134 



NATURE 



[Dec. 13, 1877 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge.— The examination for open scholarships at 

 Christ's College will be held on Tuesday, April 9. Candidates 

 in natural science will be required to show a satisfactory know- 

 ledge of elementary chemistry, both theoretical and practical. 

 Candidates are required to send in their names to one of the 

 tutors o' the college before April 2. Further information can 

 be obtained on written application to Mr. John Peile, or the Rev. 

 J. W. Cartmell, Christ's College. 



Science and Art Department. — The list has been pub- 

 lished by the Science and Art Department of the successful can- 

 didates in honours at the examination of science schools and 

 classes. May, 1877. We give the names of the two first in the 

 first class of each subject : — Subject I. Practical, Plane, and 

 Solid Geometry — ^John R. Smith, age 32, clerk; William J. 

 Last, age 19, engineer. Subject II. Machine Construction and 

 Drawing — Robert A. Sloan, age 22. engineer ; Will am Sisson, 

 age 24, engineer. Subject III. Building Construction — Crichton 

 Walker, age 34, carpenter ; Robert Henry, age 22, draughtsman. 

 Subject IV. Naval Architecture — Frederick B. Ollis, age 18, 

 shipwright's apprentice; George A. Agnew, age 23, shipwright's 

 apprentice. Subject V. Pure Mathematics, Stages One, Two, 

 and Three — George J. T. Harker, age 18, student ; Arthur W. 

 Ward, age 18, cotton broker. Stages Four and Five — Frederick 

 W. Watkin, age 18, pupil ; Arthur E. Holme, age 18, engineer. 

 Subject VI. Theoretical Mechanics — William Sisson, age 24, 

 engineer ; William Martin, age 22, engineer. Subject VII. 

 Applied Mechanics — Frank W. Dick, age 23, engineer ; Fred 

 Ogden, age 18, engineer, William J. Last, age 19, engineer, 

 Robert A. Sloan, age 22, engineer, Robert Greei)halgh, 

 age 22, engineer — eq. Subject VIII. Acoustics, Light, and Heat 

 — Frederick E. Boughton, age 20, draughtsman ; James Greer, 

 age 31, Inland Revenue officer. Subject IX. Magnetism and 

 Electricity — Robert A. Sloan, age 22, engineer, Frederick E. 

 Boughton, age 20, draughtsman— eq. ; William J. Last, 19, engi- 

 neer. Subject X. Inorganic Chemistry— Charles N. Luxmore, 

 age 19, chemist's as^sistant ; Sidney E. Meates, age 17, chemical 

 student. Subject XI. Organic Chemistry — Charles M. Luxmore, 

 age 19, chemist's assistant. Subject XX. Navigation — George 

 Goodwin, age I4, eneineer's apprentice ; William AUingham, age 

 26, clerk. Subject XXII. Steam— Robert A. Sloan, age 22, engi- 

 neer, William Sisson, age 24, engineer — eq. ; Alfred Cliff, age 22, 

 engineer, Jerdan Nichols, age 21, engineer — eq. Subject XXIll. 

 Physical Geography — John S. Harper, age 19, student in training; 

 John Sharkey, age 29, schoolmaster. Subject XXIII, Physio- 

 graphy — George A. Freeman, age 26, schoolmaster ; John A. 

 Lakin, age 21, teacher, Fredk. J. Richardson, age 16, teacher — eq. 

 Subject XXIV. Principles of Agriculture — Edward S. Chesney, 

 age 21, student ; William E. Akroyd, age 20, student. There 

 have been no first class successes in Geology, Mineralogy, 

 Animal Physiology, Elementary Botany, General Biology, 

 Principles of Mining, Metallurgy, and Nautical Astronomy. 



Bristol. — The annual meeting of the governors of University 

 College was held on Friday last, when a report, on the whole 

 satislactory, was presented. The number of students has some- 

 what decreased, as indeed might have been expected, but there 

 seems every reason to believe that the college has taken its place 

 as an important centre of education in the west of England. 

 The funds of the college, though considerable in amount, are 

 yet not sufficient to keep it going with complete efficiency, and 

 we hope the appeal made by the governors will be satisfactorily 

 responded to. It is proposed to make the college a local xeutre 

 for the examinations of the University of London. : ^f »;• j-j, 



Pesth.— A commission has recently been appointed by t&e 

 various faculties, to make fitting preparations for the celebration 

 of the first centennial of the opening of the university, which was 

 performed by Maria Theresa m 1780. The university is wealthy, 

 possessing property to the amount of 6,000,000 florins, and a 

 library of 120,000 volumes, and forms the real centre of Hun- 

 garian intellectual life. The other two Hungarian universities, 

 Klausenberg and Agram, were founded respectively in 1872 

 and 1874. At present the instructors number 150 and the 

 students 2,630. 



