8o 



NATURE 



[September 27, 1917 



We learn from the Times that the members ap- 

 pointed in India to the Calcutta University Commis- 

 sion are Sir Ashutosh Mukharji, Vice-Chancellor of 

 the Calcutta University ; Mr. W. W. Hornell, Director 

 of Public Instruction, Bengal; and Dr. Zia-ud-din- 

 Ahmed, of the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College, 

 Aligarh. The chairman of the commission will be 

 Dr. Michael E. Sadler, who will be associated with 

 three other members appointed in the United Kingdom, 

 viz. Mr. P. J. Hartog, Prof. Ramsay Muir, and Prof. 

 J. W. Gregory. The general terms of reference to the 

 commission are to inquire into the working of the 

 present organisation of "the Calcutta University and its 

 affiliated colleges, the standards, the examinations, 

 and the distribution of teachers ; to consider at what 

 places and in what manner provision should be rnade 

 in Bengal for teaching and research for persons above 

 the secondary-school age; to examine the suitability 

 of the present situation and constitution of the Univer- 

 sity and make such suggestions as may be necessary 

 for their modification ; to make recommendations as 

 to the qualifications to be demanded of students on 

 their admission to the University, as to the value to 

 be attached outside the University to the degrees con- 

 ferred by it, and as to the relations which should exist 

 between the University and its colleges or departments 

 and between the University and the Government ; and 

 to recommend any change of constitution, of adminis- 

 tration, and of educational policy which may appear 

 desirable. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, September lo.— M. Paul Appell 

 in the chair.— H. Le Chatelier and E. L. Dupuy : The 



heterogeneity of steels. A modification of Stead's etch- 

 ing reagent is suggested, with full details of use. The 

 macroscopic structure is well brought out by this re- 

 agent. — P. Termier : The posthumous notes of Albert 

 Cochain. — H. Duport : Orthogonal systems. — P. Hum- 

 bert : The piriform surface.^M. Frectiet : The notion of 

 neighbourhood in abstract ensembles.- — L. Launoy : The 

 delicacy of the general method of extracting alkaloids 

 from water. Working on 200 c.c. of solution, making 

 alkaline -with sodium carbonate, and with chloroform 

 as the extracting solvent, o-oooi gram of alkaloid 

 (7 in 2,000,000) can be detected. With aconitine one- 

 half of this proportion has been detected. — M. Travers : 

 A new volumetric method for the estimation of molyb- 

 denum and vanadium in steels. The molybdic acid is 

 reduced with titanous chloride, the excess being deter- 

 mined by means of a ferric salt in the usual way. The 

 same reagent is applied to the estimation of vanadium. 

 — L. Gentil and L. Joleaud : The existence of trans- 

 ported strata in the region of Bizerte (Tunis).— M. 

 Baudouin : The wisdom tooth, which varies with the 

 nature of the food, is not tending to disappear. — P. 

 "Wintrebert : The. automatism of the first movements of 

 the body in Scyllium canicula. — H. J. Hamburger and 

 D. J. de Waard : The influence of radio-active sub- 

 stances on the permeability of the kidneys to glycose. 

 The retention of some glycose in the kidney has been 

 found to depend on the presence of small proportions 

 of potassium saJts. In the absence of a salt of potass- 

 ium, under the conditions of the experiment, no glycose 

 is retained by the kidney. As potassium is the only 

 radio-active element normally present in the body fluids, 

 other radio-active substances were tried in the place 

 of the potassium. It was found that uranium nitrate, 

 radium bromide, and mesothorium could replace the 

 potassium, if the strengths of the solutions were cor- 

 rectly adjusted. — F. d'Herelle : An invisible micro- 

 organism antagonistic to the dysenteric bacilli. — A. 

 Lumiere : The use of iodide of starch in the treatment 



NO. 2500, VOL. 100] 



of infected wounds. In the treatment of mfected 

 wounds the problem is to find a substance wftich, 

 sufficiently stable and active, must not be immediately 

 destroyed by the tissues, and of which the action ought 

 to persist for several hours, or even days. Iodide of 

 starch appears to meet all these requirements, and in 

 the strengths suggested is not an irritant. — J. Danysz : 

 The origin of the specific affinities between pathogenic 

 microbial products and the animal organism. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Gravitation : Discovery of its Cause and Mechan- 

 ism. By H. Jamyn Brooks. Pp. 48. (Bristol: J.W. 

 Arrowsmith, Ltd.) is. net. 



Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis. Fourth 

 edition. Vol. ix. Edited by W. A. Davis. Pp. 

 xviii-f836. (London: J. and A. Churchill.) 305. net. 



Carnegie Institution. Researches of the Depart- 

 ment of Terrestrial Magnetism. Vol. iii. Ocean 

 Magnetic Observations, 1905-16, and Reports on 

 Special Researches. By L. A. Bauer and others. 

 Pp. vii-f445. (Washington: Carnegie Institution.) 



A German-English Dictionary for Chemists, By 

 Dr. A. M. Patterson. Pp. xvi + 316. (New York: J. 

 Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, 

 Ltd.) gs. 6d. net. 



DIARY OF SOCIETIES. 



MONDAY, October i. 

 Society of Engineers, at 5.3o.^Sewage and its Precipitation ; Further 

 Experiments : R. Brown. 



WEDNESDAY, Octobhr 3. 

 Entomological Societv, at 8. — Further Notes on Recapitulatory Atti- 

 tudes in Lepidoptera : Dr. T. A. Chapman. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Education Reform. By W. A. T. . 61 



Experimental Embryology. By E. W. M 62 



Our Bookshelf 63 



Letters to the Editor:— 



Shell-shock and its Lessons.— Prof. G. Elliot Smith, 



F.R.S.,T.H. Pear; SirRobert Armstrong-Jones 64 

 The Convolvulus Hawk-moth.— Right Hon. Sir 



Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S 66 



Vitality of Lice. — Henry Cohen 66 



The Autumn Moon. By Sir G. Greenhill, F.R.S. . 67 

 The Resources and Production of Iron and other 



Metalliferous Ores 68 



The Efforts of French Industry during the War. 



By E. S. Hodgson 69 



Notes 70 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



A New Comet 7^ 



An Empirical Law of Planetary Distances 74 



Eclipsing Variables . . . 74 



The Egyptian Oil Field. ByJ. ^V. G. . ... 74 

 The Statistics of the Dairy. (Wit/i Diagram.) By 



Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson, C.B., F.R.S 75 



Agriculture in Madras ... 76 

 Science and Industry in South Africa. By Prof. 



John Orr .... . 76 



University and Educational Intelligence • • 79 



Societies and Academies 80 



Books Received 80 



Diary of Societies 80 



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Advertisements and business letters to be addressed to the 

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Editorial Communications to ike Editor. 

 Telegraphic Address : Phusis, London. 

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