July 8, 1897] 



NATURE 



237 



cases balancing one another. When we examine the several 

 L^roups, 32 in number, which contribute towards the above totals, 



I remarkable amount of agreement is shown throughout between 

 calculation and observation, such as would raise the art of breed- 

 ing to a science of considerable precision. The most notable ex- 

 ception is in the sixth column of set 2, where the numbers are 92 

 and 79, but, as is shown in the memoir, the observed values run 

 there so irregularly with their neighbours, that they cannot be 

 accepted as true representatives. The causes of heterogeneity 

 undoubtedly include the disturbing effects of close interbreed- 

 ing, because particular hounds of good shape that have also 

 considerable prepotency, are largely bred from. 



The author mentions that he had made experiments with the 

 coefficients, altering them slightly and recalculating, and that 

 he found in every case a notable diminution in the accordance 

 ■ictween calculation and observation ; the test that the law has 



I'.ccessfully undergone thus appears to be even more severe and 

 searching than might have been anticipated. 



It is hardly necessary to insist on the value to breeders of a 

 trustworthy law of heredity. Vast sums are spent annually in 

 rearing pedigree stock of the most varied kinds, such as horses, 

 cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, and other animals, besides flowers and 

 fruits. Certainly no popular view at all resembles that which is 

 put forward and justified in Mr. Galton's memoir, which is 

 epitomised here so far as space admits. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 The Maine State College at Orono will in future be known as 

 he University of Maine. 



Mr. MuiR, of Halifax University, has been appointed to the 

 chair of Psychology in Mount Holyoke College. 



The Victoria University on Saturday last conferred on Sir 

 George Gabriel Stokes, Bart., the honorary degree of D.Sc. 



The Rev. D. J. Thomas has been appointed Principal of the 

 Home and Colonial Training College, Gray's Inn Road, and of 

 the Highbury Training College for Secondary Teachers. 



The establishment of a fresh- water biological station at 

 Hemlock Lake, under the direction of Prof. Charles W. Dodge, 

 has been sanctioned by the Board of Trustees of the University 

 of Rochester, U.S.A. 



The library building of the University of Iowa was on June 

 19 struck by lightning, and destroyed by fire. The physical 

 laboratory was on the first floor of the building. The total loss 

 is estimated at about ^^20,000. 



Among recent appointments may be mentioned : — Dr. Brault, 

 to be Professor of Tropical Diseases at Algiers ; Prof. W. Th. 

 Engelmann, of Utrecht, to be Professor of Physiology at Berlin, 

 in place of the late Prof, du Bois-Reymond. 



The following resignations are announced :— Dr. James 

 Woodrow from the presidency of South Carolina College ; 

 I 'resident Craighead and Profs. Tompkins and Wright from 

 Clemson College ; Dr. W. H. Hervey from the presidency of 

 the Teachers' College, New York. 



According to Science, Prof. Edward L. Nichols, the 



President of the New York State Science Teachers' Associa- 



\ tion, has appointed a committee of nine to consider and report 



S at the next annual meeting of the Association on the following 



't topics:— "Science as an Entrance Requirement to Colleges," 



" Science Teaching in the Secondary Schools," " Nature Study 



in Primary Schools." 



The June issue of the London Technical Education Gazette 



'\ contains particulars of various courses of science lectures which 



' are to be given in the autumn and winter of this year at 



; University and King's Colleges, and at the Batterseaand South- 



' West London Polytechnics. Many of the courses are quite free 



of charge, and as only a limited number of persons can be 



accommodated at some of them, early application is desirable. 



Under the auspices of the American Society for the Ex- 



I tension of University Teaching, a summer meeting is being 



I held at the University of Pennsylvania from July 6 to 30. 



Science announces that two lectures on "Mediaeval Science" 



will be given by Prof. W. F. Magie, and lectures on " Forestry " 



and "Museums" will be delivered by Prof. J. T. Rothrock 



NO. 1445. VOL. 56] 



and Prof. W. P. Wilson respectively. In Psychology courses 

 of lectures are announced by Prof. L. Witmer, Prof. J. M. 

