July 29, 1897] 



NATURE 



Thk London Polytechnic Council, a joint committee com- 

 ■ rising representatives of the Council of the City and Guilds of 



ondon Institute, the Technical Education Board of the London 



iiunty Council, and the central governing body of the City 

 I'arochial Foundation, adopted the following resolution at a 

 specially convened meeting on Friday last : — " The London 

 I'olytechnic Council having had under their consideration the 

 i iindon University Commission Bill, and being satisfied that the 



udents of London polytechnic institutes pursuing a course of 

 -ludy approved by the University under one or more of the 

 recognised teachers of the University will enjoy equal facilities 

 with students of a school of the University in graduating at the 

 University, expresses its approval of the Bill and its hope that 

 the Bill may be passed during the present Session, as affording a 

 satisfactory solution of the London University question." 



The following are among recent appointments : — W. W. 

 Walts, assistant geologist on the Geological Survey of the 

 United Kingdom, to be assistant professor in Geology at 

 the Mason College, Birmingham ; Prof. R. C. Woodward 

 to be president of the University of South Carolina ; 

 Dr. C. E. Beecher to be University professor of his- 

 torical geology at Vale University ; Dr. L. V. Pirsson to be 

 professor of physical geology in the Lawrence Scientific School ; 

 Dr. F. E. Hull to be professor of physics in Colby University ; 

 Prof. William A. Rogers to be professor of physics in Alfred 

 University at Alfred, N.Y. ; Dr. Jaeger and Dr. Brodhun 

 to be professors at the Reichsanstalt at Charlottenburg ; 

 Dr. Ignaz Zakezewski to be full professor of experimental 

 physics at the University at Lemburg ; Dr. H. Finger to be 

 assistant professor of organic chemistry at the Polytechnic 

 Institute in Darmstadt ; Dr. A. L. Foley to be professor of 

 physics in the University of Indiana ; Dr. R. J. Aley to be 

 professor of mathematics, and Mr. E. B. Copeland to be 

 assistant professor of botany in the same University ; Mr. T. 

 1. Pocock to be assistant geologist on the Geological Survey of 

 the United Kingdom ; Dr. W. F. Hume and L. Gorringe to 

 be assistants on the Geological Survey of Egypt. 



The London University Commission Bill passed through 

 the House of Lords on Tuesday. The Duke of Devonshire, 

 in moving the second reading on Friday last, said the Bill was 

 substantially the same as the one which passed through the 

 House with little discussion last Session, but for which, unfor- 

 tunately, time did not allow full consideration in the other 

 House. Certain modifications had been introduced which were 

 the result of communications which had been in progress during 

 almost the whole of the Session between those interested, and 

 there was reason to hope that the difficulties which prevented 

 the Bill from passing into law had been removed, and that it 

 would pass now as practically an unopposed measure. He was 

 sorty to say very considerable time had elapsed since Lord 

 Cowper's Commission reported, and during that time a very 

 great change had taken place in the higher education of the 

 City of London, and this had caused the necessity for certain 

 alterations of procedure in the Bill. Almost the only point dis- 

 cussed in the House last year was that which affected, or was 

 supposed to affect, denominational colleges and principally 

 King's College. The agreement which was arrived at last 

 year had been embodied in somewhat different terms in 

 the present Bill, and he believed it was now practically 

 accepted by King's College and the principal bodies 

 concerned, and was now not objected to by Lord 

 Herschell, who took a strong line of opposition last year. 

 The Earl of Kimberley said as he was a member of the Senate 

 if the University he was aware of the circumstances to which 

 !.e noble Duke had alluded, and which led to the introduction 

 -1 this amended Bill. He did not think it was necessary or 

 desirable to go into the provisions now ; he would confine him- 

 self to saying the present form was the result of very careful 

 consideration, he might say a compromise between the different 

 interests. There was very sanguine hope, and he sincerely 

 trusted it would be fulfilled, that the Bill in its present form was 

 probably in the only form that would be acceptable to all parties 

 concerned, and he hoped it might pass. The text of the Bill is 

 printed in the 7^inies of Saturday, July 24, from which we learn 

 that the gentlemen who are to fill the statutory commission 

 utider the Bill are— Baron Davey, the Bishop of London, Lord 

 Lister, Sir William Roberts, Sir Owen Roberts, Prof. Jebb, and 

 Mr. E. H. Busk, the Chairman of Convocation of London 

 University. 



