164 



NATURE 



{June 14, 1888 



laudatus est, hodie coram eodem, templi illius praeside 

 illustrissimo, titulo nostro libenter ornamus. 



" sunt hie etiam sua praemia laudi ; 

 sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunl." 



Duco ad vos Hofmanni discipulum, Faradai successorem, 

 Fredericum Augustum Abel. 



(4) Perveni tandem ad Professorem nostrum Sadlerianum, 

 virum non modo in recentioris quae dicitur Algebrae provincia, 

 sed etiam studiorum mathematicorum in toto regno inter principes 

 numeratum ; qui, quamquam iuris peritia honores summos 

 adipisci potuisset, maluit sese scientiae illi dedicare, quae verbis 

 quam paucissimis, quam illi quae verbis quam plurimis, rerum 

 veritatem exprimere conatur. Quantum tamen prudentia eius 

 Academiae profuerit, et senatus totius concilium et Collegium 

 plus quam unum testantur ; neque Cami tantum prope ripas sed 

 etiam in ipsa Europa atque adeo trans aequor Atlanticum fontes 

 eius aliis patuerunt. Idem, velut alter Socrates, ipsi rerum 

 pulchritudini et veritati mentis oculis contemplandae sese con- 

 secravit, arbitratus ilia sola quae studiorum suorum in puro velut 

 caelo sint, revera esse, illorum autem imagines quas (paivofieva 

 vocamus, velut specus eltiuAa videri ; ipsam vero pulchritudinem 

 percipi quidem posse sed non omnibus explicari. Quam dilucide 

 tamen regnum suum quondam non campo deserto comparavit sed 

 regioni cuidam pulcherrimae primum e longinquo prospectae, 

 cuius partem unamquamque posse deinde peragrari, cuius et 

 clivos et valles, et rivos et rupes, et flores et silvas posse propius 

 maxima cum voluptate aspici. Diu, inter numina silvestria, 

 regionem illam laetam feliciter pererret Professor noster insignis, 

 Arthurus Cayley. 



(5) Extra ipsas Athenas, stadiis fere decern ab urbe remotus, 

 prope ipsam Platonis Academiam, surgit Coloneus ille tumulus 

 Sophocleo carmine olim laudatus, Neptuni templo quondam 

 ornatus, astronomi magni Metonis cum memoria consociatus. 

 Et nos Colonum nostrum iactamus, clivum ilium spatio a nobis 

 eodem distantem, locum arboribus obsitum, avibus canorum, ubi 

 in templo quodam stellis observandis dedicato vivit Neptuni 

 ipsius inventor. Quid si Colono nostro deest Cephisus ? sed 

 aqua de clivo illo antiquitus deducta, Collegii Herscheliani sub 

 hortis transmissa, Newtoni in Collegio in fontem exsilit. Quid 

 si Neptuni inventi gloria cum altero participatur ? sed, gloriae 

 illius geminae velut imago perpetua, Geminorum in sidere est 

 stella quaedam quae caeli totius inter Stellas duplices prae ceteris 

 fulget. Idem neque stellarum geminarum cursus, neque Satur- 

 num neque Uranum inexploratum reliquit ; neque faces illas 

 caelestes, Leonides vocatas, quas ter in annis fere centenis orbes 

 suos magnos conficere ostendit ; neque motum ilium medium 

 lunae qui cum motu diurno terrae collatus per saeculorum lapsus 

 paullatim acceleratur. Talium virorum laudibus non debet 

 obesse quod inter nosmet ipsos vivunt ; pravum enim malig- 

 numque foret " non admirari hominem admiratione dignissimum, 

 quia videre, alloqui, audire, complecti, nee laudare tantum, 

 verum etiam amare contigit." 



Tot insignium virorum nominibus hodie velut cumulus accessit 

 vir illustris, Professor Adams. 



The Senior Wrangler of the year is Mr. Orr, of St. John's ; the 

 Second Wrangler Mr. Brunyate, of Trinity. No woman is placed 

 with the Wranglers ; but one, Miss H. F. Ashwin, of Girton, is 

 bracketed with the first Senior Optime. 



The Rede Lecture was delivered in the Senate House on 

 Friday, by Sir F. A. Abel, on the applications of science to the 

 protection of human life. 



The Report on Local Lectures gives particulars of a large 

 number of science lectures given in local populous centres. At 

 evening lectures on astronomy at Northampton, Mr. j. D. 

 McClure had a regular audience of 277, and 250 at Aylesbury. 

 The formation of Students' Associations, for mutual aid between 

 the lectures, has been very useful. Several students from 

 Northumberland came up to Cambridge in the Long Vacation, 

 and did practical work in chemistry and biology. 



