3IO 



NA rURE 



{Jan. 24^ 1889 



"Hie-kwang-ki, 'mark of combining light.' Besides this palace 

 an Leo and Virgo, there is another, Tien-shi-yuen, * inclosure of 

 the heavenly market.' It is not far to the north-east of Scorpio. 

 It is the serpent in our astronomy. Within the brilliant circle 

 of the serpent is a star called 'court of the western heaven.' 

 There is also a bright star, o Herculis, which is called ' em- 

 peror's throne.' The twenty-two stars in the Serpent are named 

 after the States into which China was formerly divided." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Among the numerous lectures on physics and 

 ■chemistry this term, we note those of Prof. Liveing, on spectro- 

 scopic chemistry ; Prof. Dewar, on physical chemistry ; Mr. 

 Pattison Muir, on chemical affinity ; Mr. Robinson, on agri- 

 •cultural chemistry ; Mr. Heycock, on chemical philosophy ; Prof. 

 Thomson, on electricity and magnetism, and on the kinetic theory 

 •of gases ; Mr. Shaw, on thermodynamics and radiation ; and Mr. 

 Wilberforce, on dynamo electric machines (continuous current 

 generators and motors). Prof. Stuart lectures on theory of 

 structures. 



Prof. Foster continues his elementary course of physiology ; 

 Dr. Lea his chemical physiology ; and Mr. Langley his 

 advanced histology and physiology. 



In zoology. Prof. Newton lectures on the geographical dis- 

 tribution of Vertebrates. Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. Darwin conduct 

 the large class of elementary biology. Mr. Gadow's course is on 

 the morphology of the Amniota (recent and extinct). Mr. Sedg- 

 wick, Mr. Harmer, and Mr. Weldon continue their classes on the 

 Invertebrata. 



Mr. Darwin lectures on the physiology of plants (advanced), 

 Mr. Gardiner has a general elementary course, Mr. Vaizey 

 lectures on the morphology and classification of Cryptogams, and 

 Dr. Hicks on elementary botany. 



The lectures on geology are divided thus : Prof. Hughes, 

 -geology of a district to be visited at Easter ; Mr. Marr, 

 'principles, and geology and scenery ; Mr. Harker, petrology ; 

 Mr. Roberts, palaeontology ; Mr. Seward, paleobotany. 



The principal mathematical lectures are the following : Prof. 

 Stokes, semi-convergent series involving powers of a complex 

 variable ; Prof. Cayley, analytical geometry ; Prof. Adams, lunar 

 theory ; Mr. Pendlebury, projective geometry ; Mr. Glazebrook, 

 hydrodynamics (waves and sound) ; Mr. Hobson, spherical and 

 cylindrical harmonics ; Mr. Larmor, geometrical optics and 

 ■electro-magnetism ; Mr. Forsyth, modern algebra (binary forms) ; 

 Dr. Ferrers, elliptic functions; Dr. Besant, analysis ; Mr. H. 

 M. Taylor, higher plane curves ; Mr. Webb, dynamics (elasticity 

 and viscosity) ; Mr. Stearn, hydrodynamics (multiply-connected 

 ■velocity-potentials and vortices) ; Mr. Herman, hydrodynamics 

 (viscous and gravitating fluids). 



An examination will be held at Gonville and Caius College 

 •on March 15 for one Shuttleworth Scholarship, value £(iO per 

 annum for three years. Candidates must be medical students 

 of the University of not less than eight terms standing. In the 

 case of candidates not already scholars of the College, the 

 examiners may recommend at the same time for a foundation 

 scholarship. Further particulars may be obtained from the 

 tutors. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, January. — The history of a 

 <loctrine, by S. P. Langley. This is the address delivered last 

 year to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 here published complete with the notes that have not hitherto 

 appeared. Its object is to show the steady progress of scientific 

 truth, as illustrated by the history of the undulatory and cor- 

 puscular theories of light from the time of Descartes, Boyle, 

 and other precursors of Newton down to the present day, when 

 the identity of radiant light and heat as forms of motion, or as 

 different effects of radiant energy, has been finally established. — 

 Description of the new mineral beryllonite, by Edward S. Dana 

 and Horace L. Wells. This is a new phosphate of sodium and 

 beryllium discovered in 1886 by Mr. Sumner Andrews near 

 Stoneham, Maine, the same district that has already yielded fine 

 specimens of phenacite, herderite, and other rare minerals. It 

 occurs mostly as a crystal in a fragmentary state, of small size 



and seldom well formed,- but remarkable for the number of 

 planes they present, eight or more distinct planes being fre- 

 quently presented in each zone on a single crystal. Twins are 

 common, leading to many curious variations of form. The 

 crystals are colourless, or slightly yellowish, and transparent, 

 with specific gravity 2-845, and hardness 5-5 —The iron ores of 

 the Penokee-Gogebic series of Michigan and Wisconsin, by C. 

