March 21, 1878] 



NATURE 



415 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge, — The Vice-Chancellor has published, for the 

 information of the Senate, a statement received from the Uni- 

 versity Commission. There appears to the Commissioners to be 

 sufficient evidence of needs which will ultimately require a con- 

 tribution equivalent to, at least, ten per cent, of the net income 

 of the Colleges. The Commissioners think it will be sufficient 

 to specify in general among the purposes for which provision 

 should be made : — 



" I. Additional buildings for museums, laboratories, ^libraries, 

 lecture-rooms, and other rooms for University business. 



" 2. The maintenance and furnishing of such buildings, 

 including the provision of instruments and apparatus, together 

 with the employment of curators, assistants, skilled workmen, 

 and servants. 



" 3. Additional teaching power by the institution of new 

 permanent or temporary professorships, and the employment of 

 lecturers and readers, including the increase of the stipends of 

 some of the existing professorships and the provision of retiring 

 pensions. 



" 4. Grants for special work in the way of research, or for in- 

 vestigations conducted in any branch of learning or science con- 

 nected with the sudies of the University. 



** The sources from which funds for the purposes described 

 should be obtained appear to be clearly pointed out by the Act 

 itself, when it empowers the Commisioners to enable or require 

 the several Colleges, or any of them, to make contributions out 

 of their revenues for University purposes, regard being first had 

 to the wants of the several colleges in^themselves_^for educational 

 and other collegiate purposes. 



* ' The principles on which payments from the Colleges should 

 be contributed are, in the opinion of the Commissioners, as 

 follows : — 



"That such contributions should be made by the several col- 

 leges as nearly as possible on a uniform scale throughout, 

 whether by annual payments to the proposed common University 

 fund, or by a capital sum to be provided by the college out of 

 money belonging to it in lieu of such annual payments ; or by 

 annexing any college emolument to any office in the University, 

 with specified conditions of residence, study, and duty ; or by 

 assigning a portion of the revenue or property of the college as 

 a contribution to the common fund, or otherwise, for encourage- 

 ment of instruction in the University in any art, or science, or 

 other branch of learning, or for the maintenance and benefit of 

 persons of known ability and learning, studying, or making 

 researches in any art or science, or other branch of learning in 

 the University; or by providing out of the revenue of the college 

 for payments to be made, under the supervision of the Uni- 

 versity, for work done or investigations conducted in any 

 branch of learning or inquiry connected with the studies of the 

 University within the University. 



" The Commissioners think it probable that over and above 

 the contributions to be required from the college on a uniform 

 basis, some colleges may be willing, following in this respect the 

 example of Trinity College, and in consideration of prospective 

 additions to their revenues, or for other reasons, to contribute to 

 the wants of the University by founding professorships or other- 

 wise." 



Oxford. — The vacant Burdett Coutts Scholarship has been 

 awarded to Mr. Edward B. Poulton,| B.A., Scholar of Jesus 

 College. The examiners have also announced that Mr. Francis 

 H. Butler, B.A., Worcester College, distinguished himself in 

 the examination and is worthy of honourable mention. 



Glasgow. — At a private meeting of the members of the 

 University Council to consider who should fill the vacancy in the 

 Chancellorship caused by the death of Sir William Stirling- 

 Maxwell, fifty members voted for the Duke of Buccleugh, and 

 thirty-one for Sir Joseph Hooker. A committee was appointed 

 to endeavour to concentrate the vote upon the duke. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London 



Royal Society, March 7.— "Experimental Researches on 

 lie Temperature of the Head," by J. S. Lombard, M.D., for- 

 merly Assistant-Professor of Physiology in Harvard University, 

 U.S. Communicated by H, Charlton Bastian, M.D., F.R.S., 



Professor of Pathological Anatomy in University College, 

 London. 



"Addition to Memoir on the Transformation of Elliptic 

 Functions," by A. Cayley, F.R.S., Sadlerian Professor of Pure 

 Mathematics in the University of Cambridge. 



March 14. — " On the Function of the Sides of the Vessel in 

 maintaining the State of Supersaturation," by Charles Tomlin- 

 son, F.R.S. 



