Feb. 2, 1888] 



NA TURE 



ZZZ 



the arrangements for graduation, and in simplifying and re- 

 arranging examinations in the Faculties of Laws and Medicine. 

 Your petitioners have accordingly opened communications with 

 the above-named bodies regarding this subject. They under- 

 stand, however, that the Royal College of Physicians and the 

 Royal College of Surgeons are disposed to seek conjointly for 

 independent powers of granting degrees in a Faculty of Medi- 

 cine. V'our petitioners deprecate any severance of the machinery 

 for granting degrees in London from academic influences. Many 

 serious defects of University education in London are due to 

 such a severance. 



14. That, with a view to avoid multiplication of bodies con- 

 ferring a diploma or a licence to practise, it is expedient that 

 the possession of the conjoint diploma of the two Royal Colleges 

 above named should be a preliminary condition for obtaining a 

 medical degree in the University, the conferring of such diploma 

 remaining, as at present, the function of the said Royal Colleges. 



15. That the objects above set forth would, in the opinion of 

 your petitioners, be most readily accomplished by the issue of 

 a charter to a body of persons suitably constituted to be the 

 governing body of a new University in and for London ; such 

 body to consist of the following persons : — 



(i) The Chancellor of the University ; the first Chancellor to 

 be appointed by Your Majesty, and named in the charter. 



(2) Members to be named by Your Majesty in the charter. 

 Vacancies to be filled by the Lord President. 



(3) Members chosen by the governing bodies of University 

 College, London ; King's College, London ; and such other 

 Colleges as may be associated with the Univers ity. 



(4) Members chosen by the governing bodies of the profes- 

 sional societies and corporations hereinbefore referred to, if 

 associated with the University. 



(5) Members chosen by the professors or teaching staff of 

 associated institutions doing University work, and assembled in 

 the Faculties, whether of Arts, Science, Laws, or Medicine, to 

 which they respectively belong, such members to be in number 

 not less than one-third of the whole governing body. 



16. That power should be given to the governing body of the 

 new University to accept the application for association with the 

 University of any teaching institution in the metropolis, the con- 

 ditions of such association to be— (a) that the institution is 

 giving instruction of a University character ; [b) that it has 

 established a complete curriculum, and possesses a sufficient 

 teaching staff in at least one of the recognized Faculties ; {c) and 

 that it has furnished proofs of its means and appliances for 

 teaching being established on a satisfactory basis. 



Your petitioners therefore humbly pray Your Majesty to be 

 pleased to grant a charter to a body of persons appointed as is de- 

 scribed in this petition, or to such other person as Your Majesty may 

 be pleased to select, constituting a University in and for London 

 upon the principles and for the purposes hereinbefore stated, and 

 having power to grant its own degrees in the Faculties of Arts, 

 Science, Laws, and Medicine, and that Your Majesty will be 

 pleased to make such orders in the premises as to Your Majesty, 

 in your Royal wisdom and justice, may seem meet. 



And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. 



Executive Committee of the Association for Promoting a 

 Teaching University for London: — W. Grylls Adams, M.A., 

 F.R.S., f. W. Cunningham, Sec. King's College, J. Curnow, 

 M.D., F.R.C.P., Sir Dyce Duckworth, M.D., F.R.C.P., G. 

 Carey Foster, B.A., F.R.S., M. Berkeley Hill, M.B., F.R.C.S., 

 W, H. H. Hudson, M.A., LL.M., J. Marshall, LL.D., F.R.S. 

 (Chairman), Norman Moore, M.D., F.R.C.P., H. Morley, 

 LL.D.,W. M. Ord, M.D., F.R.C.P., F. Pollock, M.A., R. S. 

 Poole, LL.D., W. J. Russell, Ph.D., F.R.S., T. E. Scrutton, 

 M.A., LL.B , Rev. Henry Wace, D.D., G. C. W. Warr, M.A., 

 A. W. Williamson, LL.D., F.R.S., Gerald F. Yeo, M.D., 

 F.R.C.S., Sir George Young, LL.D. ; Secretary, F. C. 

 Montague, M. A., 12 New Court, Carey Street, W.C. 



THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON, 

 JANUARY 2^. 



"TTIE weather on the night of January 28 proved decidedly 

 unfavourable for those astronomers in London and the 

 neighbourhood who had prepared to observe the occultations 

 of small stars by the eclipsed moon. The sky, which had been 

 beautifully clear in the morning, but which had become partially 

 clouded towards evening, had cleared again a little before the 



commencement of the eclipse, thus raising hopes which were 

 destined to be disappointed, for the clouds returned, and, with 

 the exception of two or three short breaks, the moon was enve- 

 loped in cloud more or less dense during the entire duration of 

 the total phase. Very full preparations for the observation of 

 the occultations had been made at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, but only the observers at the f )ur largest telescopes 

 were able to see even one of the predicted phenomena. At the 

 Cambridge Observatory a similar disheartening experience was 

 recorded, and at Mr. Crossley's Observatory, Halifax, it was 

 quite cloudy, but in the west and south of England, and in Ire- 

 land at Dublin and Belfast, the conditions for observing were very 

 favourable. On the Continent, at Vienna no observations could 

 be made, the moon being enveloped in thick haze ; at Paris and 

 Berlin the sky had been overcast, and there had been a fall of 

 snow before the eclipse, but the latter half of the eclipse was 

 well observed at the former station, and some good results were 

 obtained at thelatter during a clear interval about a quarter of 

 aa hour after the commencement of totality. At Moscow the 

 eclipse was seen in a very clear sky, aid at Madrid it was 

 partially clear. 



The following table gives the number of observations obtained 

 at those Observatories from which accounts have been received 

 up to the present time : — 



The 8-inch refractor at Stonyhurst was devoted to spectro- 

 scopic observations during the greater part of the eclipse. It 

 had been in the programme to make similar observations at 

 Greenwich had the night proved favourable, and also to take a 

 series of photographs showing the progress of the eclipse. Three 

 photographs were secured, but the clouds prevented all spectro- 

 scopic work. Dr. Copeland also at Dun Echt had intended 

 to make spectroscopic observations, but was almost completely 

 thwarted by snow-squalls. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, January 19. — " On the Secondary Carpals, 

 Metacarpals, and Digital Rays in the Wings of existing Carinate 

 Birds." By W. K. Parker, F.R.S. 



In a paper " On the Morphology of Birds," already sent in to 

 the Royal Society, but not yet published, I have described 

 certain additional parts in the wings of Gallinaceous birds. 



One of these lies on the radial side of the first metacarpal ; 

 the other two are on the ulnar side of the second and third 

 metacarpals. 



These parts, which at first caused me considerable surprise, 

 being wholly unexpected by me, are only part of what I hare 

 since found in other families. 



During the past year I have worked out the development of 

 the skeleton in the Duck tribe (" Anatidae "), in the Auk tribe 

 ("Alcidse"), and in the Gull tribe ("Laridae"), and to some 

 degree in some other families. The subject appears to me to be of 

 great interest, and I have, through various English and American 

 friends, obtained many scores of embryos and young birds, &c., 

 that I may be able to trace these parts in every main group of 

 the class. Normally, both the existing Carinatae and Ratitse, 



