Oct. 24, 1878] 



NATURE 



687 



lobed kidneys of birds and of certain Ophidian reptiles. Cavities, 

 more or less roomy, in which are doubtless inserted the vessels 

 of the hypertrophied mucous membrane, are also visible on the 

 outer surface of the foetal placenta. But it is specially upon the 

 internal aspect that the lobules form numerous folds exactly 

 limited, of a thickness frequently considerable (more than one 

 centimetre), strongly adherent to the chorion by a pretty long 

 base, free for the most part for the rest of their extent. We can 

 understand, then, up to a certain point, that Cams should have 

 been able to compare this placenta with that of the ruminants, 

 from which it nevertheless differs much, since its cotyledons are 

 made up of full lobes, generally antiguous, and not of isolated 

 capsules, and distant one from the other like those of the foetal 

 placenta in the cow, or the maternal one in the sheep. 



But we are as yet more disposed to assimilate the placenta of 

 Ai to that of the Lemuroids, notably that of the Propithecus of 

 Madagascar, which has been described by M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards under the name of placenta en cloche or placenta enva- 

 hissant. In Ai, as in P7-opithecus, the chorion is covered almost 

 entirely with thick and crowded villosities, constituting a kind of 

 rascular cushion resulting from the confluence of a multitude of 

 irregular cotyledons. But the Ai approaches Propithecus not 

 only in the structure of the placenta but also in its habits, for 

 both are arboreal, and have a diet exclusively vegetable. Be- 

 sides this the uterus of the Ai is pyriform, like that of the human 

 female and the female of most apes, a peculiarity which, with 

 the possession of pectoral mammoe, approximates Bradypits to 

 Propithecus. Linnaeus and De Blainville seem then to have been 

 guided by a " kind of divinatory intuition," as it were, when 

 they ranked the sloths of Brazil in the order of Primates, only 

 that they ought not to be classed among the apes proper, but by 

 the side of the Propithecus of Madagascar and the slow Loris of 

 the East Indies, of which they are the analogues, or American 

 representatives. 



M. Joly finally concludes thus : By its bursiform placenta, as 

 well as by many other peculiarities of organisation, the Ai is a 

 Lemuroid, and not an Edentate. 



Not the slightest allusion is made by M. Joly to the well-known 

 publications of Prof. Turner upon the comparative anatomy of 

 the placenta, and especially to a paper read before the Royal 

 Society in May, 1873, upon the foetal structures of that variety 

 of two-toed sloth called by Prof. Peters Cholcepus Hoffmanni. 



J. C.Galton 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



The Master and Fellows of Gonville andCaius College, 

 Cambridge, have considerably enlarged the chemical laboratory 

 of the College, and have added a small but very serviceable 

 lecture -roorn, with apparatus-room adjoining. They have like- 

 wise provided a private laboratory for the Praslector. The main 

 laboratory now accommodates fifteen students working at one 

 time. 



University College, Bristol. — The third session of this 

 young institution opened on October 8. The competition for the 

 entrance scholarships was closer than any preceding year, and 

 the general standard of attainments higher. The engineering 

 department of the College is. now fairly started, and is almost, if 

 not quite, unique in character, the principal engineering firms 

 in the district having agreed to an arrangement, whereby they 

 receive into their works the engineering students of the College 

 for the six summer months, the six winter months being devoted 

 to the theoretical training of the College. The number of male 

 •day students of the College has largely increased ; the entries in 

 classical and modern literature, in chemistry, mathematics, and 

 physics, exhibiting a satisfactory increase on those of the pre- 

 ceding year. The attendance at the evening classes is also very 

 large. The scientific side of the College coiurse has been 

 strengthened by the appointment of Mr. W. J. SoUas, M.A., 

 F.G.S., as lecturer on geology. A course of lectures on ana- 

 lytical cheniistry is- being given by • Prof. E. A. Letts, who also 

 resumes his industrial lectures on Dyeing and Scouring at 

 Stroud. — Mr. J. Clapham also continues his course of instruction 

 on Textile Fabrics. A course of lectures on the Technical 

 Applications of Electricity, by Prof. S. P. Thompson, is also 

 announced. The morning lectures on Political Economy are 

 •this year delivered by Mrs. Paley Marshall.— Mr. L. A. Good- 

 eve, B.A., has been appointed lecturer on Law. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The American Journal of Science and Arts, September. — In 

