362 



NATURE 



[February 7, 1901 



temperature at which, on our present theoretical conceptions, 

 molecular movement ceases and the entire range of chemical 

 and physical activities with which we are acquainted either 

 cease or, it may be, assume an entirely new rdle. This tempera- 

 ture, again, is far below that at which any chemical reaction 

 is known to take place. The fact, then, that life can continue to 

 exist under such conditions affords new giround for reflection 

 as to whether, after all, life is dependent for its continuance 

 on chemical reactions. We, as biologists, therefore follow wiih 

 the keenest interest Prof Dewar's heroic attempts to reach the 

 absolute zero of temperature ; meanwhile his success has already 

 led us to reconsider many of the main issues of the problem. 

 And by having afforded us a new realm in which to experiment, 

 Prof. Dewar has placed in our hands an agent of investigation 

 from the effective use of which we who are working at the 

 subject at least hope to gain a little further insight into the 

 great mystery of life itself. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The election to the vacancy on the Council of 

 the Senate, caused by the resignation of Bishop Ryle, will take 

 place on February 8. 



Mr. Stanley Gardiner has presented to the University an 

 ethnological collection of 300 objects from the Maldives and 

 Minikoi. The collection contains many valuable specimens. 



Mr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., Secretary to the Meteorological 

 Council, will give in the Cavendish laboratory a course of four 

 lectures on the Physics of the Atmosphere, at 4. 30, on February- 

 7, 14, 21, and 28. 



The Special Board for Biology recommend that the annual 

 grant of 100/. shall be made by the University to Dr. Dohrn's 

 Zoological Station at Naples for a further period of five years. 



The Senate has sanctioned the obtaining of specifications and 

 tenders for the erection of the Humphry Museum as a portion of 

 the new Medical School Buildings. 



The following appointments have recently been made at the 

 Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine : — Dr. S. G. Hedin, of 

 the University of Lund, Sweden, has been appointed head of 

 the department of pathological chemistry ; Mr. J. Beresford 

 Leathes, lecturer in physiology at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical 

 School, assistant in the same department ; and Mr. W. J. Young, 

 of the Owens College, Manchester, assistant in the chemical 

 department. Drs. Moore, Petrie and Mackenzie have been 

 elected to fill the three research studentships, the last-named 

 gentleman being appointed to the Grocers' Company research 

 studentship of the jenner Institute. 



At the meeting of the London County Council on Monday, 

 the Chairman announced that a letter had been received from 

 Mr. Horniman, a member of the Council, offering on behalf of 

 his father, Mr. Horniman, M. P. , to the people of London a gift of 

 great value, probably representing from 50,000/. to 100,000/. 

 The letter was as follows : — " Dear Mr. Dickinson, — I have 

 been empowered by my father, Mr. Horniman, M.P., who is now 

 travelling in the East, to offer as a free gift to the people of 

 London some fifteen acres of freehold land, together with the 

 museum which has just been erected at the cost of about 40,000/. 

 In it are placed the large art and natural history collections 

 gathered by Mr. Horniman during the last twenty-five years. 

 The property is situated close to Lordship Lane Station on the 

 South Eastern and Chatham Railway and about three-quarters 

 of a mile fropn Forest Hill Station on the London, Brighton and 

 South Coast Railway. It consists of : — ( i ) A large house known 

 as Surrey Mount and some nine and a half acres of pleasure 

 grounds on the summit and slope of a hill commanding ex- 

 tensive views over south-eastern and south-western London. 

 The site is a suitable one for a park or recreation ground, 

 and has been open to the public during the summer months 

 for four years. Over 200,000 persons visited it during fourteen 

 months in 1897 and 1898. (2) The museum, a stone building 258 

 ft. long by 61 ft. wide, with a superficial area of 16,485 square feet. 

 (3) Six residences, occupying some 5^ acres of ground, now let 

 on leases of diverse terms and bringing in an income of about 

 600/. per annum, which could be used for the maintenance of 

 the museum until the tenancies fall in, when the land could be 

 added to the recreation ground and additions made to the 



museum if necessary. There is also a library of 5,500 volumes 

 of travel, natural history, &c., and a Biblical library of 700 

 volumes, containing many early and rare editions. Notwith- 

 standing the very inadequate way in which the collections were 

 formerly housed, and the fact that they were open to the public 

 on but two or three days a week, over 455,000 persons visited 

 them in four years, averaging 660 per day in the last year. Mr. 