Anthropological Institute, February 26.— Mr. John Evans, 

 D.C.L., F.R.S., president, in the chair. — The following new 

 Members were announced :— Mr. W. Cohen and Mr. Gabriel. — 

 A weapon from New Zealand was exhibited by Mr. Hyde 

 Clarke. — Mr. J. Sanderson exhibited some stone implements and 

 fragments of pottery from Natal, and read a paper on the subject 

 of the present native inhabitants and their legends. The Pre- 

 sident remarked that the great bulk of the implements exhibited 

 were extremely rude ; and in respect to the pottery, observed 

 that it presented remarkable similarity in pattern to pottery 

 found in this country, a statement confirmed by the Rev. Canon 

 Greenwell, who remarked that the pottery was hard and well- 

 baked, and probably made for use in the household. — Mr. W. 

 St. Chad Boscawen read a paper on the primitive culture of 

 Babylonia, in wliich he referred to the rudely pictorial character 

 of early Babylonian writing, and to its gradual development into 

 a syllabic character, as shown in the syllabaries of Assur-bani- 

 pal, which he illustrated by reference to the growth of pro- 

 nominal ideas and the change of the archaic forms through hieratic 

 into a court, or script hand. Treating the earlier forms as pic- 

 torial, he suggested that they gave evidence that the original 

 form of dwelling was a cave, which then gave place to a con- 

 struction of wattle and daub, and that to a structure supported by 

 wooden beams on columns, and having doors and windows. To 

 these were probably attached gardens about the entrance. The 

 honour in which women were held by their children is indicated 

 by the ideograph for mother, which signifies "home-divinity." 

 Mr. Boscawen then stated, as his opinion, that the early Baby- 

 lonians used the fire-stick to kindle their fires. The ideograph 

 for "prison" is "dark-hole." In these early cities there were 

 policemen who patrolled day and night. A vast number of 

 other curious illustrations of the manners of ancient Babylon 

 were deduced by Mr. Boscawen from the ideographs and sylla- 

 baries, and his lecture was listened to with great interest. 



Physical Society, March 2.— Prof. W. G. Adams, pre- 

 sident, in the chair. — The following candidates were elected 

 Members of the Society :— Mr. J. P. Kirkman and Dr. W. J. 

 Russell, F.R.S.— Mr. Sedley Taylor exhibited the colours pro- 

 duced in thin films by sonorous vibrations. A piece of thin brass 

 perforated with a triangular, circular, or rectangular aperture, 

 and bearing a thin film of soap solution, was placed horizontally 

 on one end of an L-shaped tube ; the beam of the electric 

 lamp, after reflection from it, was received on a screen. It was 

 shown that when a sound is emitted in the neighbourhood of the 

 open end of the tube, the film takes up a regular form which is 

 indicated by the ditferent colours of the reflected light, and each 

 note has its own particular colour figure ; and further, with 

 dififerent instruments we have different figures. Thus when a 

 square film was employed a kind of coloured grating was the 

 result, which was modified by changing the note, and with a cir- 

 cular film concentric rings traversed by two bars at right-angles 

 were observed. —Mr. W. H. Preece exhibited and described the 

 phonograph. After referring to the manner in which the pre- 

 ceding communication bore on the subject of the telephone, he 

 went on to explain the construction of the two instruments 

 exhibited, which have been made in accordance with the pub- 

 lished accounts of the apparatus and details received from the 

 mventor, Mr. T. A. Edison, by Mr. Pidgeon and Mr. Stroh 

 respectively. In the first of these the receiving and emitting 

 discs are distinct, the former being of ferrotype iron, and the 

 latter of paper, whereas, in the second form of apparatus, both 

 these functions are performed by one and the same disc of iron. 

 They also differ in that in Mr. Pidgeon's apparatus the drum 

 receives its motion by hand, and in that of Mr, Stroh a descending 

 weight is caused to communicate motion by a suitable train of 

 wheels, which motion can be controlled and regulated by an 

 adjustable pair of vanes. In both cases the drum is of brass 

 traced over by a spiral groove, and the whole is mounted on a 

 screw of the same pitch. The manner of using the phonograph 

 is extremely simple. The drum having been covered with tin- 

 foil, a uniform movement of rotation is given to it, and a fine 

 metal point, firmly fixed to the centre of the receiving plate, is 



