,878] 



NATURE 



'95 



BuDAPESTH. — The committee intrusted with the preparations 

 for the first centennial celebration of this university, have decided 

 to invite all foreign universities to send representatives on 

 tlie occasion. A work on the history of the university is being 

 prepared by Prof, Theodor Pauler, the late Minister of Education. 



Heidelberg. — In the recenily-ifsued calendar of the Uni- 

 versity for the present semester w e notice a serious falling ofT in 

 the attendance, the present number of students (461) being 250 

 less than that for the past summer. This fact is chiefly due to 

 the incr.'asing custom of the Gtrman students to gather in the 

 Universities of the great cities during the winter. The theolo- 

 gical faculty includes 19 students, the medical, 79, the philo- 

 sophical, 180, and the legal, 183. Heidelberg still possesses 

 evidently its traditional attractions for English-speaking students, 

 the catalogue containing the names of twenty-one Englishmen 

 and twenty-six Americans, a large proportion of whom are 

 studying under Bunser. Of the sixty- seven other foreigners in 

 attendance Switzerland contributes eighteen and Russia nineteen. 

 The corps of professors numbers 105, of whom fifty-nine are in 

 the philosophical faculty. Prof. Bluntschli, the leading authority 

 on international law, is the pro-rector for the present year. We 

 notice that Prof. Blum has been forced by advanced age to give 

 up the chair of mineralogy. His connection with the University 

 dates back to 182S, and under his direction the mineralogical 

 department at Heidelberg has long been one of the favourite 

 resorts of students from various countries, the museum ranking 

 among the btit in Europe. Prof. Blum's fame as a mineralogist 

 rests chiefly on his thorough and exhaustive researches on pseu- 

 domorphs, the results of which are embodied in his work " Die 

 Pseudomorphosen des Mineralreiches." A very complete and 

 practical text book of mineralogy, as well as the nuaierous 

 smaller treatises on subdivisions of the science, which have 

 appeared at intervals from his pen, are regarded as standard 

 works. 



Strassburo. — The grant of money for the new edifices of the 

 university amounts to 10,500,000 marks (over 500,000/.). Of 

 this sum 2\ millions are contributed from the imperial funds, 

 5^ millions result from Alsace-Lorraine's share of the new 

 imperial bank notes, and the remainder is contributed by the 

 city, the district, and the two provinces. At present the uni- 

 versity is attended by 627 students divided as follows among 

 the faculties ; — theological, 49, legil, 156, medical, 117, philo- 

 sophical, 305. Despite the a^le corps of professors gathered 

 together since the re-establishment of this historic university, the 

 number of students shows a decrease of eighty as compared with 

 1876, a result due in a great measure to the coldness exhibited 

 by the old French inhabitants towards the German students. 



Holland. — The Netherlands School Museum, at Amsterdam, 

 was opened on December 24, 1877, in presence of Mr. Heemskerk 

 (recently Prime Minister of Holland), and several authorities 

 connected with the Educational Department. Mr. A. van 

 Otterloo, for the committee, in his opening speech alluded to 

 the valuable co-operation of England in the exhibition. The 

 authorities afterwards inspected the museum, and expressed their 

 high appreciation of the interesting collections of school appliances 

 exhibited by the School Board for London and others. 



St. PETERSBUR.G. — A ncw High School for ladies is to be 

 opened at St. Petersburg for the special purpose of preparing 

 female teachers for women's colleges. The School is provided 

 with the necessary money by a young lady, and it will be con- 

 ducted by the professors of the St. Petersburg University. 



Prof. Tarkhanoff, of the St. Petersburg Medical Academy, 

 having assisted at the examinations in physiology and anatomy 

 of the thirty-six ladies who have now finished their five years' 

 course at the High School of Medicine at St. Petersburg, pub- 

 lishes a report on those examinations. The answers of the ladies, 

 he says, were definite, clear, and often vivid. Deep and very 

 accurate knowledge was shown in anatomy and histology, the 

 examinations having been made according to the extensive pro- 

 grammes existing in ordinary universities. On the average the 

 answers were quite as good as those of male students ; but the 

 answers of three or four ladies, by their completeness and bril- 

 liancy, produced a deep impression on the examiners, and greatly 

 exceeded all the professor has ever witnessed either as a student 

 or professor. 



CiiARKOW. — The annual calendar of this Russian university 

 shows an attendance of 442 students. Over half of this number 

 are freed entirely from the payment of lecture?, while a third 

 receive annual stipends varying from 180 to 340 roubles. The 

 corps of instructors numbers sixty-four. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Astronomical Society, December 14, 1877. — I^r- 

 Huggins, F.R.S., in the chair.— A paper by Dr. Wolf, of 

 Zurich, set forth that the sun-spot period varies from seven to 

 sixteen years, eleven years being the average. — A paper by Mr. 

