May 27, 1897] 



NATURE 



93 



has been appointed Naturalist to the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion, Plymouth. 



The Drapers' Company have asked Mr. Jackson, the University 

 architect, to inquire whether, for the sum of I5,cxx)/., anew 

 building can be erected to accommodate the Radcliffe (Scientific) 

 Library. 



Before the end of the present term an election will be made to 

 the Oxford Biological Scholarship at Naples. Candidates must 

 he graduates of the University, and are requested to send their 

 names to the Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the 

 I niversity Museum before the end of May. 



An examination for Scholarship and Exhibition is announced 

 ' take place at Wadham College on December 6. No 

 papers in Natural Science will be set, but in the election to one 

 nt the Exhibitions preference will be given to any candidate who 

 shall undertake to read for honours in Natural Science, and to 

 proceed to a Degree in Medicine. 



Cambridge. — The Grace for confirming the resolution of the 

 Syndicate on titular degrees for women was rejected by 1707 

 votes to 661. The opposition of the majority of the residents 

 has thus been unmistakably endorsed by the non-resident mem- 

 bers of the Senate. It is probable that the question of admitting 

 women to the membership of the University, whether by stages 

 or directly, will not again be raised. The suggestion that 

 powers should be obtained enabling the women's colleges to 

 confer degrees on their own students will now have a better 

 chance of calm consideration. The University might long con- 

 tinue to teach and examine the women students, while the titles 

 which have been sought by them as necessary for their profes- 

 sional success might in this way be acquired without endangering 

 the peace of Cambridge as a place of education for men. 



Prof. Rticker, Sec. R.S., will give the Rede Lecture on 

 "Terrestrial Magnetism," in the Senate House, on Wednesday, 

 June 9, at nt)on. 



The General Board of Studies propose to establish a Univer- 

 sity Lectureship in Experimental Psychology, including the 

 physiology of the senses, at a stipend of 50/. a year. The 

 appointment will probably be made next month. 



Prof. Hughes, F.R.S., and Mr. P. Lake, of St, John's 

 College, are appointed to represent the University at the Inter- 

 national Geological Congress to be held at St. Petersburg in the 



Field-Marshal Sir John Lintorx Simmons, G.C.B., 

 will distribute the prizes to the students of the Charing Cross 

 Hospital Medical School, on Wednesday, June 2, at 4 o'clock. 



Mrs. Josiah M. Fiske has given to Barnard College, of New 

 York City, one hundred and forty thousand dollars for a new 

 dormitory. Other gifts of considerable aggregate value have 

 also been recently received by the college. Gifts are constantly 

 pouring in on Columbia University ; and the new buildings for 

 these two institutions are rapidly rising on the new site on 

 Morningside Heights. 



The following are among recent appointments :^Dr. E. 

 Fischer to be full Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Berne, and Director of the Botanical Gardens there ; Dr. 

 ( j. Jiiger to be Assistant Professor of Theoretical Physics in the 

 University of Vienna ; Dr. F. Grafe to be Assistant Professor 

 of Mathematics in the Polytechnic Institute at Darmstadt ; Dr. 

 F. Deichmiiller, Privat-docent in Astronomy and Observer in 

 the Bonn Observatory, to be Assistant Professor. 



The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education are 

 taking steps to ascertain the number of pupils now receiving 

 secondary education in England in endowed, proprietary, and 

 private schools. It is not proposed to include in the return 

 any pupils who are only receiving instruction in occasional 

 classes or evening schools ; and technical institutes (except in 

 so far as they have secondary day schools) and University 



lieges will fall outside the scope of the inquiry. 



In the House of Lords, on Friday, Lord Norton asked the 

 Lord President whether he hoped to be able to introduce a Bill 

 on secondary education this Session ; or, if not, early next year. 