 R. Van Hise. The author's recent explorations of this region 

 confirm Prof. Irving's conclusion that the original rock of the 

 iron-bearing formation is a chertyiron carbonate from which the 

 various phases of rock and the ore found in it have been pro- 

 duced by a complex series of alterations. The iron ore is a soft, 

 red, somewhat hydrated haematite, more or less manganiferous, 

 and mostly very friable.— A quartz-keratophyre from Pigeon 

 Point and Irving's augite-syenites, by W. S. Bayley. The re- 

 markable bright red rock of Pigeon Point, Minnesota, is here 

 studied in its various piiases, with the general result that the 

 sections described by Irving as augite-syenite-; aie partly identi- 

 cal with the typical red rock itself, and partly the same in all 

 essentials as the formations which have been called its inter- 

 mediate varieties. The space between the fresh olivine-gabbro 

 and the typical quartz-keratophyre is occupied by a series of 

 rocks exhibiting a gradual transition between the heavy dark 

 basic rock and the light red keratophyre. — On the occurrence 

 of hanksite in California, by Henry G. Hanks. This anhydrous 

 sulphate of soda has hitherto been found in limited quantities 

 amongst the various borax fields of California. But the author's 

 researches tend to show that it exists in great abundance, and 

 that it plays an important part in the metamorphoses that pro- 

 duce gay-lussite, thinolite, and perhaps borax.— Further papers 

 on Mount Loa are contributed by James D. Dana and the Rev, 

 E. P. Baker, bringing its hist-^ry down to July 1888.— H. L. 

 Wells and S. L. Penheld contribute notes on the new mineral 

 sperrylite. 



American Journal of Mathematics, vol-, xi. No. 2 (Baltimore, 

 January 1889). — The number opens with an instalment of a 

 memoir entitled " Remarque an sujet du theoreme d'Euclide 

 sur I'infinite du nombre des nombres premiers," by J. Perott 

 (pp. 99-138). A footnote supplies bibliographical information 

 as to previous memoirs on the same subject. — Next, Prof. Cayley 

 writes on "The Theory of Groups " (pp. 139-57), a subject he 

 has pretty largely written upon before, and to which his 

 attention has been recalled by the section, in Mr. Kempe's 

 Philosophical Transactions memoir " On the Theory of Mathe- 

 matical Form," entitled "Groups containing from One to 

 Twelve Units." The paper is largely illustrated by what the 

 author styles "colour groups." — Mr. A. E, H. Love discusses 

 "Vortex Motion in certain Triangles " (pp. 158-71), by a method 

 explained by Dr. Routh in a paper in vol. xii. of the London 

 Mathematical Society's Proceedings. — Another hydrodynamical 

 paper follows, by Mr. Basset, "On the Steady Motion of an 

 Annular Mass of Rotating Liquid" (pp. 172-81), wherein he 

 follows up previous work in the line of Poincare's and Prof. G. 

 H. Darwin's recent investigations of the figures of equilibrium 

 of rotating masses of liquid. The case considered is for an 

 approximately circular cross-section and for rotation under the 

 influence of its own attraction about an axis through its centre 

 of inertia, which is perpendicular to the plane of its central line. — 

 A paper, by Sophus Lie, " Die begriffe Gruppe und invariante " 

 (pp. 182-86), is reprinted from the Berichte der k. Sdchs 

 Gesellschaft der IVissensckaften, August 1887. —A short note, by 

 E. Picard, " Sur les formes quadratiques binaires a indeter- 

 minees conjuguees et les fonctions fuchsiennes " (pp. 187-94), 

 closes the number. The method employed is that used by 

 Poincare in his memoir on fuchsian functions (yotirnal de 

 Jordan, 1887). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Meteorological Society, January 16. — Dr. W. 

 Marcet, F.R. S., President, in the chair. — The Report of the 

 Council showed that a large amount of work had been done 

 during the past year, and that considerable progress had been 

 made in the investigation of one of the most interesting and 

 hitherto neglected branches of meteorology, viz. thunderstorms. 

 Forty-nine new Fellows were elected last year, the total number 

 on the books row being 525. — After the Report had been 



