July 1 8, 1878J 



NA TURE 



321 



i.e. neither near a node nor near a loop. About a quarter of 

 the length of the tube, from the lower or upper end, as the case 

 may be, appears to be the most favourable position. 



Rayleigh 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Amoxg the bequests of the late Mr. Henry Brown, J.P., 

 formerly of Bradford, is a sum of 5,00x3/. to the Yorkshire 

 College, Leeds, for the purpose of founding and maintaining 

 scholarships. 



The New York Nation states that Dr. A. S. Packard, jun., has 

 been appointed Professor of Natural History at Brown University. 

 His departure from Salem, Mass., the Nation states, following 

 on Prof. Morse's and Prof. Putnam's is a serious loss to that 

 scientific centre, and implies an inadequate endowment of the 

 Peabody Academy of Sciences. 



The first conferment of degrees by the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity took place on June 13. Four candidates were admitted 

 to the degrees of Ph.D. and M.A. 



The following figures, which have been published quite 

 recently at Algiers, will give] an idea of the state of public 

 instruction in that colony. Superior instruction is represented 

 only by a preparatory school of medicine in Algiers. It is 

 contemplated to establish in that city a university of letters, 

 science, law, and medicine ; but no step has yet been taken to 

 realise the scheme. There are colleges, or lycees at Algiers, 

 Oran, Constantine, Bone, Philippeville, Blidah, Mostaganem, 

 and one or two other places, and two clerical institutions, one at 

 Blidah, and the other at Algiers. The number of pupils of these 

 establishments is 3,142 in a population of 344,849 of European 

 extraction. Primary instruction is given in 803 schools, fre- 

 quented by 66,343. -A- few natives follow the course of instruc- 

 tion in European or secondary schools. Most of them are pupils 

 in the Algiers lycee, which has no less than 980 pupils, and is 

 considered one of the best under the authority of the French 

 goverimient, even in France. Great efforts have been made to 

 organise French-Arab schools for natives, but with not much 

 success. Within the last few years thii-teen French-Arab 

 schools have been opened in the Sahara and Kabyle, which 

 have now 1,481 pupils. The aggregate number of young Arabs, 

 receiving education from the French government, is only 1,573 

 boys, and 173 girls out of a population of 2,500,000. A normal 

 school has been established at Mustapha, near Algiers, and 

 numbers from thirty to forty pupils. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 4, 1878. — This number 

 commences with a paper by M. Schering on friction currents as 

 exemplified in the rubber of a (cylinder) electrical machine. For 

 production of such currents it is imimportant whether the cylinder 

 be connected to earth or not ; and the occurrence of opposite 

 electricities at the two ends of the rubber is also not essential. 

 The electricity on the hinder margin of the rubber is derived from 

 the insulator (cylinder) ; for it agrees in sign with that of the 

 latter, and nearly always disappears when the insulator is con- 

 nected to earth. The friction causes a less quantity of negative 

 electricity to exist on the hinder margin of the rubber than on 

 the forward margin ; the quantity of electricity steadily varies 

 from the hinder to the forward margin. — M. Frohlich investi- 

 gates the intensity of diffracted light in relation to that of the 

 incident light. His experimental results closely correspond to 

 those of theory. With small angles the entire incident energy 

 of motion appears again after diffraction as light-motion. — 

 Fresnel's theory of diffraction phenomena is treated at some 

 length by M. Voigt. — Studying certain hydrodynamic problems 

 in relation to the theoi-y of ocean currents, M. Zoppritz 

 concludes, inter alia, that the influence of friction has, in one 

 direction, been underrated, in another overrated ; the former, 

 because it has uot'been supposed to extend deep enough, the lat- 

 ter, because in regard to propagation of variable current -motions 

 too much has been ascribed to it. He calculates that with a 

 mean ocean depth of 4,000 m. the trade winds in their present 

 extent and strength would have to blow ioo,oco years ere the 

 present state of motion of the equatorial current could be 

 supposed approximately stationary. The damping influence of 

 continents and islands would somewhat diminish the number. — 



M. Antolik communicates further observations on the gliding of 

 electric sparks, obtaining new evidence for the fact that a greater 

 tension is required for discharge of positive than for that of 

 negative electricity, and that the one kind passes more rapidly and 

 further than the other. — A formula determining the rotation of 

 the plane of polarisation in quartz for all colours as function of the 

 temperature, is given by M. Sohncke, who also finds that the 

 rotation in chlorate of soda increases with rising [temperature in 

 a greater degree than in quartz. — An improved tangent galva- 

 nometer for lecture purposes (based on the principle of the 

 Gauss-Weber mirror-magnetometer), a modification of the mer- 

 cury air-pump, and a method of more accurate measurement of 

 thickness by means of the spherometer, are among the remaining 

 subjects here dealt with. 



