^(TU. I, 1888] 



NA TURE 



23 



It themselves for the Tripos and icx) for 2ndM. B., will 

 fe ;^75 each. The papers of all candidates in a subject are 

 1 looked over by both examiners, who must be present at all 

 [examinations and at the final meeting of examiners. 

 lie Harkness Scholarship in Geology and Paleontology, for 

 I their first or second term of residence, has been 

 ded to E. Macdonald, of Girton College. 

 1. F. Newall, M.A. of Trinity College, has been recognized 

 teacher of physics, D. Carnegie, B.A. of Caius College, as 

 . itacher of chemistry, and J. R. Vaizey, M.A. of Peterhouse, 

 i> ;i teacher of botany, for the purpose of giving certificates for 

 "M!. degree. 



\t le.'-us College, on December 11, there will be an examina- 

 for scholarships in natural science, the maximum value being 

 ^o. Notice must be given to the tutors before December i. 

 chemistry is essential, and one of the following: physics, ele- 

 mentary biology, animal physiology. Christ's College examina- 

 .will commence on the same date, and a candidate may be 

 at either College. 

 St. John's College the open scholarship examination on 

 iber II may include all the subjects of the Natural 

 Bces Tripos, but every candidate must show a competent 

 rledge of two of the following subjects : elementary 

 chemistry, and biology. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



.erican Journal 0/ Science, October. — On a young tortoise 

 two heads, by E. H. Harbour. An account is given of a 

 o-headed Chrysemys picta recently fotlnd near New Haven, 

 Connecticut, and presenting some interesting physiological 

 yStttures. They appear to be two independent organisms in- 

 ^^Eed in a common carapace, with separate and even antagonistic 

 ^Hmcts and impulses, as shown in their struggles to move in 

 ^TOposite directions, in their independent breathing, sleeping and 

 feeding at different times, and so on. They were still alive and 

 vigorous on September 4, fourteen weeks after capture. — The 

 structure of Florida, by Lawrence C. Johnson. In this paper, 

 which was read before the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science at New York last year, the peninsula is divided 

 longitudinally into four regions plainly marked by surface indica- 

 tions : (l) the Gulf Hammock in the west ; (2) a central plain, or 

 region of sinks ; (3) the High Hammocks, or lake region ; (4) the 

 eastern slope, draining to the St. John's River. — Analysis of a 

 soil from Washington Territory, with some remarks on the 

 utility of soil analysis, by Edward A. Schneider. The specimens 

 here analyzed are from the Rockland Ridge near " The Dalles " 

 on the Columbia River. From this study the author infers that 

 the action of hydrochloric acid on soils is far from uniform ; that 

 plant roots probably derive their nutrition from the finest 

 sediments of the soil ; that hydrochloric acid powerfully corrodes 

 both the finest and coarsest sediments ; that fertility largely 

 depends not only on the quantity of phosphoric acid, but also on 

 the mode of its occurrence, and that consequently the fertility of 

 a soil cannot be determined by chemical analysis alone. — On the 

 Rosetown extension of the Cortlandt series, by J. F. Kemp. 

 . The discovery of this extension of the well-known Cortlandt 

 series is accredited to Dr. N. L. Britton, and the Rosetown area, 

 due west of Stony Point, is here definitely circumscri'oed.— The 

 contact-metamorphism produced in the adjoining mica-schists 

 and limestones by the massive rocks of the Cortlandt series near 

 Peekskill, New York, by George H. Williams. In previous 

 ■ papers were described the principal types and some intermediate 

 ♦ varieties forming the complicated group of this series. Here the 

 author deals with the unusual contact-metamorphism which they 

 have occasioned in the adjoining schists and limestones, conclud- 

 ing with a summary of the evidence in favour of the eruptive 

 origin of the massive members of the series. — The sedentary 

 habits of Platyceras, by C. R. Keyes. The sedentary habits of 

 this group of Palaeozoic Gastropods is inferred from the analogous 

 habits of their modern congeners, and from their attachment to 

 various species of Crinoids during life.— On edisonite, a fourth 

 in of titanic acid, by W. E. Hidden. The specimen here 

 libed is from the Whistnant gold mine, Polk County, Cali- 

 i^mia. Its analysis shows it to be a nearly pure TiO.,, like 

 rutile, but differing in its crystallization from the three previously 

 known forms of that mineral. — On two new masses of meteoric 

 ' n. by George F". Kunz. The first of these specimens, from 

 nville Mountain, North Carolina, closely resembles the 

 cwell, Claiborne, and Bear Creek (Colorado) meteorites in 



composition ; the second, from Laramie County, Wyoming, 

 approaches nearer to those of Rowton, Charlotte, and Jewel 

 Hill. — Experiments on the effect of magnetic force on the equi- 

 potential lines of an electric current (continued), by E. H. Hall. 

