22 



NATURE 



\_May 5, 1887 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Applications to occupy the Cambridge table at 

 the Naples Zoological Station should be sent to Prof. Newton 

 on or before May 26. 



Mr. S. F. Harmer has been approved by the Senate, on the 

 recommendation of the Special Board of Medicine, as a teacher 

 of Comparative Anatomy for the purposes of medical study. 



The reports of Mr. H. Gadow, M.A., of King's College, and 

 Mr. M. C. Potter, M.A., of Peterhouse, to whom grants were 

 made from the Worts Travelling Scholars Fund last year, have 

 just been published. 



Mr. Gadow states that he began his researches on July 2, 

 1886, with the exploration of several caves on the Monte Junto 

 and in the Serra de Athouguia, Province of Estremadura. In 

 the caves were found a considerable number of human and other 

 bones, many of which show unmistakable signs of being worked 

 and cut by prehistoric man ; they are now in the Museum of 

 Zoology, awaiting further investigation. Fourteen celts, some 

 worked flakes, and a flint aiTowhead, collected in the caves or 

 in the neighbourhood thereof, are now in the Museum of 

 Archaeology. 



Mr. M. C. Potter joined Dr. Gadow on August 14 at Porto, 

 and immediately went in search of Clenwiys caspica (the water 

 tortoise which bears the Alga) ; finding this tortoise was scarce in 

 the North of Portugal, they went to Santarem, where it al-o was 

 not procurable in sufficient numbers. They therefore proceeded 

 to the Eastern Alemtejo to the mines of Sao Domingos ; here, 

 during several successftil expeditions, they succeeded in obtaining 

 a great number of Clemmys caspica, and with them a good supply 

 of the parasitical Alga. At the mines of Sao Domingos, Mr. 

 Potter was able to carry on his investigations through the 

 kindness of his friend Mr. T. Warden, who placed his house at 

 his disposal. The results have already been published in a 

 preliminary form in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philo- 

 sophical Society, and will probably be published in full by the 

 Linnean Society of London. To this Alga, hitherto undescribed, 

 he has given the name of Epiclemmidia lusitanica, thus describ- 

 ing its nature and to some extent its geographical distribution. 

 The expedition was of great value in enabling him to study the 

 geographical distribution of many plants, and to collect 

 specimens for the Botanical Museum, especially at Coimbra, 

 where the Scientific Staff of the University presented both 

 gentlemen with many valuable specimens. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Botanische JaJirbUcher (A. Engler), vol. viii. Part 3. — On 

 the history of development of form in the Roburoid Oaks, by 

 Franz Krasan (two plates). The author points out, among 

 other conclusions drawn from a comparison of ancient and 

 modem forms, that the developmental series of forms of Oak 

 extending continuously over immeasurable periods of time is 

 compendiously summarised before our eyes in the development 

 of the individual, i.e. that the ontogeny is an epitome of the 

 phylogeny. — On Eria choneana, a new species, by Fr. Kranzlin, 

 — Descriptions of Lehmann's collections in Guatemala, Costa 

 Rica, and Columbia : Cyperacese, by O. Bockeler ; Liliacese, 

 Hsemodoracese, Amaryllidaceae, Dioscoreaceae, and Iridacese, 

 by J. G. Baker ; Passifloraceas and Aristolochiaceae, by Max- 

 well T. Masters ; Lythracese, by E. Kcetner. — The Hungarian 

 species of Inula, especially those of the Enula group, by Vin- 

 centius de Borbas. — The remainder of this number is taken up 

 by the continuation of Dr. Winter's excellent epitome of the 

 recent literatureon the classification and geographical distribution 

 of fungi, and by Dr. F. von Herders' article on new contribu- 

 tions to the geographical botany of Russia. — Notice is also given 

 in this number of the joint work by Profs. Engler and 

 Prantl, to be entitled "Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien." 

 This will be a very comprehensive, profusely-illustrated work, 

 while the names under which it is to be issued will be sufficient 

 guarantee of its excellence. 



The principal article in the current number (vol. v.' Part ii.) of 

 the Folk-Lore jfournal is the continuation of Miss Courtney's 

 paper on Cornish folk-lore, which is very exhaustive. Mr. 

