June 3, 1920] 



NATURE 



441 



new spheres of usefulness in the furtherance of the 

 fruitful arts of peace. Three centuries ago Francis 

 Bacon censured the universities of his own age as the 

 homes of ignorant dogma and sterile disputation. The 

 bad and narrow tradition which was then attacked 

 has long since disappeared, and the circle of academic 

 studies has been steadily enlarged by the pressure of 

 scientific ideas and of practical needs without injury 

 to the claims of a broad and humane education. 

 When estate management, horticulture, and commerce 

 are included in the curriculum, a university can no 

 longer be described as a place in which nothing useful 

 is taught. It is rif*ht and fitting that the new faculty 

 of commerce should be linked to the London School 

 of Economics, which has for many years enjoyed the 

 reputation of being one of the principal centres of 

 economic inquiry in my Empire, and I regard it as 

 no less appropriate that a university situated at the 

 very heart of our commercial system should now 

 resoKe to turn the dispassionate and illuminating eye 

 of science upon the facts and principles of commercial 

 life.'- 



Societies and Academies. 



London, 



Royal Society, May 20.— Sir J. J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Prof. J. N. Collie : Some notes 

 on krypton' and xenon. In the paper the measure- 

 ments of a considerable number of new spectroscopic 

 lines at the red end 'of the sf>ectrum are given; also 

 a curious property of xenon has been noted. In tubes 

 containing xenon, when a strong current from an 

 induction coil is passed, much splashing of the elec- 

 trodes occurs, and the xenon disappears as a gas. 

 What becomes of the xenon is not clear, as it does 

 not seem to be liberated again, either by strongly 

 heating the metallic splash or by dissolving up the 

 splash in suitable solvents. — Sih Ling Ting : Experi- 

 ments on electron emission from hot bodies. Experi- 

 ments on the electron currents from a platinum disc 

 in a uniform field made by Prof. Richardson in 1907-9 

 showed that under the conditions of these experiments 

 the distribution of velocity among the emitted elec- 

 trons was very close to the requirements of Maxwell's 

 law for a gas of equal molecular weight and tempera- 

 ture, but it was noted at the time that rough tests 

 made on the liquid alloy of sodium and potassium, 

 on platinum coated with lime, and on platinum 

 saturated with hydrogen indicated an exceptional 

 behaviour. The further investigation of these sub- 

 stances was postponed owing to technical difficulties 

 and to the pressure of other problems. In 19 14 

 Schottky investigated the electrons emitted from 

 tungsten and carbon, and found a distribution of 

 energy in close accordance with Maxwell's law, except 

 that the mean energy varied between 2 per cent, and 

 2.1; per cent, in excess of that calculated from the 

 filament temperatures. Errors in the estimation of 

 these temperatures and in other directions might, 

 however, have ffccounted for these discrepancies. The 

 present experiments show that deviations from Max- 

 well's law, if not general, are at any rate quite 

 common. With tungsten and platinum in a well- 

 exhausted enclosure a common distribution is one 

 which satisfies the requirements of Maxwell's law, 

 pxceot that the average electron energy is in excess 

 of (frequently about twice as great as) that rorre- j 

 spending to the temperature of the source. Other { 

 cases have been recorded in which the velocitv I 

 di'strihution has a different functional form. — I,, j 

 Silberstein : The aspherical nticleus theory applied to 1 

 NO. 2640, VOL. 105] 



the Balmer series of hydrogen. The general formulae 

 for spectrum emission by atomic systems containing 

 an aspherical nucleus, given by the author in a 

 previous paper {Fh\\. Mag,, vol. xxxix., p. 76), are 

 now applied to hydrogen atoms the nuclei of which 

 are treated as axially symmetrical charged distribu- 

 tions. The asphericity and the value of the Rydberg 

 factor are determined from Mr. Curtis 's observations 

 of Ho up to Hy. The series formula thus resulting 

 (and containing but two constants) is shown to agree 

 well with the six observations. The value of the 

 asphericity coefficient is then used to determine the 

 fine structure of the members or groups of the Balmer 

 series, more especially of the groups Ho and H)8, 

 which are discussed in some detail. — T. E. Stanton, 

 Miss D. Marshall, and Mrs. C. N. Bryant : The condi- 

 tions at the boundary of a fluid in turbulent motion. 

 Observations were made on air flowing through long 

 pipes of circular cross-section at mean rates of flow 

 covering as wide a range as possible below and above 

 the critical speed. Dimensions of pipes used were 

 0-269, 0714, and 12-7 cm. in diameter. Range in 

 experimental conditions varied from vdj v = j\6o to 

 ■yd/v = 325,ooo, where v is mean speed of flow, 

 d diameter of pipe, and v kinematic viscosity of air. 

 Estimation of velocity of fluid in neighbourhood of 

 boundary was made from observations of difference 

 in pressure existing in a small Pitot tube facing the 

 direction of flow, and that in a hole in the wall of the 

 pipe. The Pitot was of rectangular section, external 

 dimensions at orifice being oixo-8 mm. and internal 

 dimensions 005 x 075 mm. By this means observa- 

 tions could be made up to a distance of 0-05 mm. 

 from the wall. For distances less than this, by a 

 special device the wall of the Pitot nearest the wall 

 of the pipe was cut away and its place taken by the 

 wall of the pipe. By tnis means observations could 

 be taken at a distance of 001 mm. from the walls. 

 From a comparison of the curves of velocity distribu- 

 tion near the boundary, obtained from observations 

 with the Pitot and the composite tube, it was found 

 that in the case of the former the interference with 

 the flow near the orifice by side of tube adjacent to 

 boundarv was considerable. Velocity curves obtained 

 from the composite tube, when further corrected for 

 interference, were found to tend to a definite slope at 

 boundarv, which was identical with that which would 

 exist in a layer of fluid in laminar motion and having 

 the same surface friction as that actually measured. 



Linnean Society, May 6. — Dr. A. Smith Wood- 

 ward, president, in the chair.— Dr. G. P. Bidder : 

 Sponges, (i) The fragrance of calcinean sponges. 

 Clathrinidae have a noticeable aromatic scent, probably 

 due to the excretory granules which give their bright 

 colours. These granules especially surround the pores. 

 May this be to attract the spermatozoa? The author 

 has not seen the fine-lashed spermatozoa of Pol^jaeft", 

 but in Sycon has observed a stiff-tailed organism — pos- 

 sibly the result of curious gregarine-like objects pro- 

 duced in cells resembling gonocytes. (2) Syncrypta 

 spongiarutn (wrongly assigned to Pandorina in his 

 MS.) the author gives as a name to the " alga " above- 

 mentioned. He suggests that it is a dangerous para- 

 site, against which Grantia compressa has a successful 

 phagocvtosis, but that certain other sponges are hosts 

 for its'Palmella stage. (3) Notes on the physiology 

 of sponges, (a) Cercids, proposed as a name for 

 the "minute wandering cells." (b) Cessation of the 

 current in sponges, (c) Differences between Calcinea 

 and Calcaronea in their porocytal granules and odour. 

 (d) The excreta of collar-cells are gelatinous globules 

 containing dark particles. Probably Dendv is right in 

 comoaring these to the "spermatozoon-heads " of P0I6- 

 jaeff, which may be the ultimate residue of victorious 



