136 



NATURE 



[September 30, 1915 



Constantinople, and the mosques of Constantinople 

 and Brusa, Prof. F. M. Simpson. 



The calendar of Birkbeck College, London, for the 

 present session has been issued. The arrangements 

 made for the session, which is the ninety-third, are 

 as complete as in previous years. The general 

 character of the educational work provided by the 

 college is summarised in the Final Report of the 

 Royal Commission on University Education in 

 London (1913); the Commissioners write: — "We 

 think that the original purpose of the founder of 

 Birkbeck College and the excellent work that institu- 

 tion has done for the education of evening students 

 who desire a university training, mark it out as the 

 natural seat of the constituent college in the Faculties 

 of Arts and Science for evening and other part-time 

 students." In addition to the university courses 

 arranged in science, arts, laws, and economics, classes 

 will be held in commercial and other subjects. 



The British Fire Prevention Committee's " Fire 

 Warnings " have been before the public from time to 

 time in connection with the war emergency, but the 

 different forms of "Fire Warnings" available and the 

 extent to which they can be obtained gratuitously does 

 not appear to be generally known. Among the " Fire 

 Warnings " obtainable in poster form, printed in red, 

 8 ins. wide, are the following^the reference number 

 must be given in all communications regarding 

 them : — For elementary and secondary schools : re air 

 raids (No. 20) ; for public schools and boarding 

 schools : re air raids (No. 20a) ; re fires due to air 

 raids (No. 17) : for householders, etc. ; re fires due 

 to air raids (No. 17a) : as to dealing with incendiary 

 bombs, etc. Local authorities and school committees 

 — as also headmasters or headmistresses — requiring 

 "Warnings" No. 20 and 20a (for schools) will receive 

 a suitable number of copies free upon written applica- 

 tion to the registrar, giving the full name and postal 

 address of the institution for which they are required, 

 the number of pupils, subject to their enclosing a 

 large-sized, addressed, and properly stamped envelope 

 for despatching the necessary posters. All communica- 

 tions should be in writing addressed to the Registrar, 

 the British Fire Prevention Committee, 8 Waterloo 

 Place, London, S.W. More than a quarter of a 

 million posters has already been issued by the com- 

 mittee gratuitously. 



The educational and social announcements for the 

 present session at the Northampton Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute, Clerkenwell, London, have been issued in the 

 form of an attractive calendar. The only new even- 

 ing class which has been arranged is a "Glass- 

 workers'" evening course, which is being jointly 

 undertaken by the technical optics and the technical 

 chemistry departments. The class is required 

 urgently at the present time, owing to the disturb- 

 ance in this particular trade caused by the war. Not- 

 withstanding the war, the equipment of the various 

 departments was extended during the session 1914-15. 

 In the mechanical engineering department, the test- 

 ing equipment was increased by the addition of a 

 Heenan and Froude dynamometer, and the prime 

 mover equipment by a semi-Diesel engine. In the 

 electrical engineering department, various trans- 

 formers and motors of special types were added, and 

 a Tirrell regulator and a mercury arc rectifier were 

 installed. The instrument equipment was also ex- 

 tended. In the technical optics and other depart- 

 ments, a fair amount has also been spent on 

 extensions. The courses in the Engineering Day 

 College are to be continued, but the second- and 

 third-year courses, which extend ordinarily from Sep- 

 tember to Easter, are in 1915-16 to commence in 



NO. 2396, VOL. 96] 



January and to be continued until July. This 

 arrangement will enable the students to work up to- 

 Christmas in the munitions workshop; which has 

 been employed in making gauges and parts of arma- 

 ments during the whole of the summer vacation. The 

 special classes for Post Office workmen and boy 

 messengers, started two years ago, are being con- 

 tinued, as are also those in submarine cable work for 

 the employees of the cable companies ^ho have their 

 headquarters in London. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 



Academy of Sciences, August 30. — M. Ed. Perrier in 

 the chair. — The president announced the death of 

 Emile Guyou, member of the Academy.— G. Humbert : 

 The reduction of Hermite forms in an imaginary 

 quadratic body. — D. Pompeiu : A double solution of 

 Riccati's equation. — B. Mayor : A correspondence 

 between articulated systems of space and those in a 

 plane. — M. Gibon : New methods in stereo-radioscopy. 

 Radioscopic methods are more rapid than radio- 

 graphic methods, and three processes of stereo- 

 radioscopy are described. The first process makes use 

 of two Crookes's tubes, with a metallic diaphragm 

 placed between the -bulbs and the patient, a stereo- 

 scopic image being formed on a platinocyanide 

 screen.— P. W. Stuart Menteath : Some fossils of the 

 Pyrenees. — J. Pescher : Respiratory gymnastics and 

 its therapeutic effects. Drawings of the instrument 

 are given, and its use and mode of application are 

 described. Cases are cited in which its systematic 

 employment has given beneficial therapeutical effects. 

 — Edmond Bordage : The differences in the appear- 

 ance of adipose tissue produced by hystolysis in 

 certain Orthoptera. 



September 13. — M. Camille Jordan in the chair. — 

 G. Bigonrdan : Astronomical observations made in 

 France before the foundation of the Academy of 

 Sciences and the Observatory of Paris. An account 

 of the work of early French astronomers up to the 

 sixteenth century. — A. Chauveau : Diffuse inflamma- 

 tion of the forearm resulting from a previous general 

 infection. — Paul Vuillemin ; Essential differences 

 between' the nasturtium and the Geraniaceae. Tro- 

 paeolum differs fundamentally from the Geraniaceae 

 in the position of its nectaries and in the typical 

 number of stamens. The author considers it neces- 

 sary to re-establish the family of Tropaelaceae. — MM. 

 Tuffier and Amar : Walking-sticks and crutches. 

 Scientific model of a supporting cane. This is de- 

 signed to prevent forms of paralysis frequently result- 

 ing from the use of ordinary crutches. ^B. Galitzine : 

 The direct measurement of accelerations. A continua- 

 tion of an earlier paper on the same subject. — A. 

 Portevin : The decomposition of potassium cyanate by 

 heat. The reaction KCN + = KCNO is reversible, 

 potassium cyanide being formed by heating potassium 

 cyanate, in proportions ranging from 209 per cent, 

 at 700° C. to 489 per cent, at 900° C— E. Kohn 

 Abrest : An arrangement for rapidly testing sub- 

 stances used against poisonous gases. The results 

 obtained with various absorbents for chlorine are 

 tabulated. The solutions containing sodium bicar- 

 bonate were not so effective as those with sodium 

 carbonate. Sodium thiosulphate alone gave off .SO,, 

 but in admixture with excess of sodium carbonate 

 the absorptive power was good. Solutions of 

 potassium iodide gave very complete absorption. — 

 L^on Gizolme : The influence of the algae of sand 

 filters on the chemical composition of water. The 

 amount of dissolved oxygen was found to increase and , 

 the alkalinity to diminish with increase of sunlight. 