 Baldwin and Prof. E. B. Titchener. Conferences on the 

 teaching of geography will be led by Profs. W. M. Davis and 

 R. E. Dodge. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Symons's Monthly Meteorological Magazine, June. — Hail- 

 storm at Seaford, Sussex, May 30, 1897. It can be very rarely 

 proved that a shower of hailstones as large as a hen's egg has 

 fallen over a considerable area in England, but from letters re- 

 ceived from various observers this is shown to have been the 

 case during thunderstorms which occurred over the east of 

 England on that day between the Isle of Wight and Lincoln. 

 At Seaford several hailstones were picked up measuring 4^ 

 inches round, and at Maidstone the stones were as large as 

 walnuts ; the noise there was so great that the services in nearly 

 all the churches were interrupted. — Heavy rain at Port Elizabeth, 

 Cape Colony, May 5, 1897. The amount measured between 

 8 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. was over 5 inches, and in three days 7*29 

 inches were measured. 



Bulletin de la Social J des Naturalistes de Moscoii, 1S96, No. 

 2. — New tertiary mammals found in Russia, by Mme. Marie 

 Pavloff, with one plate (in French). The most important find 

 is that of a bone which was identified as the lower end of the 

 third metacarpus of Ancfiitheriuju amelianense, Cuvier ; thus 

 being the first Anchitheriuin rest found in Russia. It comes- 

 from the neighbourhood of Nikolaieff, where it was found in a 

 layer containing remains of Mastodon borsoni. The other 

 remains belong to the Pliocene yellow " Balta Sands," and are : 

 Rhinoceros Schleiermacheri (Kaup), Capreolus cusanus (Crois. 

 and Job., teste Boyd Dawkins), and Mastodon turicensis 

 (Schintz). They throw a new light on that interesting forma- 

 tion. — The reptiles of Europe, by Dr. J. Bedriaga, Part ii. 

 Urodela. A most elaborate work (in German), containing full 

 indexes of literature, synoptic tables for determination, and 

 full detailed descriptions of the species (to be continued). 

 — On the structure, &c., of the Nematocysts of Ccelenterata, by 

 N. Iwanzoff, with two plates (in German, concluded). — Polar 

 Land and Tropical Flora, by H. Trautschold (in German). 

 Deichmiiller having shown that the invariability of the rotation- 

 period of the earth is not probable, and a variation in the 

 position of the earth-axi5 having been proved, Prof. Trautschold 

 enumerates the geological data, which render very probable 

 that the position of the axis has been slowly displaced in 

 geological times, and which could not be explained otherwise. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 13. — " Further Note on the Influence 

 of a Magnetic Field on Radiation Frequency." By Prof. Oliver 

 Lodge, F.R.S., assisted by Mr. Benjamin Davies. 



Referring to a former communication of mine, on the subject 

 of Zeenian's discovery, printed on page 513 of the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society for February 11 this year, vol. Ix. No. 

 367, I wish to add an observation to those previously recorded, 

 as I have recently acquired a concave Rowland grating (3^ x 

 l^-inch ruled surface, 14,438 lines to inch, being the one used 

 by Mr. George Higgs), of which the spectra of the first and 

 third orders on one side are very satisfactory. 



It is said on page 513, " If the focussing is sharp enough to 

 show a narrow, dark reversal line down the middle of each 

 sodium line, that dark line completely disappears when the 

 magnet is excited." With the greater optical power now avail- 

 able the dark reversal line is often by no means narrow, and 

 though in some positions of the flame it does still tend to dis- 

 appear or become less manifest when the flame is subjected to a 

 concentrated magnetic field, the reason of its partial disappear- 

 ance is that it is partially reversed again — i.e. that a third bright 

 line, as it were, makes its appearance in the midst of the dark 

 line, giving a triple appearance to each, sodium line. 



The following is a summary of the different appearances that 

 may be seen according to the state of the flame and the strength 

 of the field :— 



At low temperature, and with the flame forward in the field, 

 when each sodium line is sharp and single, magnetism widens it, 



