22 



NA TURE 



[May. 5, 1898 



stated that, so far as these additional experiments have been 

 carried, the first results have been borne out in regard to the 

 advantage of using a suitable mixture, and in showing the 

 importance of making an accurate analysis of the exhaust gases. 

 The discussion which took place on the presentation of the 

 report did not add materially to information on the subject. 

 Some of the criticisms were very wide of the mark, more especially 

 in regard to one point, upon which much stress was laid, viz. 

 the leakage of gas through the indicator. This was supposed 

 by some speakers to be sufficient to vitiate the value of the ex- 

 periments, but, according to Prof. Burstall's tests, made in order to 

 elucidate this point, the consumption of gas by the indicator was 

 so minute as to be imperceptible. It was stated during the dis- 

 cussion by Mr. Burstall, a brother of the author, that, according 

 to calculation, if diagrams were taken every five minutes, when 

 ' running at 200 revolutions, and if the whole of the gas escaped 

 on the stroke, the loss would be one- fiftieth of i per cent. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — A combined examination of non-resident can- 

 didates for open scholarships, exhibitions, &c., will be held at 

 Trinity College, Clare College and Trinity Hall, beginning on 

 November i. At Trinity College there will be offered for 

 competition about ten scholarships, about ten exhibitions, and 

 about three sizarships. Scholarships include (i) major scholar- 

 ships, of the value of 80/. a year, (2) minor scholarships, of the 

 value of 75/. a year or of 50/. a year. Exhibitions are generally 

 of the value of 40/. a year. Scholarships and exhibitions are 

 tenable for two years from the commencement of residence. 

 Sizarships are of the value of about \Qol. a year (namely, a 

 payment in money of 80/., and a remission of College fees and 

 dues to the extent of about 20/.). They are tenable until the 

 expiration of nine terms from the commencement of residence, 

 unless the holder is previously elected to a major scholarship. 

 Candidates for sizarships must send satisfactory evidence to one 

 of the Tutors that they are in need of the assistance given to 

 sizars. The siibjects of examination will be classics, mathe- 

 matics, natural sciences, moral sciences, and history. A can- 

 didate may take any one of these subjects, or any combination 

 of subjects so far as the arrangement of the papers in the ex- 

 amination permits. At Clare College about eight scholarships of 

 values varying from 80/. to 40/., and at Trinity Hall six 

 scholarships at least, ranging between the same values, will 

 be awarded. These scholarships are offered for proficiency in 

 classics, or mathematics, or natural science, or history. De- 

 serving candidates who do not attain the standard for these 

 scholarships may be awarded exhibitions of the annual value of 

 30/. Forms of application for admission to the examination may 

 be obtained from any of the Tutors of the Colleges named. 



In the House of Commons on Thursday, in reply to a question 

 whether it was the intention of the Government to take the 

 second reading of the London University Commission Bill before 

 Whitsuntide, Mr. Balfour said he could not give any definite 

 promise in view of the present state of public business, but he 

 would not discourage the hope that they might have a chance 

 of reaching the Bill as early as some time before Whitsuntide. 



A Parliamentary paper issued by the Science and Art 

 Department states that the total amount expended on technical 

 education during the year 1895-96 in the United Kingdom was 

 787,467/., and that the estimated total expenditure for the year 

 1896-97 was 847,62c/., exclusive of the sums allocated to tech- 

 nical education under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act, 

 1889. The total amount of the residue received under the 

 Local Taxation Act by counties and county boroughs in England 

 in 1895-96 was 775,944/., of which 616,607/. was appropriated 

 to educational purposes, and 159,336/. to relief of rates, the 

 latter sum including 121,558/. devoted by the London County 

 Council to that purpose. In Wales the whole of the residue 

 grant of 37,236/. paid to thirteen counties and three county 

 boroughs is devoted to intermediate and technical education. 

 The amount of residue received by Scottish authorities was 

 38,262/., of which 28,999/. was apportioned to technical educa- 

 tion, and 9158/. to relief of rates. In Ireland the residue is 

 not applicable to technical education, but eleven local authorities 

 are making grants out of the rates for that purpose. 



