26o 



NA TURE 



[July 15, 1897 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The Great Hall of the Northern Polytechnic Institute is 

 being opened to-day (Thursday) by the Lord Mayor. 



The Rev. Dr. Thorburn, formerly Science Master in the 

 Royal Grammar School, Sheffield, has been appointed Head 

 Master of the Grammar School, Odiham, Hants. 



The sum of 2000/. has been offered to the Smith College for 

 the erection of a building for the scientific laboratories, on con- 

 dition that the sum of iboo/. is subscribed by the alumnae. 



Dr. Karl Toldt, Professor of Anatomy in the Medical 

 Faculty of Vienna, has been elected Rector of the University 

 for the Academic year 1897-98. 



Mr. C. A. Morton and Dr. J. Swain have been appointed 

 joint Professors of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine of 

 University College, Bristol. 



A DONATION of 2500/. has been promised by Mr. A. F. 

 Calvert to the funds of the proposed North-Western Polytechnic 

 (St. Pancras and Hampstead). 



Acting on the recommendation of the Faculty of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, Columbia University, the chair of Chemistry and 

 Medical Jurisprudence (at present vacant) has been changed to 

 that of Physiological Chemistry. 



The tenth session of the Marine Biological Laboratory, 

 Wood's Holl, Mass., began on July 6, and is to last for six 

 weeks. It is being conducted by Dr. B. M. Davis, of the 

 University of Chicago, and two courses are offered, (i) on 

 Elementary Botany, and (2) on the Morphology of the Algae. 



The late Mr. J. S. Taylor, of Edderton, near Ross, left 4000/. 

 in trust to found bursaries or scholarships to be known as the 

 "John Taylor bursaries," to be competed for by natives of 

 Thurso desiring to complete their education at Edinburgh 

 University. He also bequeathed 1000/. to the Tain Academy, 

 Ross-shire. 



Science states that an anonymous donor has presented to the 

 library of Columbia University 387 books, valued at about 

 1200/. They include a number of valuable works in natural 

 history, such as Audubon's "Quadrupeds," Sepp's " Neder- 

 land'sche Insekten," Gould's " Humming-Birds," and Levail- 

 lant's " Oiseaux d'Afrique." 



Under the will of Mrs. Gee, widow of the late Mr. Robert Gee, 

 lecturer on the diseases of children in the medical school associ- 

 ated with University College, Liverpool, that college receives 

 over 7000/. for the purpose of advancing the medical depart- 

 ment, and promoting study and research in medical science. It 

 has been decided by the medical faculty to institute a Robert 

 Gee fellowship in anatomy of the value of 100/. for one year, 

 and four entrance scholarships of 25/. each for one year. 



The following appointments are announced : — Dr. Thomas 

 S. Fiske, of Columbia College, has been made a full Professor 

 of Mathematics; Dr. Wm. Slocum, at present President of 

 Colorado College, has been elected President of Oberlin Col- 

 lege ; Dr. G. Boccardi has been appointed Associate Professor 

 of Microscopical Anatomy at the University of Naples ; Dr. J. 

 Szadowski, Associate Professor of Geology at the University of 

 Klausenberg ; and Dr. J. J. Zumsteintobe Professor of Anatomy 

 at the University of Marburg. 



A meeting of the subscribers to the Hall Memorial Fund, 

 which was started a few months ago to commemorate the jubilee 

 of science teaching at the City ot London School, was held at 

 the school on Monday last. It was announced that the amount 

 subscribed (including 100 guineas from the Corporation) was 

 about 354/., and it was resolved that 350/. should be devoted 

 to founding a scholarship to promote the study of chemistry and 

 physics in memory of the late Mr. T. Hall, science master at 

 the school, 1847-1870. The scholarship is to be awarded every 

 fifth year, and to be tenable for two years. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Malhematics, vol. xix. 3. — Develop- 

 ment of the A-process in quaternions, with a geometrical 

 application, by Dr. J. B. Shaw, gives several interesting 

 results.— On the analytic theory of circular functions, by A. S. 