 C. V. Boys described a new astronomical clock. Mr. Christie 

 and Lord Lindsay criticised it. — A photograph of the sun was 

 presented by M. Janssen, It is one of those taken daily at 

 Meudon, mea"suring one foot in diameter. Dr. De la Rue said 

 it was the finest example of celestial photography he had ever 

 seen. It was not taken with an equatorial, but an instrument 

 after the fashion of the Kew photoheliograph with a 5A-inch 

 object-glass. The picture was not taken at the principal focus, 

 but in that of a secondary magnifier, corrected independently of 

 visual focus. He pointed out the tornadoes visible on the photo- 

 graph, and spoke of the importance of a physical observatory to 

 register the changes which occur on a tremendous scale every 

 hour, sun-spots being phenomena of comparatively small import- 

 ance, Capt. Abriey spoke in corroboration, and said that M. 

 Janssen at first thought these photographed tornadoes had an 

 atmospheric origin. Mr. Christie said that similar phenomena 

 had been found on the Greenwich photographs, and they had 

 nothing to do with the collodion. — Mr. Glaisher read a paper on 

 the law of force tending to any point whatever in the plane of 

 motion in order that the orbit may always be a conic. — Mr. Lynn 

 gave a description of Mr. Howlett's drawing of the solar spot of 

 October 31 to November 3, being about 15" diameter. — Lord 

 Lindsay concluded the description of his spectroscope for nebulce 

 referred to last month. — Mr. Christie made some remarks and 

 criticised it, and the meeting then adjourned. 



Photographic Society, December 11, 1877, — Papers were 

 read by Capt. Abney, R.E., F.R. S., on fog-producing emul- 

 sions and their rectification, and by II. B. Berkeley, on emul- 

 sions. Capt. Abney showed that the cure, or rather the elimina- 

 tion, of fog in emulsions (as also in dry plates) would be effected 

 by the introduction of either bromide, iodine, or nitric acid into 

 the emulsion. Nitric acid prevented the formation of any 

 chemically-produced sab-bromide of silver, and reduced the fog 

 to the state of bromide ; where pure bromide is present, it 

 seems almost impossible that there should be fog. If an emul- 

 sion plate is exposed to light, and afierwards partly dipped into 

 copper bromide, then exposed in the camera and developed, the 

 portion treated with the bromide will be found to be free from 

 fog and perfectly clear. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, December 17, 1877. — M. Peligot 

 in the chair : — The following papers were read : — On the 

 order of appearance of the first vessels in the shoots of some 

 Leguminosse (third part), by M. Trecul. — Note on the ring of 

 Saturn, by M. Tisserand. — On intramolecular work, by M. 

 Boileau. — On an essential improvement of the navigation lock 

 with mixed oscillation, by M. De Caligny. — M. Cailletet was 

 elected correspondent for the section of mineralogy, in room of 

 the late M. d'Ommalius d' Alloy (obtaining thirty-three votes 

 against nineteen for Mr. James Hales). — Production of crys- 

 tallised sulphide, selenide, and telluride of silver, and of filiform 

 stiver, by iVI. Margottet. The former are obtained by pa-;sing 

 vapours of sulphur, selenium, and tellurium, over silver (heated 

 red) by means of a current of nitrogen. — The silver gets covered 

 with the crystals. The crystallised sulphide is transformed into 

 metallic and filiform silver by a current of dry hydrogen at 440 

 degrees. The corresponding reduction of the selenide and tellu- 

 ride takes place only at the highest temperatures the glass can 

 bear. — Use of lacs of eosine and fljoresceine for preparation of 

 decorative paintings without poison, by M. Turpin. A potassic 

 or sodic solution of eosine, e.g., treated by an acid, gives a pre- 

 cipitate of eosic acid insoluble in water ; this washed till the 

 water begins to take a rose-colour is insoluble in the hydrate of 

 oxide of zinc, and so forms a very rich lac (eosinate of zinc) 

 varying from rose to deep-red, according to the quaOtity of 

 eosic acid used. — Vine districts attacked by phylloxera 

 (1877), by M, Duclaux, It is noted with reference to 

 L'Aude that the vineyards bordering on the sea (some kilo- 

 metres in width) are preserved much longer than the other.s, 

 — The natural enemies of the phylloxera in Germany, by M. 

 Blankenhorn. The small extension of centres of phylloxera 

 there is attributed to the fact that the stocks have been frequented, 

 previous to the phylloxera infection, by natural enemies of the 