 An account is here given of the author's experiments with 

 cobalt, nickel, and bismuth, together with asummary of results. — 

 W. Spring gives a further account of his views regarding the 

 compression of powdered solids, in reply to Mr. Hallock ; and 

 E. S. Dana contributes a short preliminary notice of beryllonite, 

 a new mineral so named by him from the fact that it contains the 

 rare element beryllium. 



The American Meteorolo^caljournaliox September contains :— 

 (i) An article by Prof. J. E. Curtis on suction anemometers. 

 Two different forms of such instruments have been proposed, 

 corresponding to two distinct ways in which a moving fluid pro- 

 duces a diminution of pressure. In the first the suction is pro- 

 duced by the wind blowing through a horizontal tube, having a 

 contracted section ; in the second the suction is produced in a 

 vertical tube, by the wind blowing across its mouth. The 

 second form alone has come into limited use, under the name of 

 the Hagemann anemometer. The author points out that these 

 instruments are not more generally used partly because there 

 is a feeling of uncertainty as to the definite relation of the 

 suction to the wind's velocity. The paper deals almost exclu- 

 sively with their history and theory. (2) An account by Mrs. J. 

 N. Brodhead of her experience of the great cyclone at Calcutta, 

 on October 5, 1864. (3) An article by Prof. H. A. Hazen on 

 the advantages of Mount Washington as a meteorological sta- 

 tion. No individual station has had its observations discussed 

 more thoroughly, and one of the most important investigations 

 has been the use of the observations in determining a proper 

 reduction of barometric readings at great altitudes to sea-level, 

 by Lieut. Dunwoody. 



Bulletin de rAcadcmie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, vol. 

 xxxii. No. 3. — On the determination of constants of the ellipsoid 

 of the earth by means of geodetical measurements, by A. Bons- 

 dorff. This paper contains new formulas for the calculation of 

 the eccentricity. — On the formation of meteoric currents from the 

 disintegration of comets, by Dr. C. Charlier, being a mathemati- 

 cal inquiry into the orbits of meteorites.— On the aberration of 

 fixed stars, by M. Nyren. After having calculated it on the 

 ground of observations of two stars, the Comes and the Polaris, 

 M. Nyren obtains very nearly the same numerical values as those 

 formerly found for the same stars by W. Struve.— On a new 

 method for determining the focal distance of a system of lenses 

 for different rays of light, by Dr. Hasselberg.— Some remarks on 

 the fables of Phsedrus, by A. Nauck.— A note by Dr. \V. 

 Radloff on grave- inscriptions in Semiryetchensk. — On the 

 phenyl-angelic acid, by A. Gernet.— The approximate elements 

 and ephemerides of Encke's comet for 1888, from May 12 

 to August 28, by O. Backlund and B. Seraphinoff,.— The tale 

 of the Princess Bentres compared with the tale of the Emperor 

 Zenon and his two daughters, by Dr. O. Lemin. (All in 

 German.) 



No. 4. — Diagnoses of new Asiatic plants, by Dr. C. J: 

 Maximowicz, being the seventh instalment (in Latin, with 

 four plates) of a capital work about new plants brought by 

 Przewalski, Potanin, Taschiro, and several others, from Central 

 Asia, Japan, &c. — On the " hyperelementary " terms in the theory 

 of perturbations, a mathematical inquiry, by O. Backlund (in 

 German). 



' SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



I Paris. 



{ Academy of Sciences, October 22.— M. Daubree in the 

 I chair.— On lameness caused by pain, by M. Marey. By means 

 j of his photo-chronograph the author studies the character of the 

 ' peculiar limping action instinctively caused by the desire to 

 1 diminish the pain of a sore foot in walking. From the stand- 

 I point of the mechanical laws regulating the pressure of the foot 

 1 on the ground, the three cases are considered in which this 

 I pressure is either equal to, greater, or less than, the weight of the 

 ! body. — A paper follows by the same author, in which the 

 i swimming action of the eel is studied and illustrated by the 

 I same photo-chronograph ic process. The eel was 030 m. long, 

 I reduced by its squirming action to 0*29 m., and its rate of 

 I progress was shown to be 0019 m. in o'l second, or about 



