Dec. 27, 1888] 



NA rURE 



20: 



Glacier ice C is the same piece as B, cut rather shorter; 

 The rates of extension given here are of course the mean 

 of the rates observed on the two sides of the bar, which were 

 <^^enerahy far from being equal. Sometimes the greater 

 speed would fluctuate from one side to the other ; in other 

 words, the bar would bend first one way then the other. 

 In other cases one side would always extend faster, e.g. 

 in glacier ice D the total extension of one face was 

 29 mm., of the other 97 mm. The breaking tension we 

 found in the bath ice to be about 8 kilos per sq. cm., 

 but for obvious reasons we did not care to approach this 

 limit too closely. One curious fact deserves notice. The 

 icicle, which was built up of very small crystals, stretched 

 very slowly ; while, on the other hand, the most plastic of 

 our pieces of glacier ice contained one very large crystal. 

 This may have been accidental, or it may have been due 

 to the impurities. The fewer the interfaces the greater the 

 quantity of soluble salts at each. 



Let us compare the figures in the table with the plas- 

 ticity actually observed in glaciers. Heim has collected a 

 number of observations on the increase of velocity from 

 the sides to the centre of a glacier. The most rapid 

 increase he mentions among the Alps is on the Rhone 

 glacier on a line 2300 metres above the top of the ice-fall. 

 At 100 metres from the western bank the mean yearly motion 

 from 1874 to 1880 was 12-9 metres, at 160 metres from the 

 bank it was 4325 metres This gives an increase of velocity 

 in each metre across the glacier of 0000058 metre per hour. 

 The stretching involved in this distortion is shown in the 

 paper to be greatest in a direction inclined at 45' to the 

 direction of motion, and then to amount to 00029 mm. 

 per hour per length of 10 cm. Hence the plasticity we 

 have found in hand specimens is amply sufficient to 

 account for the distortion of a glacier, even without the 

 aid of crevasses. 



It may be said that the term plasticity can not be 

 properly applied to the property of ice that I have 

 described, but there is no other convenient word. Further, 

 it is quite possible that sealing-wax and pitch may be 

 built up of microscopic or ultra-mi:roscopic crystals, and 

 that their plasticity is fundamentally similar to that of 

 ice, the difference being merely one of scale. Helmholtz 

 has suggested somewhere that ice, with its definite and 

 easily ascertainable structure, may furnish the clue to the 

 solution of many difficult problems in the properties of 

 matter. 



James C. McConnel. 



NOTES. 



At the annual meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences on 

 December 24, the Bordin Prize, awarded for perfecting the theory 

 of the movement of a solid body, was awarded to Madame 

 Sophia Kovalevsky, a professor at Stockholm University, and a 

 lineal descendant of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary from 

 1458 to 1490. In astronomy, ihe Valz Prize was awarded to 

 Mr. E. C. Pickering, and the Janssen Prize to Dr. William 

 Uuggioj. The Monlyon physiology prize was divided between 

 Mr. Augustus D. Walkr and M. Leon Frederic. 



Dr. Schweinfurth has removed his residence from Cairo 

 to Berlin. The German Government has placed at his disposal 

 a house for the accommodation of his African collections, which 

 after his life-time will become the property of the State, but in 

 the meantime remain in his charge, the Government meeting 

 all the expenses of their maintenance^ 



At present Dr. Schweinfurth is on his way to Arabia Felix 

 for the purpose of making botanical collections in the mountains 

 of Yemen. Judging from what is known of the limited but 

 extremely peculiar flora of Aden, and from the specimens which 



Major Hunter, the assistant Resident at Aden, has trans- 

 mitted to Kew from the interior, the results of Dr. Schweinfurth's 

 explorations are likely to be of the very greatest interest. 



A NEW part of the " Scientific Results of Prjevalsky's Expe- 

 ditions" has just been published by Prof. Hertzenstein. It con- 

 tains a desciiption of the fishes, and is illustrated by eight 

 plates. 



Dr. Francois, of the Science Faculty of Rennes, has been 

 despatched, by the French Minister of Public Instruction, to 

 Tahiti, to investigate thoroughly corals and coral formations 

 there. 



It is intended that the next general meeting of the Association 

 for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching shall be held at 

 University College, Gower Street, on January 19, 1889. The 

 morning silting, at which the Reports of the Council and 

 the Committees will be read, and new officers and members 

 elected, will begin at il a.m. Afcer an adjournment for 

 luncheon at i p.m., members will reassemble at 2 p.m., 

 when an address will be delivered by Prof. Minchin, of Cooper's 

 Hill, on " The Vices of our Scientific Education." 



Last Friday, Mr. Mundella asked the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer whether he was able to remove the uncertainty and 

 embarrassment of the provincial Colleges by publishing his 

 scheme for grants in aid ; and whether, in consideration of the 

 delay which had already taken place, and the pecuniary position 

 of several Colleges, he would provide that the grants should . 

 take effect from January i next. In reply, Mr. Goschen said 

 he was not able to make any statement as to the particulars of a 

 scheme for grants in aid to University Collegcj in the provinces. 

 In any case it would not be possible for the grants to take effect 

 from January i next, as they would be included in the Estimates 

 for the financial year 1889-90, nor could the grants be of such 

 amounts as to retrieve the position of any College in serious 

 financial embarrassment. Government grants, though they would 

 be a valuable addition, could in no case be, and were not intended 

 to be, an effective substitute for local contributions, which must 

 always bear the greater share of the burden. With respect to 

 the scheme in general, Mr. Goschen was anxious to state that 

 any delay which had arisen was due entirely to the number and 

 importance of the subjects competing for the attention of the 

 Government during the session. The Government regarded 

 grants to local Colleges as a step of great importance, and pos- 

 sibly of far-reaching effects. It was absolutely impossible to 

 propose a scheme without the most careful consideration of its 

 bearings, more especially the proportions and the conditions on 

 which any assistance from Imperial funds should be given to 

 local institutions for higher-class education. It was not from 

 any neglect of the matter, but rather from their sense of its 

 extreme importance, that the Government had not been able to 

 formulate their proposal, although they hoped to do so at a very 

 early date. 



At a recent meeting of the Senate of the Sydney University 

 it was announced that the Hon. William Macleay, besides pre 

 senting to the University his valuable museum of natural history, 

 which comprises specimens from all the Australian colonies. New 

 Guinea, and the various groups of islands in that quarter of the 

 globe, has also givea the sum of ;if 6000 to endow a curatorship 

 for that mu eum. 



We learn from Science that Mr. J. W. Osborne, of Washing- 

 ton, the well-known inventor of photo-lithography, has presented 

 to the United States National Museum and to the Art Museum 

 in Boston his large and valuable collection of proofs and speci- 

 mens illustrative of the development of photo mechanical print- 

 ing. All the important and typical processes are fully represented 

 in each by specimens collected by Mr. Osborne in the art centres 

 of Europe and America, and include thi works of all who have 