No. 5. — M. Kohlrausch here describes a "total reflecto- 

 meter," or instrument by means of which the total reflection in 

 solid Ijodies is utilised for determination of refraction. (The 

 instrument can also be adapted for liquids.) A liquid is em- 

 ployed which refracts more strongly than the body examined 

 (generally sulphide of cai-bon). The author gives his numerical 

 results in a table. — A paper on the theory of double refraction, 

 by M. Lommel, furnishes, with two previous papers, the out- 

 lines of a new theory of light (he says it might be called the 

 "friction theory"), in which the phenomena in their connection 

 are explained by the reciprocal action of the ether and the 

 particles of bodies. — M. von Waha calls attention to some inter- 

 esting movements obtained in badly-conducting liquids (as olive 

 oil or petroleum), \i\vzx\. placed, e.g., on a horizontal metallic plate, 

 connected electrically with one pole of a Holtz machine, while a 

 point connected with the other pole is held above the liquid. — 

 The phenomena of resonance in hollow spaces are investigated 

 mathematically and experimentally by M. Wand, and an im- 

 proved anemometer, capable of measuring the mean velocity of 

 air-currents of constant direction between wide limits, forms the 

 subject of a paper by M. Recknagel. 



Actes de la Sociite Helvetique des Sciences Naturelles (C. R. 

 1876-77) contain an "account of the sixtieth meeting of the 

 Society, held at Bex on August 20-22, 1877, together with notes 

 of the sectional meetings, and the following more elaborate 

 memoirs : — On the adaptation of copepod crustaceans to para- 

 sitism, by Prof . K. Vogt. — On the fecundation and first develop- 

 ment of the ovum, by H. Fol. — On the railway over the Simplon, 

 by Herr Lommel. — Historical account of the mines and salt- 

 works of Bex, by Ch. Grenier.^On the retrogradation of the 

 shadow on the sun dial, by E. Guillemin. — Note on the study of 

 thunderstorms accompanied by hailstorms and electric phenomena, 

 by D. CoUadon. — On the geology of the neighbourhood of Bex, 

 by E. Renevier, — On some geological formations in the Bernese 

 Alps, by S. Chavannes. — On the nummulites of the W^estern Alps, 

 by Ph. de la Harpe. — On the origin and the repartition of the 

 Turbellaria of the deep fauna of the Lake of Geneva, by G. du 

 Plessis. — On the formation of feathers in the gold-hair penguin 

 zxA Megapodius, by Th. Studer. — On the blood corpuscles of 

 Mermis aquatilis, Duj., by E. Bugnion. — On a new Amphipode 

 {Gammarus rhipidiophorus), by O. I. Catta. — On the doubtful 

 species in the flora of Switzerland, by L. Leresche. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, June 19. — " On the Reversal of the Lines 

 of Metallic Vapours," by G. D. Liveing, M.A., Professor of 

 Chemistry, and J. Dewar, M.A., F.R.S., Jacksonian Professor, 

 University of Cambridge. No. HI. 



In our last communication to the Royal Society we described 

 certain absorption lines, which we had observed to be produced 

 by the vapour of magnesium in the presence of hydrogen, and 

 certain other lines which were observed when potassium, and 

 others when sodium, was present, in addition to magnesium and 

 hydrogen. These lines correspond to no known emission lines of 

 those elements ; but, inasmuch as they appeared to be regularly 

 produced by the mixtures described, and not otherwise, we could 

 only ascribe their origin to the mixtures as distinct from the sepa- 

 rate elements. It became a question of interest, then, whether 

 we could find the conditions under which the same mixtures 

 would give luminous spectra, consisting of the lines which we 

 had seen reversed. On observing sparks from an induction coil 

 taken between magnesium points in an atmosphere of hydrogen, 

 we soon found that a bright line regularly appeared, with a wave- 