 Horniman considers the time has now arrived when the museum 

 and adjoining property will be more useful if vested. in a public 

 body, and he has much pleasure in offering the same to the 

 London County Council as a place of public recreation and 

 instruction. Beyond a condition that the museum and grounds 

 are to be maintained in a proper condition arid dedicated to the 

 public for ever there are few or no conditions attached to the 

 proposed gilt, and I am sure there are none that the Council 

 could not readily accept. — Yours faithfully, Emslie John 

 Horniman." It was resolved that the offer be accepted, and that 

 the thanks of the Council be conveyed to Mr. Horniman for 

 his munificent gift. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



Wiedemann's Annalen der /"/^jj/^, January. — Double refrac- 

 tion in glass plates vibrating transversely, by W. Konig. In a 

 long glass plate or rod vibrating transversely, there is at the 

 nodes double refraction of a peculiar kind. This has been 

 subjected to a detailed experimental study, and the results dis- 

 cussed fully from the theoretical point of view. The author has 

 been successful in obtaining photographic records of these 

 phenomena, copies of which accompany the paper. — On the 

 tones produced by vibrating sheets of gas in flames, by V. 

 Henson. A photographic study of vibrating flames. — On the 

 absorption of light in coloured glass, by R. Zgismondy. The 

 colour of a glass, and hence its absorption spectrum, depends, 

 not only upon the nature of the colouring material present, but 

 also upon the composition of the colourless glass itself. 

 Experiments were therefore carried out with twelve glasses of 

 different composition, varying from pure sodium and potassium 

 silicate on the one hand to pure lead silicate on the other. 

 Borax and fused boron trioxide were also examined. The 

 colouring oxides included the oxides of copper, chromium, 

 cobalt, nickel, manganese, iron and uranium. For these 

 glasses the constant A=E/^S was determined, where S is the 

 specific gravity of the glass, g the number of milligrams of the 

 colouring oxide per gram of glass, and E the extinction coeffi- 

 cient. The results are expressed graphically. — On the decre- 

 ment of the electrical vibrations on the charging of condensers, 

 by A. F. Sundell and Hj. Tallqvist. Although in many 

 researches on damped vibrations the experimental figures for 

 the time of oscillation agree well with those deduced theoreti- 

 cally, in the case of the decrement of these vibrations the 

 agreement is either very rough, or there is no agreement 

 at all. In the present series of experiments it is shown 

 that if the necessary corrections are introduced, the experi- 

 mental and theoretical results agree exactly. — On the melting 

 point of gold, by L. Holborn and A. Day (see p. 330). — 

 On the expansion of some metals at high temperatures, by L. 

 Holborn and A. Day. The coefficients of expansion of 

 platinum, palladium, silver, 20 per cent, platinum-iridium 

 nickel, constantin, wrought iron and steel were determined for 

 temperatures between 0° and 1000° C, where the melting-points 

 allowed. —On the irregularity of the Weston cadmium element 

 with I4'3 per cent, amalgam in the neighbourhood of 0° C, by 

 W. Jaeger. It is shown that in the neighbourhood of 0° C. the 

 irregular variations of this cell may amount to as much as two 

 millivolts, although at 10° C. different elements agree to within 

 a few tenths of a millivolt. — Communication to the knowledge 

 of the phenomena in induction apparatus, by K. K. Johnson.— 

 On surface tension, -by H. Hulshof. The necessary existence of 

 surface tension is deduced from the assumption of a continuous 

 density variation in the capillary layer. — On the numerical rela- 

 tion between the two elasticity constants in isotropic media, 

 according to the molecular theory, by W. Voigt.- — On the elec- 

 trical analogue to the Zeeman effect, by W. Voigt. — On the 

 change of the form of vibration of light when propagated 

 through a dispersive and absorbing medium, by W. Voigt. — 

 Calculation of the conductivity of gases, by J. Stark. — A criti- 

 cism of the mode of derivation of Wien's spectrum equation, by 

 E. Jahnke, O. Lummer and E. Pringsheim. — On the history of 

 telegraphy, by L. Lewin. 



NO. 1632, VOL. 63] 