 an opening paper on the origin of comets Prof. Newton com- 

 pares the hypotheses of Kant and Laplace, the fonner of which 

 represents that these bodies are formed from the matter of the 

 condensing solar nebula ; the latter, that they have no relation 

 with this, but were made from matter scattered through stellar 

 space. He shows that the curve of actual distribution of the 

 inclinations of cometic orbits to the ecliptic, agrees well with 

 that required by the hypothesis of Laplace, if we first make 

 reasonable allowance for known perturbations, and for the 

 comets of short periods, but that it is not thus made to agree 

 with Kant's hypothesis. — Prof. Gray explains the distribution of 

 tree species in North America, and traces similar species dis- 

 persed over widely-separated continents to a polar centre, where 

 they once flourished in a temperate climate. Among other 

 facts he mentions that while the Atlantic American Forest has 

 almost three times as many genera and four times as many 

 species of non- coniferous trees as the Pacific Forest, it has 

 slightly fewer genera, and almost one-half fewer species of 

 coniferous trees. — Prof. Marsh describes a new pterodactyl from 

 the Jurassic of the Rocky Mountains. — Professors Draper and 

 Watson give their observations on the solar eclipse, and an 

 intra- Mercurial planet respectively. — The animal of Millepora 

 alcicornis is figured by Mr. Rice, who confirms the conclusions 

 of Agassiz, — Prof. VeiTill notes some additions to the marine 

 fauna of the east coast of North America ; and among chemical 

 notes is one on antimony tannate, by the Misses Swallow and 

 Palmer. 



lournal de Physique, September. — Some experiments showing 

 the power of a vibratory motion to produce decomposition of 

 explosive liquids and ebullition of superheated liquids are here 

 described by M. Gernez. They consist in rubbing with a damp 

 cloth a clean glass tube containing, e.g., supersaturated seltzer 

 water that has been kept in it for months, or a little nitrous acid 

 below water, or methylchlorhydric ether. In the two former 

 cases there is a projection of liquid ; in the latter, a vigorous boil- 

 ing occurs but soon ceases, owing to the consumption of heat by 

 the vapour formed, reducing the temperature to near the normal 

 boiling-point. — M. Comu gives an account of his valuable re- 

 searches on the ultra-violet solar spectrum, which have from time 

 to time been communicated to the Paris Academy. — M, Plante 

 describes effects got with his rheostatic machine ; it gives, in 

 general, all the effects of electric machines and induction coils, 

 and these are not apparently much interfered with by the hygro- 

 metric state of the air, — We note, among the abstracts, one of 

 recent proceedings of the St. Petersburg Physical Society, 



Atti della R. Accademia dei Lined (Rome) 1876-77, vol. i. — 

 This part commences with a second instalment of Prof. 

 Respighi's memoir on the latitude of the Roman Observatory, — 

 On fluoride of magnesium, by A, Cossa, — On the theoretical 

 velocity of sound and the molecular velocity of gases, by A. 

 Rieti. — Petrographical studies, by-G. Struever (two plates). — 

 On the constitution of chloral ammonia and aldehyd -ammonia, 

 by R. Schiff. — Electrostatic researches, by P. Volpicelli. — On 

 the microscopic aspect of certain nervous fibres, by Franz Boll 

 (two plates). — On some palaeozoic fossils of the Maritime Alps 

 and of the Ligurian Apennines, by B. Gastaldi (four plates). — On 

 an objection to Melloni's theory of electrostatic influence, by^ P. 

 Volpicelli. — Memoir on modular equations, by H. T. Stephen 

 Smith. — On the dilatation, the capillarity, and the viscosity of 

 fused sulphur, by G. Pisati. — On the titanite and the apatite of 

 the Lama dello Spedalaccio, by G. Uzielli. — On the direction 

 of gravity at the Barberini Station on the Monte Mario, by F. 

 Keller. — Experimental researches on the tenacity of metals at 

 different temperatures, by G. Pisati, C. Saporito, and S. 

 Scichilone. The author experimented with copper, steel, 

 brass, and aluminium. — Geological investigation of the moun- 

 tain group of the Gran Paradiso, by M. Baretti (with seven 

 carefully executed maps). — Experimental researches on electric 

 discharges, by A, Richi (five plates). This and the previous 

 one are amongst the most elaborate papers in the volume. 

 — On the small oscillations of a rigid and perfectly free 

 body, by V. Cemitti. — On the anatomy and the physiology of 

 the retina, by Franz Boll (one plate). — Ephemerides and statistics 

 of the River Tiber before and after the confluence with the 

 Aniene River, during the year 1876, by A, Bettocchi. — On some 

 cave miriapoda of France and Spain, by F. Fanzago. — On the 

 duration of vitality in the germinative spot, by Dr. G. Colasanti. 



