7« 



NATURE 



[March 28, 191 8 



provided for. Owing to the absence of large cientres ' 

 of population, the problem of how this is to be done 

 is exceptional. Lord Haldane imagined a university of 

 the South, at Southampton, the natural focus, and one 

 farther west. A movement is now on foot for securing 

 the establishment of the latter, to serve the needs of 

 Cornwall, Devon, and parts of Dorsetshire and Somer- 

 setshire. In many ways this corner of England has its 

 own peculiar interests. It comprises the great port of 

 Plymouth, mining centres, fisheries, and large areas 

 devoted to agriculture and orchards. The Royal Albert 

 Memorial College at Exeter is doing excellent work of 

 a university standard, the technical institutes of Ply- 

 mouth and Devonport are fitted for research in ship- 

 building, the Marine Biological Association's labora- 

 tory for problems connected with fisheries, the old- 

 established School of Mines at Camborne for investiga- 

 tion of the metalliferous rocks and industries, the Seale- 

 Hayne College in agriculture; but possibly the strongest 

 of all reasons for multiplying universities is the urgent 

 need for teachers qualified by intellect and training to 

 make a success of the new Education Act to which we 

 *re looking forward, with its enormous extension of 

 secondary and technological education. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 14. — Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — A. W. Conway : An expansion of the 

 point-potential. The general solution of the equation 

 CV-V' = >/', which is infinite at the origin, is of the 

 form f{Ct±r)/r. This is infinite to the first degree. 

 Referred to a different origin, a known expansion 

 gives the series 21Y„U„, where Y^ is a spherical har- 

 monic and U^ is a certain function of t and of the 

 distance to the new origin. This is a generalisation 

 of the Legendre expansion of the inverse distance. In 

 the paper the potential scale or vector of a moving 

 point-charge is expanded in a similar series of spherical 

 harmonics, the only restriction on the motions of the 

 point-charge and of the origin being that the speed of 

 the former must be less than that of light.-^E. G. 

 Bilham : The lunar and solar diurnal variations of water- 

 level in a well at Kew Observatory, Richmond. The 

 mean solar and lunar diurnal inequalities have been 

 computed from two-hourly measurements of the Kew 

 Observatory water-level records over a period of two 

 years. Results are given for each month, for the year, 

 and for groups of months, representing high, inter- 

 mediate, and low levels. Both the lunar and solar 

 diurnal ranges are found to be largely dependent on 

 the level of the water, high levels being associated 

 with large diurnal range. In a paper recently com- 

 municated to the society it was shown tliat a similar 

 relation exists between the mean level and the sensitive- 

 ness to the effects of barometric pressure. There are 

 well-marked lunar and solar semi-diurnal oscillations 

 throughout the year, the amplitude varying with the 

 level in a manner similar to the diurnal range. In both 

 cases the phase also varies with the level, the effect 

 being most pronounced in the lunar results. The times 

 of occurrence of the' maxima become later as the water- 

 level falls. In comparison with the total oscillations in 

 the neighbouring River Thames, the well shows larger 

 solar diurnal movements than were to be anticipated 

 from the magnitude of the lunar oscillations. If, how- 

 ever, allowance is made for the effects of the solar 

 diurnal variation of barometric pressure, the residual 

 effects attributed to the solar tides are of the expected 

 order of magnitude. 



Faraday Society, February 14.— Prof. C. A. Edwards 

 in the chair. — H. Etchells : Applications of electric fur- 

 NO. 2526, VOL. lOl] 



nace methods to industrial processes. The remarkable 

 growth of electric furnace industries during the war 

 was due not only to the greater output demanded, but 

 also to the fact that the electric furnace enabled us to use 

 raw materials formerly considered inferior for the quality 

 of product desired. A plea was made for the greater 

 development of the resistance furnace, which, from 

 the electrical point of view, was ideal. In the author's 

 opinion, the electric furnace is not fulfilling its highest 

 function in the foundry when used for simply melting 

 steel scrap, to turn out an unrefined product on an acid 

 lining. Typical wave-form diagrams of the chief types 

 of furnace were shown, and considerable emphasis was 

 laid on the steadiness of load produced by the buffering 

 effect of bottom electrode furnaces. The unsatisfactory 

 performance of refractory lining materials at present 

 in use was commented upon, and the author staited it 

 as his belief that satisfactory linings would not be 

 available until electrically fused refractories were pur 

 on the market.— J. Bibby : Electric steel refining fur- 

 naces. A system is described by which a four-<phase fur- 

 nace with a bottom electrode, such as is calletl for as 

 furnaces get larger, can be run on the ordinary three- 

 phase supply system. — 'A. P. M. Fleming and F. E. 

 Hill : Electric furnace control. An important feature 

 of electric furnaces is that by suitable control the tem- 

 perature can be accurately and quickly regulated. The 

 paper sets forth the general 45rinciples on which. such 

 control is based. 



Royal Microscopical Society, February 20. — Mr. J. E. 

 Barnard, president, in the chair. — Col. H. E. Rawson : 

 Illustrations of photo-synthetic action induced in living 

 cells. The author exhibited Tropaeolum majus, in 

 which changes of colour and structure were produced 

 by a' system of selective screening from an English 

 sun at selected intervals of daylight. Low sun of the 

 early morning fostered the yellow colouring matter, 

 and the highest sun of midday the violets, blues, and 

 purples, while middle sun stimulated the reds. The 

 colour of the foliage also changed, as well as the lobing 

 of the leaves. The scent of the flowers varied with the 

 colour. Changes of s'tructure also appeared, which 

 became identified with low, middle, and high sun, and 

 could be repeated at will. Flowers grew with six, 

 seven, and eight petals, instead of the normal five, and 

 their shapes were altered. Spurs were formed to ex- 

 tend a petal instead of a sepal, and the number was 

 increased to four. Colour changes depended upon the 

 form, size, and number of the epidermal papillae, 

 the turgidity of the living cells, and the concentration 

 of their contents. In the leaf-division of T. tuberosum 

 a precipitation of the cell contents was first observed, 

 by which the cord conveying the nutrition to the margin 

 became blocked.— F. I. G. Rawlins : The technique of 

 the vertical illuminator. It was found unnecessary to 

 use objectives in special short mounts with the vertical 

 illuminator up to and including one-sixth powers, pro- 

 vided the objectives were corrected for work on un- 

 covered objects. Levelling of the specimen was best 

 done bv pressing the specimen face downwards upon a 

 piece of plate glass with a small quantity of plasticine 

 on a common 3-in. by i-in. slip. The latter was rested 

 on the two edges of an accurately cut ring, and held 

 there until the preparation had become embedded in 

 the (plasticine. For preserving metal specimens a thin 

 coating of a concentrated solution of guncotton in amyl 

 acetate was recommended — as a preventive against rust. 

 This was dropped on to the surface, and the section 

 tilted until the drop found its own level, and set quite 

 evenly to a thin laver, sufficiently transparent for use 

 with a one-sixth objective. The varnish must not be 

 applied with a brush, or ridges resulted which gave 

 brilliant interference colours when viewed under the 