NO. 1446, VOL. 56] 



Chessin. The writer points out that the similarity between 

 simply and doubly periodic functions ceases to exist when the 

 behaviour of the function at infinity comes to be investigated. 

 He refers to M. Meray's " Le9ons nouvelles sur 1' Analyse in- 

 finitesimale et ses applications Geometriques," wherein is given 

 a classification of simply periodic functions into polarised and 

 non-polat ised iuncixons. He then states that the character and 

 r6le of the polar values of a circular function have not been 

 clearly set forth, and that the object of his paper (pp. 216-258) 

 is to supply the deficiency. —Sur un probleme concernant deux 

 Courbes Gauches, by Prof G. Koenigs. The problem, of which 

 a direct solution is given, is "une Courbe C etant donnee. en 

 trouver une autre C, qui lui corresponde point par point de 

 sorte que le plan osculateur a chaque courbe aille passer par le 

 point qui correspond sur I'autre au point de contact." — The ob- 

 ject of a second paper, by Dr. Shaw, entitled "The Linear Vector 

 Operator of Quaternions," is the development of the linear vector 

 operator, entirely from a quaternion point of view, which 

 amounts, the author writes, to an extension or development of 

 nonions ; reference is made to a paper by Dr. H. Taber in vol. 

 xii. of the journal. — On certain applications of the theory of 

 probability to physical phenomena, by Dr. G. H. Bryan. This 

 is a subject to which much has been contributed in our columns. 

 Dr. Bryan arrives at the conclusion that even the theory of 

 probability does not furnish us with a conclusive proof of the 

 Boltzmann- Maxwell law. That the law in question represents 

 accurately the state of the molecules in a perfect gas. and 

 approximately their state in an ordinary gas, cannot be doubted ; 

 but directly we attempt to generalise the law by applying it to 

 assemblages of densely crowded molecules, we are confronted 

 with the necessity of making some assumption or other, and 

 the above treatment {i.e. employed in Dr. Bryan's note) shows 

 that even probability considerations do not afford a sure way out 

 of the difficulty. 



Messrs. W. and G. S. West's paper on Welwitsch's African 

 Freshwater Algae is still occupying the pages of \\\e Journal of 

 Botany, with the description of a large number of new and 

 interesting forms. In the numbers for June and July descrip- 

 tions are given of the following new genera : Athroocyslis, 

 belonging to the Palmellaceae ; Cainptothrix, the type of a new 

 order, Caiiiptotrichece, of Cyanophyceae ; Polychlamydnm, near to 

 Schizothrix. — Mr. E. G. Baker describes and figures the variety 

 ceratophyllon of Plantago coronopiis, new to Britain. — Mr. 

 Arthur Lister has some notes on rare species of Mycetozoa, in 

 which several new species are described. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, June 17. — " On the Distribution of Fre- 

 quency (Variation and Correlation) of the Barometric Height at 

 diverse Stations." By Prof. Karl Pearson, F.R.S., University 

 College, London, and Miss Alice Lee, B.Sc. , Bedford College. 



This paper is especially intended as an illustration of iitethod. 

 The authors believe that hitherto no exact theory of variation 

 or of correlation has been applied to meteorological observations, 

 and they have endeavoured to indicate that fruitful results may" 

 be obtained from such a theory when applied to one branch at 

 least of meteorology, namely, barometric frequency. 



Their first object was to determine the nature of the 

 barometric frequency distribution. By means of tables and 

 plates it is shown that it can be described with a very high 

 degree of accuracy by the use of a generalised frequency curve 

 of the type — 



^^--y 



a type which has been fully discu.ssed in a previous memoir on 

 skew variation. 



A standard frequency curve for the British Isles having been 

 selected, it is shown that the frequency distribution varies con- 

 tinuously from this type as we pass from station to station, and 

 appears to be fairly uniform along lines which are termed 

 generalised isobars. 



The authors' next object was to discover what constants of 

 the barometric frequency suffice to describe it with the least 

 probable error. A somewhat elaborate investigation was ac- 

 cordingly made into the probable errors of the constants, and 

 ionx physical quantities, the mean, the variation (or standard 



