 Thomas.— On the hemiptera of the same, by P. R. Uhler. — On 

 the lepidoptera of Montana, by W. H. Edwards. — On some 

 insects of unusual interest from the tertiary rocks of Colorado 

 and Wyoming, by S. H. Scudder. 



Schriften der physikalisch bkonotnischen Gesellschaft zu Konigs- 

 berg (1876, Nos. i and 2, and 1877, No. i).— These parts, 

 besides a large number of smaller papers and notes, contain the 

 following more important treatises : — On the flora of the great 

 Werder, near Marienberg, by I. Preuschoff. — Report on the 

 recent excavations at Tengen, near Brandenburg (Natangen), 

 by R. Klebs. — On the mechanical principle of equal tempe- 

 ratures in the bodies of the higher animals, by Dr. A. Adam- 

 kiewicz. — On some remains of extinct buffalo species from the 

 province of Prussia, by Dr. Jentzsch. — On the decrease in the 

 quantity of water in the rivers of cultivated countries, by Dr. 

 Krosta.*— On archaeological museums, by O. Tischler. — On some 

 physical relations between the human and animal organism and 

 anorganic nature, by Prof. Griinhagen. — On the latest improve- 

 ments in the photographic pigment printing process, by Dr. 

 Benecke. — On some antiquities from Claussen, by Dr. Jentzsch. 

 — On the latest discoveries in the diluvial fauna of East Prussia, 

 by the same. — On the strata containing amber in the so-called 

 Samland, by Herr Marcinowski. — On the formation of amber, 

 by Dr. Jentzsch. — On the geognostical investigation of the 

 province of Prussia during the year 1876, by the same. — On the 

 Macro-lepidoptera of the province of Prussia, by Rob. Grentz- 

 enberg. — On the distribution of rain over the year 1876, by Dr. 

 Schiefferdecker. — On truffles, by Dr. Caspary. — On the great 

 Indian census of 1872, by Dr. Wagner. — Speech in memory 

 of the late Dr. K. E. von Baer, by Prof, Zaddach. — On a 

 naval chart from the fourteenth century, by Dr. Jentzsch. — Full 

 reports of the nieetings of the Prussian Botanical Society of 

 Konigsberg. — Craniological researches, by Dr. Kupffer. — On a 

 map of the world dating from the year 1452, by Dr. Jentzsch. — 

 On the retina purple, by Dr. von Wittich. — New researches on 

 the habits of ants. Dr. Gwalina. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, May 16. — "On the Variations of the 

 Diurnal Range of the Magnetic Declination as Recorded at the 

 Prague Observatory," by Balfour Stewart, LL.D., F.R.S.,, 

 Professor of Natural Philosophy at Owens College, Manchester^ 



The Prague observations began in July, 1839, and have been 

 continued until the present date. They have been dealt with in 

 the same way as those of Kew and Trevandrum. In the first 

 place a set of nine-monthly values of declination range has been 

 obtained corresponding to similar nine-monthly values of spotted 

 solar area. When these are graphically plotted it is found that 

 a number of points in the sun-spot curves may be fairly identified 

 as corresponding to certain points in the declination-range 

 curve, but that the latter invariably lag behind the former in 

 time. 



This will be seen from the following table, in which the epochs 

 of maximum and minimum sun-spots are compared with those of 

 declination-range : — 