NO. 1488, VOL. 58] 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journil of Mathemalics, vol. xx. No. 2. — On the 

 focal surfaces of the congruences of tangents to a given surface, 

 by A. Pell. This paper is based upon two theorems given by 

 Darboux (" Theorie generale des Surfaces," vol. iii. p. 121) and 

 Koenigs (" Sur les proprietes infinitesimal de I'espace regie "),viz. : 

 the locus of the "centres of geodesic curvature of lines of curvature 

 of any surface is the edge of regression of the developable sur- 

 face, generated by the tangent planes of the surface at all points 

 of the lines of curvature, and the edges of regression of the 

 developable surfaces of a congruence form two families of curves 

 on the focal surfaces (say Sa and Su corresponding to the focal 

 surfaces A and B), the osculating planes of which are tangent to 

 the surfaces B and A respectively, and the points of contact 

 describe on these surfaces two families of conjugate lines 

 Sa and Su. Other theorems discussed are due to T. Caronnet 

 {Comptes rendtis, 1892), E. Cosserat {C.K., 1894) and A. 

 Demoulin {C./\., 1894). — Displacements depending on one, two 

 and three parameters in a space of four dimensions, byT. Craig. 

 This is a concise generalisation to a space of four dimensions of 

 the kinematical methods developed by Darboux in the first two 

 volumes of his " Theorie generale des Surfaces." The author em- 

 ploys Poincare's nomenclature (cf. " Sur les residus des integrales 

 doubles," Acta Math., t. 9, p. 385).— Further researches in the 

 theory of quintic equations, by Emory McClintock. The paper 

 contains four parts. The first part is a preliminary classification 

 of quintics into reducible and irreducible, and again into re- 

 solvable and unresolvable quintics. The second is a simplified 

 restatement of the author's earlier discoveries. The third con- 

 tains a presentation of the necessary form of the coefficients of 

 the general resolvable quintic ; and the last part is occupied with 

 the development of a theorem according to which any given 

 resolvable quintic engenders another for which the author's 

 sextic resolvent has the same rational value. The memoir was 

 read at the Toronto meeting of the American Mathematical 

 Society in August last. 



Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, April. — The 

 climate of Paris, by M. J. Jaubert. This is an account of an 

 interesting and useful book by the meteorologist of the Mont- 

 souris Observatory, compiled from all available sources in the Paris 

 district. The mean temperature at the National Observatory 

 is 5i°-3, but in the suburbs it is less, e.g.. Pare St.'.Maur, 5o''-o. 

 The lowest temperature recorded in the neighbourhood was 

 - I7°'5, in December 1871, and the highest was ioi°-i in 1874 

 and 1 88 1. Fogs are rather frequent, about forty in a year, but 

 a foggy day is defined as one on which objects at a distance 

 of a mile cannot be distinguished. The mean rainfall is about 

 22 inches, but the amount varies in different parts of the city. 

 About thirty thunderstorms occur in a year, mostly in summer. 

 Very little hail falls, and the stones are seldom more than f of 

 an inch in diameter. The yearly average amount of cloud is 



6-0. Results of meteorological observations at Camden Square 



for forty years, 1858-97. The average rainfall was 171 inches ; 

 the amount last March was i '46 inches. The mean of all the 

 highest shade temperatures was 6i°*9, and the mean of all 

 the lowest minimum temperatures was 25°"3. In March last 

 the absolute extremes were 59° 'i and 25° i, while the tempera- 

 ture on the grass fell below freezing point on twenty-four nights. 



Bollettino della Societa Sismologica Italiana, vol. iii. No. 7. 

 —Some modifications of the doubly sensitive electric seismo- 

 scope, and instructions for its installation and working, by G. 

 Agamennone. — The seismic recorder with increased velocity 

 on the occasion of the earthquake of September 21, 1897, by 

 P. Tacchini.— Diurnal movement of the obelisk of Washington, 

 by E. Oddone. — Notices of earthquakes recorded in Italy 

 (May 14-23, 1897), the most important being an elaborate 

 account of the earthquake of the Tyrrhenian Sea on May 15. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 10.—" On the Rotation of Plane of 

 Polarisation of Electric Waves by a Twisted Structure." By 

 Jagadis Chunder Bose, M.A., D.Sc, Professor of Physical 

 Science, Presidency College, Calcutta. Communicated by Lord 

 Rayleigh, F.R.S. 



" On the Production of a ' Dark Cross ' in the field of Electro- 

 magnetic Radiation." By Jagadis Chunder Bose, M.A., D.Sc. 

 Professor of Physical Science, Presidency College, Calcutta. 

 Communicated by Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. 



