354 



NATURE 



{Feb. 28, 1878 



level of the platinum wire. By aid of a totally reflecting prism, 

 like that of the prismatic azimuth compass, with one side con- 

 vex, the user of the instrument looking downwards sees when 

 the black line on the end of the needle is exactly level with the 

 score on the glass plate. This mode of sighting has proved very 

 satisfactory ; it is very easily and quickly used, and it is so sensi- 

 tive that with the dimensions and magnetic power of the instru- 

 ment before you it shows easily a variation of vertical force 

 amounting to ■^\-^ of the earth's vertical force in this locality. 

 The accompanying printed instructions for the adjustment of my 

 compass describe in sufficient detail the way of using it for 

 correcting the heeling error. 



In the instrument before you there is a divided paper circle in 

 the bottom of the box to serve as a "dumb card," to be used 

 with the azimuth mirror when there may be occasion for the use 

 of a non-magnetic azimuth instrument. This appliance has 

 nothing to do with the dipping needle, and is introduced 

 because, while adding little or nothing to the cumbrousness of 

 the instrument, it saves the adjuster the necessity for carrying a 

 geparate azimuth instrument with him. 



{To be continued.) 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Oxford. — From the University Calendar for 1878 we 

 learn that the Undergraduates, who were last year 2,590, 

 have now risen to 2,659, while the members of Convo- 

 cation have increased from 4,870 to 5,026. During the year 

 320 have taken the degree of Master of Arts, and 446 that of 

 Bachelor of Arts. The number of matriculations, which in 

 1868 was 579, and which in 1876 was 650, rose in 1877 to 770, 

 But this increase was due to the number of candidates for a 

 musical degree. The list of members of Congregation— that is, 

 of the legislative body of resident members of Convocation — 

 has increased, but only slightly. In 1876 they numbered 314; 

 in 1877, 322, But the proportion between clergymen and lay- 

 men has considerably changed during the year. In 1876 there 

 were 180 clergymen and 134 laymen ; in 1877 the laymen have 

 risen to 154, and the clergymen have fallen to 168, Of the 

 whole body of Fellows (exclusive of Christ Church), resident 

 and non-resident, there are at present 192 laymen and 116 

 clergymen. 



Cambridge. — The Council of the Senate having had under 

 consideration a letter from Prof. Hughes, Woodwardian Pro- 

 fessor of Geology, representing the need for additional assist- 

 ance, propose that an assistant be appointed, with a stipend of 

 200/. per annum, whose duties shall be to assist the Professor in 

 the arrangement and care of the geological collections, to give 

 such instruction and demonstrations as may be required, and to 

 assist students making use of the museum. It is proposed to 

 vest the appointment in the Professor, with the consent of the 

 Vice- Chancellor, 



Edinburgh, — A site has been secured in Chambers Street, 

 close by the University, for the erection of a new school of 

 medicine for extra-academical teachers, on the spot formerly 

 occupied by Minto House, so long the scene of the demonstra- 

 tions and prelections of eminent extra-mural lecturers, 



Taunton College School. — A microscopic cabinet by 

 Smith and Beck, with other valuable apparatus, has been pre- 

 sented to the Rev. W. Tuckwell by his late assistant-masters at 

 the Taunton College School, as an expression of their personal 

 sympathy and their recognition of the services rendered by him to 

 the higher education, 



Prussia, — ^January 20 was a red letter day for a number of 

 professors in Prussian universities, no less than fifteen receiving 

 orders of different ranks from the Emperor William. 



Dresden,— On May i the Royal Polytechnic Institution at 

 Dresden will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation. 

 Originally confined to the narrowest limits, the Institution has 

 rapidly developed, and is now one of the most frequented poly- 

 technic schools of Germany. 



Greifswald. — The attendance on the university shows a 

 decrease as compared with the past summer. The students 

 number 43 in the theological faculty, 73 in the legal, 126 in the 

 philosophical, and 218 in the medical. The corps of professors 

 and privat-docenten is at present 60. A library of 60,000 



volumes, well equipped laboratories and collections, and ample 

 revenues place Greifswald on a par with most German universities, 

 but for a number of years it has failed singularly to compete in 

 point of attendance with many poorer centres of study. 