The Syndicate appointed to report on Sir Isaac Newton's 

 manuscripts in the possession of the Earl of Portsmouth, the 

 scientific portion of which he offered to present to the 

 University, have prepared a detailed catalogue of the whole, 

 which is to be published. 



Prof. Thomson announces that students who receive per- 

 mission may work in the Cavendish Laboratory in the Long 

 Vacation. There will be a special course for those who have 



passed the Mathematical Tripos, and intend taking the Natural 

 Sciences Tripos. 



In the Long Vacation, Mr. Fenton will give a general course 

 on Chemistry, Mr. Potter will lecture on Systematic Botany with 

 practical work, Prof. Macalister will lecture on Osteology, and 

 Mr. Wingfield will give a revision course of Practical Physiology 

 for Dr. Foster ; Prof. Roy will lecture on the Elements of 

 Pathology, and will hold a practical course on three days a 

 week. 



Prof. Lewis will lecture on Crystallography during July, and 

 Mr. Solly will give elementary demonstrations in Mineralogy 

 during July and August. 



SCIENTIFIC SEXIALS. 



American Journal of Mathematics, vol. x. No. 3 (Balti- 

 more, April). — The number opens with an article by M. E. 

 Goursat, " Surfaces telles que la somme des rayons de courbure 

 principaux est proportionnelle a la distance d'un point fixe au 

 plan tangent " (pp. 187-204), in which are discussed some 

 surfaces of a somewhat more general character than those treated 

 of by M. Appell in the last number of the Journal. The title 

 sufficiently indicates the scope of the memoir, which in part 

 touches upon work accomplished by Riemann. — "Remarks on the 

 Logarithmic Integrals of Regular Linear or Differential Equations " 

 (pp. 205-24), by Karl Heun, follows up Fuchs's investigations 

 (Journal fur Mathematik, lxviii. p. 376). The author has else- 

 where shown that the Fuchs equations are not independent of 

 each other when the differential equation is of a higher order 

 than the second, and in this paper he deduces, from elementary 

 considerations, the minimum number of conditions on which the 

 existence of logarithms depends. In addition he gives several 

 theorems concerning the pseudo-singular points. — Mr. C. II. 

 Chapman, in his article " On Some Applications of the Units of 

 an «-fold Space " (pp. 224-42), obtains a proof of the rule for 

 multiplying two determinants of the «th order by the principles 

 of quaternions. — In " A Problem suggested in the Geometry of 

 Nets of Curves and applied to the Theory of Six Points having 

 Multiply Perspective Relations" (pp. 243-57), Mr. E. H. 

 Moore discusses matters treated of by Von Staudt, Clebsch, Klein, 

 and others. — Adopting the definition of orientation given by 

 Laguerre, M. G. Humbert generalizes results previously obtained 

 by Laguerre and himself in a memoir entitled " Sur l'orientation 

 des systemes de droites " (pp. 258-81), and also brings together 

 some interesting properties of the hypocycloid given already by 

 Cremona and Darboux. 



Bulletin de V Academie Royale de Belgique, April. — Contribu- 

 tion to the study of the albuminoid substances in the white of an 

 egg, by MM. G. Corin and E. Berard. It was recently shown by 

 Halliburton that the albumen of the serum is a mixture of two 

 or of three albumens, according to the nature of the animal, 

 which coagulate under different degrees of temperature. Apply- 

 ing the same process of research to the albuminoids of the white 

 of eggs, the authors find that five different albuminoid substances 

 are present in this liquid: two globulines, coagulating at +57° 

 and +67 C. respectively, and three true albumens, coagulating 

 at +72 , +76 , and +82 . Besides these new facts, they also 

 offer some interesting remarks on the general character of the 

 relations existing between the albumens and the globulines, and 

 on the opalescence observed when these substances begin to 

 coagulate under the action of heat. — M. F. Folie describes anew 

 method of determining the constant of aberration by means of a 

 series of observations of one and the same star in right ascension. 

 For this method he claims great simplicity, and exemption from 

 the numerous sources of error to which other processes are liable. 

 — To this number of the Bulletin, A. F. Renard contributes an 

 exhaustive memoir on the prevailing geological formations of 

 the Cape Verd Islands. 



Rendiconti del Reale Istituto Lombardo, May. — On an old 

 theory regarding the climate of Quaternary times, by Prof. T. 

 Taramelli. Reference is made to the theory announced in 1840 

 by Lombardini, who considered that the Quaternary climate was 

 simply a continuation of those of previous epochs, modified by 

 the appearance of more elevated lands upheaved in post-Tertiary 

 times. This anticipates by twenty years Frankland's remarks 

 on the physical causes of the Glacial epoch, and leads the author 

 to formulate a vulcanico-glacial theory based on the views of 