WiJRZBURG.— Prof. Sachs has declined the call to the vacant 

 chair of botany at the Berlin University, and the authorities are 

 still seeking a successor for the late Prof. Braun. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 



Royal Society, December 6. — Points of resemblance between 

 the suprarenal bodies of the horse and dog, and certain occa- 

 sional structures in the ovary, by Charles Creighton, M. B., 

 Demonstrator of Anatomy, Cambridge University. Communi- 

 cated by Prof. Humphry, F. R.S. 



On the tides at Malta, by Sir G. B. Airy, K.C.B., Astronomer- 

 Royal. 



Observations on hermetically-sealed flasks opened on the 

 Alps, in a letter to Prof. Huxley, Sec. R S., by Prof. Tyndall, 

 LL. D., F.R. S. Though the author believes the question of 

 "Spontaneous Generation" is practically set at rest for the 

 scientific world, he has been making some experiments on 

 Bacteria. 



He took with him this year to the Alps sixty hermetically- 

 sealed flasks, containing infusions, of beef, mutton, turnip, and 

 cucumber, which had been boiled for five minutes and sealed 

 during ebullition. These were kept for six weeks, when some 

 were opened in a haylo t and others on the edge of a precipice. 



The two groups of flasks were then placed in the author's 

 kitchen, where the temperature varied from about 65° to 90° Fahr. 

 Theresult was that twenty-one of twenty-three flasks opened in 

 the hay-loft were filled wiih organism ; two of them remained 

 clear. All the flasks opened on the edge of the precipice remained 

 as clear as distilled water. Not one of them gave way. 



Chemical Society, December 6. — The President in the chair. 

 — The following papers were read : — On gallium, by W. Odling. 

 The properties of the metal, i's chloride, and sulpha'e, and 

 their reactions, were given and specimens exhibited. — On nitrifi- 

 cation, a report of experiments conducted in the Rothamsted 

 Laboratory, by R. Warrington. Schloesing and Miintz have 

 shown that nitrification is due to the action of an organised fer- 

 ment whose action is suspended by chloroform. The author has 

 completely confirmed the above statement, and has proved that 

 carbolic acid and bisulphide of carbon also stop the action of the 

 ferment, and moreover that darkness is essential for the process. 

 The author has succeeded in converting a dilute solution of am- 

 monium chloride into a nitrate by seedmg it with some earth 

 from a fairy ring and keeping it in the dark for three months. — 

 On potable waters, by E. J. Mills, D. Sc. The author investi- 

 gates the minute errors incidental to the process of Frankland 

 and Armstrong with great care, suggests a new form of evaporator, 

 and arrives at three natural constants or ratios of organic carbon 

 to organic nitrogen in potable waters. — On some derivatives of 

 allylacetone, by J. R. Crow. By the action of sodium, a secon- 

 dary alcohol homologous with allyl alcohol was prepared ; its 

 acetate and dibromide were also investigated. — On a fourth 

 method for estimating bismuth volumetrically, by M. M. P. 

 Muir. The bismuth is precipitated as oxalate, the latter on 

 boiling is converted into a basic oxalate, the precipitate is well 

 washed, dissolved in hydrochloric acid, and the solution titrated 

 with permanganate. — On the gas of the Grotto del Cane, by T. 

 G. Young. This gas contains 61-71 per cent, of carbonic 

 acid, the residual- air having the compoiition oxygen, 20*25, 

 nitrogen, 7975. — Note on tetrabromide of tin, by T. Carnelly, 

 D.Sc, and L. T. O'Shea. This body was obtained as a colour- 

 less liquid, solidifying to a mass of colourless crystals,— melts at 

 30'' C, boils at 201°. 



Meteorological Society, November 21. — Mr. H. S. Eaton, 

 M.A., president, in the chair. — The following gentlemen were 

 elected Fellows of the Society, viz. : — E. D. Archibald, B.A., 

 R. W. P. Birch, Capt. W. F. Caborne, H. Clarke, L.R.C.P., 

 Cohen de Lissa, F.S.S., R. Gordon, J. Hunter, jun., J. J. 

 Lake, Rev. E. A. D. O'Gara, O.S.B , R. Pcnnmgton, LL.B., 

 E. E. Prichard, and Rev. S. J. W. Sanders^ — The following 

 papers were read : — On the general character and principal 

 sources of variation in the weather at any part of a C) clone or 

 anti-cyclone, by the Hon. Ralph Abercromby, F. M.S. In a 

 cyclone the broadest feature of the weather, as seen on a synoptic 

 chart, is an area of rain about the centre surrounded by a ring of 

 cloud, beyond which the sky is clear. The precise form and 

 position of these areas vary with the t>peof pressure distribution, 

 with the intensity of the cyclone, and with the rate of its pro- 

 gress ; they are also influenced by local, diurnal, and seasonal 

 variations, the general sphere of each of which is indicated. By 

 recordirg the appearanc; to a single observer of any pait of a 