 Kirby calls attention to five tales in the " Arabian Nights," 

 which, though differing greatly from each other, are all based 

 upon two simple fundamental ideas, viz. a door which it is 

 forbidden to open, and the hero falling in love with a woman 



seen from a house-top. The five tales which are examined 

 lead by curious gradations from the simplest form of the story 

 to the most complex. In response to an appeal issued by the 

 local Secretary in Hong Kong to dwellers in the Far East, we 

 get several Chinese and Japanese contributions. The most 

 important of these relates to the folk-lore of aboriginal Formosa, 

 and is written by Mr. G. Taylor, whose papers on Formosa and 

 its aborigines in the China Review were noticed several times 

 last year in these columns. From Formosa, as elsewhere in 

 the world, the cry comes that the aborigines are either disappear- 

 ing, or are becoming sophisticated by their contact with civilised 

 races. "Come quickly, or you will be too late," says Mr. 

 Taylor to inquirers. He is certainly losing no time in making 

 the most of his opportunities as a resident, and it is to be hoped 

 he will continue his researches. Mrs. Mansfield supplies some 

 interesting Chinese superstitions respecting children ; and Mr. 

 Hartland writes on the somewhat hackneyed subject of Japanese 

 New Year decorations. The late Mrs. Chaplin Ayrton almost 

 exhausted this subject in a paper read about ten years ago before 

 the Asiatic Society of Japan, and reproduced by her a 

 few years later in a charming book on child-life in Japan. 

 The other papers, dealing with Negro songs in Barbados, and 

 American song-games and wonder-tales, show that this inter- 

 esting Society is extending the area of its activity so as to 

 include all parts of the globe. Cornwall, Arabia, Formosa, 

 Barbados, the United States, Japan, do not form a bad assort- 

 ment for a single number of this journal. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Physical Society, April 23. — Prof W. G. Adams, Vice- 

 President, in the chair. — The following papers were read : — On 

 delicate calorimetrical thermometers, and on expansion of thermo- 

 meter-bulbs under pressure, by Prof. Pickering. The reading 

 of a delicate mercurial thermometer, when placed in a bath at 

 constant temperature, is found to depend on whether the thermo- 

 meter was at a higher or lower temperature than the bath, 

 before immersion. Capillarity was suggested as an explanation, 

 but experiment showed that the effect was not always greatest 

 at the narrow parts of the tube, and hence this idea was dis- 

 carded. By using the same tube with different bulbs attached, 

 the differences varied, and eventually the effect was found to be 

 caused by exposing the inside of the tube to air and moisture ; 

 for when bulbs were attached to new tubes, without being so 

 exposed, the differences between the rising and falling readings 

 disappear. Hence, for very delicate thermometers great care 

 should be taken not to expose the bore of the tube, and calibra- 

 tion of a tube before attaching the bulb must not be attempted. 

 Even in the best tubes, after every possible precaution has been 

 taken, the author finds some parts about which the mercury 

 appears to stick, and in delicate observations these parts of the 

 tube are to be avoided. He also finds it necessary to gently 

 tap the top of the tube to relieve any friction, and has devised 

 a clockwork arrangement for performing the operation uniformly. 

 In the second part of the paper the author describes the want 

 of concordance between the thermometers which have been 

 compared with the same standard, and finds it due to the expan- 

 sion of the bulbs not being in all cases proportional to the 

 difference of pressure between the inside and outside. Thermo- 

 meters with large thin bulbs show greatest discrepancies, and 

 the remedy is found to be in making the bulbs more rigid. 

 This is done by having a double bulb, making them from a 

 cylindrical tube instead of by blowing, and increasing the thick- 

 ness of the walls of the bulb. A knife-edge arrangement in 

 the upper part of a thermometer is described, by which the same 

 part of the graduated tube can be used, whatever the tempera- 

 ture (about which small changes are to be observed) may be. 

 The proper amount of the mercury column can be cut off with 

 the greatest nicety by its use. Mr. Whipple remarked that 

 phenomena similar to those described in the paper were con- 

 stantly coming under his notice, and mentioned the pressure- 

 corrections they were applying to thermometers used in vacuo, 

 during some pendulum experiments at present being carried out. 

 He also described the Kew method of determining the pressure- 

 correction in deep-sea thermometers, which are protected hy an 

 outer glass jacket filled with alcohol. Mr. Lant Carpenter 

 described the first comparison experiments made at sea with 

 protected and unprotected bulb thermometers. In answer to 

 questions, Prof. Pickering said the range of pressure used was 