Tubingen. — The university shows at present the highest 

 winter attendance since its foundation. The students are divided 

 as follows: Theology (evangelical), 215, (catholic), 108; law, 

 256 ; natural sciences and medicine, 222 ; philosophy, 145. 



MiJNSTER. — Prof. R. Sturm, of the Darmstadt Polytechnic, 

 has been appointed to the chair of mathematics, rendered vacant 

 by the late death of Prof, Heis. The number of students at 

 present is 312, 



Berlin. — Prof. Schwedener, of Tubingen, has received a call 

 to Berlin to fill the second professorship for Botany lately 

 created at the University. 



Vienna. — In the lately presented educational budget of 

 Austria the sum of 50,000/. is appropriated for the erection of 

 new buildings for the Vienna University. 



DoRPAT. — The hitherto rigorous rule of Russian universities 

 requiring from all instructors the possession of Russian diplomas 

 of the doctorate, &c. , has been modified in the case of Dorpat, 

 recognition being made of foreign degrees and professorial 

 positions. 



Siberia, — The Imperial Commission appointed to settle the 

 long-debated question as to the University of Siberia, has defi- 

 nitively given the preference to Tomsk, against Omsk, We are 

 glad to learn this result, because of the central position of 

 Tomsk, its larger population, not exclusively administrative, as 

 at Omsk, and the larger number of secondary schools. Several 

 Siberian merchants have endowed the future University with 

 considerable sums of money. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, January 31. — "On the Expression of the 

 Product of any Two Legendre's Coefficients by means of a Series 

 of Legendre's Coeflficients," by Prof. J, C. Adams, F.R.S. 



Royal Society, February 24. — " On the Use of the Reflec- 

 tion Grating in Eclipse Photography," by J. Norman Lockyer, 

 F.R.S, 



The results obtained by the Eclipse Expedition to Siam have 

 led me to think that, possibly, the method of using the coronal 

 atmosphere as a circular slit, suggested by Prof, Young and 

 myself, for the Indian eclipse of 187 1, might be applied under 

 very favourable conditions, if the prism or train of prisms hitherto 

 employed were replaced by one of those reflection gratings with 

 which the generosity of Mr. Rutherfurd has endowed so many of 

 our observers. 



To test this notion I have made some experiments with a 

 grating, which I owe to Mr, Rutherfurd's kindness, containing 

 17,280 lines to the inch. The results of these observations I 

 have now the honour of laying before the Royal Society. 



In front of the lens of an ordinary electric lamp, which lens 

 was adjusted to throw a parallel beam, I have introduced a 

 circular aperture, cut in cardboard, forming an almost complete 

 ring, some two inches in interior diameter, the breadth of the 

 ring being about 4^ inch. This was my artificial eclipse. 



At a distance from the lamp of about thirteen yards, I mounted 

 a 3I inch Cooke telescope, of fifty- four inches focal length. 

 Some distance short of this focus I placed Mr. Rutherfurd's 

 grating, and, where the first order spectrum fell, I placed a 

 focussing screen. To adjust for sharp focus, in the first instance, 

 the grating was so inclined to the axis of the telescope that the 

 image of the ring reflected by the silver surface adjacent to the 

 grating was thrown on to the screen. This done, the grating 

 was placed at right angles to the axis, and the spectrum of the 

 circular slit, illuminated by sodium vapour and carbon vapour, 

 photographed for the first, second, and third orders on one side. 

 The third order spectrum, showing the exquisite rings due to the 

 carbon vapour flutings was produced in forty-two seconds. The 

 first order spectrum, also submitted to the Society, was produced 

 in the same period of time, and was very much over-exposed ; it 

 is, therefore, I think not expecting too much that we should be 

 able to take a photograph of the ecUpse, in the third order, in 

 two minutes ; but let us make it four. Similarly, we may hope 

 for a photograph of the second order in two minutes, and it is, I 