 The Duke of Devonshire replied that he did not- entertain any 

 hope that Parliament would be asked to deal seriously with the 

 subject in the course of the present Session. He hoped, how- 

 ever, that there would be laid before Parliament a Bill the main 

 proposals of which were contained in the Bill of last year, so 



NO. 1439. VOL. 56] 



far as they related to secondary education, with some amend- 

 ments and additions, in order that the general views of the 

 Government might be once more placed before the country, 

 and that the country might be in a position to consider them 

 during the vacation. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 The most important pajier in the numbers of the fonrnal of 

 Botany for April-May is the completion of Mr. I. H. Burrill's 

 very interesting notes on the fertilisation of spring-flowering 

 plants on the Yorkshire coast. A series of careful observations 

 are recorded on the species of the insect- visitors and the fre- 

 quency of their visits. — Welwitsch's African collections are still 

 affording to Messrs. W. and G. S. West a large number of new 

 species of desmids. 



In the Nitovo Giornale Botanico Italiano for April are only 

 two short papers on structural botany. — Sig. I. Baldrati de- 

 scribes the peculiar excrescences (pe/ht.'e) found on the bulbs of 

 certain species of Allittm, which he decides to be of a foliar 

 character.— Sig. E. Matteucci speaks of the structure of the 

 corky spots in leaves, which are of the nature of lenticels. — The 

 remaining papers are descriptive. 



The papers in the numbers of the Btillettino tic la Sot^ 

 Botanica Italiana for February- April are also mostly descrip- 

 tive. — Sig. G. Mattej discourses on the red spots found on the 

 leaves and petals of a number of plants, and of the gum resinous 

 substance which they contain. — Sig. L. Macchiati returns to 

 the vexed question of the peculiar structure of the seeds of 

 Vicia narbonensis, which he declares to present marked, 

 differences from those of allied species. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, April 8.— "Kathode and Lenard Rays." 

 By J. A. McClelland, M.A. Received March 15. 



The experiments described in this paper have to do partly 

 with kathode, and partly with Lenard rays. 



An arrangement is described by which the charge of electricity 

 carried by the kathode rays can be directly measured, and the 

 same method is then applied to the Lenard rays, which are 

 found to carry a similar negative charge. 



In one set of experiments the Lenard rays are examined inside 

 the tube, the kathode rays being allowed to fall upon a screen 

 of thin aluminium, and the charge that is carried by the Lenard 

 rays on the further side of the aluminium measured. 



In a second set of experiments, a window of oiled silk is 

 placed in the vacuum tube in the path of the kathode rays, 

 and here, again, the charge cawied by the Lenard rays outside 

 the tube can be detected and measured. 



It can also be shown that there is a negative discharge fronii 

 the window by placing a plate of ebonite opposite the window,. 

 and dusting it over, after exposure, with minium and sulphur. 

 The well-known negative figure is produced on the plate. 



The Lenard rays appear to be simply a secondary propaga- 

 tion of kathode rays, produced by the rapid pulsations of nega- 

 tively charged particles up to the aluminium screen. Measure- 

 ments of the amount of electricity carried by these charged 

 particles show that the electrostatic effects produced when they 

 are stopped at the screen are sufficient to produce discharge on 

 the further side of the screen, and a secondary stream of 

 kathode rays. All the observed properties of Lenard rays 

 admit of explanation on the theory that, like the kathode rays, 

 they consist of a stream of charged particles. 



In the paper an arrangement is described to measure the 

 portion of the current actually carried by the kathode rays in a 

 vacuum tube. With the tube used, even at a pressure at which 

 there was little phosphorescence, a considerable fraction (more 

 than 1/50) of the whole discharge was carried away from the 

 kathode by the negative rays, while at lower pressures these 

 rays carried a large portion of the discharge. 



Chemical Society, April 29. — Prof. Dewar, President, in 

 the chair. — The following papers were read : — On the explosion 

 of chlorine peroxide with carbonic oxide, by H. B. Dixon and 

 E. J. Russell, On exploding a mixture of carbonic oxide and 

 chlorine peroxide, less of the carbonic oxide is burnt as the 



