September 3, 19 14] 



NATURE 



27 



ui the college and for the degree of B.Sc. of the 



University are concurrent. The calendar gives to in- 



p.ding students full guidance as to the curricula for 



B.Sc. degree in agriculture and in forestry, the 



lege diploma in agriculture, and the college certifi- 



e in horticulture. Particulars are also given of 



rter courses which may be taken by those who are 



ible to spare time for sufficient attendance to gain 



qualifications mentioned. Notes are included as 



:he locality and objects of the numerous experiments 



1 demonstrations which are carried on in the 



■unds of the college. These are of special interest 



ihe practical farmer, who is invited to consult the 



ege staff in regard to his individual problems. 



Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge, in a letter to the 



lies of August 29, comments on the notices pub- 



.ed by the Vice-Chancellors of various universities 



louncing that due attention will be paid to the 



demic interests of students who have gone or are 



ng to share in the defence of the country. The 



prising thing, he says, is that university authorities 



uld not have found themselves obliged to announce 



: as all their undergraduates above nineteen years 



age and physically fit had joined the fighting forces 



:he Crown, their universities would be virtualh" 



jty until the need for fighting men was satisfied. 



A. E. Shipley, master of Christ's College, Cam- 



u^iidge, in a succeeding issue of our contemporary-, 



points out that at Cambridge a considerable number 



will be left behind who are precluded bv their age, 



physique, or physical condition from joining the forces. 



Ti.ere are also foreigners in residence — sons of our 



es — and it is hoped there will be more of these 



:i, unfitted to fight, wish to continue their educa- 



Dr. Shipley goes on to warn the pubfic'that all 



young men who are not as yet in the Army or 



y are not shirkers. Some are not eligible for' one 



son or another, but are as anxious to serve their 



c untry as aViy man at the front. It is possible for 



z. al to outstrip justice and charity. Other 



respondents point out that in the newer 



ersities, half, or more than half, of the 



- .dents are under the age of nineteen, and manv are 



\\ omen. It is believed that in Oxford the number of 



undergraduates in residence next term will be reduced 



b\ about one-half, and that everv universitv will pro- 



\Me large contingents of the Officers Training Corps 



the service of the country. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



P.^ris. 

 Vcademy of Sciences, August 17.— M. P. Appell in the 

 I'. — A. Lacroix : The non-volcanic basic rocks of 

 iagascar. The mineralogical and chemical com- 

 mon of the basic rocks are dealt with in the present 

 niunication. Complete chemical analyses of twentv- 

 rocks are given. — Otto Schener : The action of the 

 um emanation upon detonating gas. The combina- 

 tion of hydrogen and oxygen is rapidly brought about 

 bv the radium emanation ; in one experiment the mix- 

 exploded. Both water and hydrogen peroxide are 

 iuced during the reaction, and it is probable that 

 I-' latter is the primary product. — A. Werner: The 

 optical activity of chemical compounds not containing 

 carbon. An account of the preparation of the cobalt- 

 amine sah, [Co(OH),.Co(NH,)j3Brs + 2H,0, not con- 

 taining carbon and possessing a specific rotatory- 

 power. The aqueous solution becomes inactive after 

 tw o hours.— Paul Pascal : The r61e of valency in the 

 additivity of diamagnetism. — N. A. Barbieri : The 

 proximate analysis of wheat. — Gabriel Bertrand and 

 Arthur Compton : A modification of amygdalinase and 

 amygdalase due to age. Under the influence of time 



NO. 2340, VOL. 94] 



; amygdalinase and amygdalase extracted from almonds 

 ; lose their diastatic activity very slowly. The concen- 

 I tration of hydrogen ions most favourable to diastatic 

 j action increases with age. 



I Cape Town. 



j Royal Society of South Africa, July 15.— Dr. L. 

 j Peringuey, president, in the chair. — L. Peringaey : Note 

 j on Palaeolithic implements of large size found in the 

 precincts of Cape Town city. The palaeoliths are 

 mostly of very large size and made of slate indurated 

 by contact with the granite. They were discovered 

 on the lower part of the talus of Signal Hill, within 

 stone-throw of the houses built in this locality. It 

 may be contended that natural agencies could have 

 produced this amygdaloid form were it not for a few 

 examples of •' bouchers " found contiguously, and in 

 which the artefact is patent. The locality is about 

 350 feet from the raised beach ledge which is now 

 Green Point Common. These raised beaches will 

 probably prove the means of obtaining ultimately a 

 key to the age of many of the present geological 

 features. — L. Peringuey : Note on grooved stone slabs, 

 used by the Strand-Looper-San aboriginals. Search 

 in undisturbed kitchen-midden deposits found so 

 numerously within a sixty-mile radius of the littoral 

 of the Union, seldom fails to reveal the presence of 

 flat stones having a shallow- artificial depression in the 

 centre. Nor are these stones always restricted to this 

 area. The depression is often found on each side. 

 Speculations as to their having been used for sharpen- 

 ing blades of assegais or similar weapons are of 

 course untenable. More likely was the theory of the 

 stone having been utilised as a cooking-stone, the 

 depression to receive the gravy. — K H. Barnard : 

 Exhibition of maine invertebrates. The discovery of 

 the Siliceous sponge, Regadrella phoenix, from the deep 

 water off East London, fills a gap in the hitherto 

 known distribution of the species. Aega monoph- 

 thalma and Epimeria comigera were recorded for the 

 first time in the southern hemisphere, a fact which 

 bears on the theory- of bipolarity. — E. J. Goddard : 

 On the anatomy of Ozobranchus branchiatus and its 

 position in the class Hirudinea. The paper deals with 

 the somitic constitution and anatomy of Ozobranchus 

 branchiatus, which must be one of the earliest forms 

 of marine life taken in the Pacific Ocean. The species 

 is, in addition to its historic interest, of significance in 

 regard to its constitution, since it supports the sugges- 

 tion previouslv made by the author, namely, that the 

 Hirudinea and Arthropoda have been evolved from a 

 common ancestor. — Pau! A. van der BijI : Pre- 

 liminary- investigation of the deterioration of maize 

 infected with DipJodia zeae (Schw.) Lev. Maize in- 

 fected with Diplodia zeae has a higher acidity than 

 healthy maize. Infected maize gives Ori's reaction 

 distinctly; it has a higher percentage of ash and of 

 nitrogen. 



Calcutta. 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 5. — H. H. Hayden : 

 Note on the application of the principle of isostatic 

 compensation to the conditions prevailing beneath the 

 Indo-Gangetic alluvium. This note has been written 

 in replv to certain criticisms made by Col. G. P. 

 Lenox Conyngham in "Records of the Survey of 

 India," vol. v., on a paper published by the author in 

 the " Records of the Geological Sur\-ey of India," 

 vol. xliii., part 2, in which he discusses the evidence 

 for a rift 20 miles deep extending all along the foot 

 of or even under the Himalayas. The existence of 

 such a rift was postulated by Col. Burrard to explain 

 the anomalies obsened in the deflection of the plumb 

 line at certain stations in the Himalayas and in the 

 plains south of them. The author reiterates his desire 

 to reconcile the geodetic facts with the generally 



