294 



NA TURE 



[yuly 28, 1887 



the average annual rainfall beinj, as before stated, about 

 35 inches. 



These figures have, in themselves, as General Strachey truly 

 observes, no physical signification, but they show that there is 

 a very pronounced harmonic element, with a period of eleven 

 years, underlying the observed quantities, and that in some of its 

 most salient features it seems to be recurrent. Physical con- 

 siderations only come in when, and in so far as, its features can 

 be correlated with those of the solar variations ; a point already 

 noticed in my former paper, and on which I need say nothing 

 further. But of course it is the supposed connexion of the two 

 classes of phenomena that constitutes the chief interest of the 

 subject under discussion. Henry F. Blanford. 



Folkestone, July 25. 



The Progress of the Scottish Universities. 



Your issue of July 14 (p. 252) set forth in vivid graph the 

 rap'd increase in size of the Scottish Universities. But as we 

 must not forget that in progress, advance of typ2 or improve- 

 ment in quality is more important than increase of quantity, it 

 behoves us to test the qualitative change of the Scottish Uni- 

 versities, and to make sure that they are not of the nature of 

 malignant tumours — rapidly-growing masses with tissues of an 



embryonic type. 

 1 The test is not hard to find in the case of organisms with a 



unction so definite as the Universities. Increased efficiency 



Fig. I.— Efficiency. 



and decreased cost must be the tests, and the results are startling, 

 as shown by the accompanying graphs of the official returns. 



The first shows the efficiency in the Arts Faculty in Glasgow, 

 the Medical Faculty in Edinburgh, and for two points the whole 



of Scotland as tested by the fraction ^J^^^^^ 



Students ' 

 The second shows the quantity, in seconds, of Professor of 

 Anatomy which the students can have for £i in Edinburgh. 



The result is an entire reversal of the usual optimistic picture 

 of progress^^by growth in quantity, and as I am both hopeful and 



Fig. 2.— C:st. 



anxious for the advance in quality of the Universities in which I 

 have spent many years, I hope you will allow me to call attention 

 to its urgency. M.A. ET Medicus. 



Floating Eggs. 



The floating eggs which a correspondent in Nature of 

 July 14 (p. 245) describes and refers to Orthagoriscus, are appa- 

 rently those of the angler or frog-fish {Lophius piscatorius), which 

 are known to naturalists. They are laid, as Agassiz states 

 (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci. , vol. xvii. part iii. p. 280), 

 "embedded in an immense ribbon-shaped band, from 2 to 3 

 feet broad, and from 25 to 30 feet long." The ovz.oi Ortha- 

 goriscus do not appear to have been yet obtained, and Mr. 

 Green's description accords essentially with the features pre- 

 sented by the eggs oi Lophius, though no colour is mentioned, 

 whereas the eggs of the frog- fish are of a light violet-gray tint, 

 and when the dark pigment develops in the young embryos the 

 band assumes a blackish hue resembling crape. Examples, I 

 may add, have been obtained on the west coast of Scotland ; 

 but, though Lo/<hius is extremely abundant at St. Andrews, and 

 on the east coast generally, the ova have not been procured here, 

 as yet. Edward E. Prince. 



St. Andrews Marine Laboratory, Scotland, July i6. 



Expression of the Emotions. 



In reading the very interesting letter of "J. M. H." (Nature, 

 July 14, p. 244), I was much struck with the similarity of purpose 

 and singularity of expression in the robin and in a cat of mine, 

 of which can equally be said, it '•' invented a note by which it 

 called me to feed it. It was quite peculiar — hushed, short, and 

 muttered, as it were." This note is also used on other occasions. 