NO. 1448, VOL. 56] 



best 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 Wiedemann s Annalen der Physik und Cheinie, No. 5. — 

 Polarisation capacities, by C. M. Gordon. These were deter- 

 mined by a new arrangement of Wheatstone's bridge, in which 

 a known capacity and resistance are introduced into one branch, 

 and an electrolytic cell of unknown capacity and resistance in 

 the other. A minimum is obtained in the telephone when the 

 capacities are inversely as the resistances in the remaining 

 branches. The author found that for small currents the polarisa- 

 tion is a reversible process, and that the counter E. M.F. is 



rigidly given by Kohlrausch's equation E =- I idl. The 



results were obtained with electrodes of " platinised" platinum. 

 — Effect of concussion and heat upon magnetism, by Carl 

 Fromme. Concussion exerts a well-defined effect upon magnet- 

 isation, which is mdependent of that produced by deformation, 

 and of the magnetic history of the material. It acts directly 

 upon the molecular magnets, probably by producing groupings 

 of them, which reduce the magnetic moment and lower the 

 susceptibility. The effects of concussion may be imitated by 

 sending an alternating current through the magnetising coil and 

 gradually reducing it to zero. Also, in the case of iron wires, 

 by making them vibrate transversely. — Rontgen rays, by A. 

 Voller and B. Walter. As exhaustion is increased, less heat is 

 developed in a discharge tube. The production of heat gives 

 way before the production of Rontgen rays. The vacuum may 

 be regulated by heating a small quantity of caustic potash in a 

 side tube. The heating is best done by a small coil of wire 

 carrying a current, wound on the outside of the side tube. The 

 refractive index of diamond for X-rays does not differ from 

 unity by more than o'cxxD2. This gives a limiting value for the 

 wave-length of these rays. It is i yit/i, or the 600th part of that 

 of the D line, assuming, of course, that the waves are trans- 

 verse. — Coefficient of thermal expansion of the white marble of 

 Carrara, by I. Frohlich. This is important, in view of its 

 frequent use for inductance standards. Between island 100° 

 the mean coefficient of linear expansion is 0"0000I2. — Change of 

 length of wooden rods with moisture and heat, by H. Stadt- 

 hagen. Deal rods cut along the fibre were impregnated with 

 linseed oil and painted with shellac varnish. The impregna- 

 tion was carried out under a pressure of i \ atmospheres and a 

 temperature of 65^. It was found that the process does not 

 make the rods independent of moisture, since the smaller pores 

 remain accessible to it. The coefficient of expansion for I per 

 cent, of relative humidity is o-ooooi. The American method 

 of compression at 200° under 14 atmospheres would probably 

 yield better results. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, July 19.— M. A. Chatin in the 

 chair. — The election of M. Virchow as Foreign Associate, in 

 the place of the late M. Tchebichef, was approved by the Pre- 

 sident of the Republic. — Establishment of a uniform state in a 

 pipe of large rectangular section, by M. J. Boussinesq. — Re- 

 searches on the state in which elements other than carbon are 

 found in cast iron or steel, by MM. Ad. Carnot and Goutal. 

 The attack of the metal by appropriate solvents shows that 

 silicon is present chiefly as the silicide FeSi. If manganese is 

 present, however, the silicon combines with it in preference to 

 iron. Sulphur behaves similarly, all the manganese apparently 

 being turned into sulphide before any iron sulphide is formed. 

 Phosphorus and arsenic show remarkable differences in their 

 behaviour towards the solvent employed (a solution of potassium- 

 copper chloride), the phosphorus being combined with the iron 

 forming FcgP, while the arsenic is uncombined and simply dis- 

 solved in the casting.— Note relating to a memoir by M. D. 

 Eginitis on the climate of Athens, by M. Lrjewy.— Ephemeris 

 of the periodic comet of D'Arrest, by M, G. Leveau.— On the 

 quadratic integrals of dynamics, by M. P. Painleve.— On the 

 integration of systems of partial differential equations of the 

 first order of several unknown functions, by M. Jules Beudon. 

 — On surfaces referred to their lines of zero length, by M. 

 Eugene Cosserat.— On a practical method of setting out gear 

 teeth, by M. L. Lecornu.— On the phenomenon of the electric 

 arc, by M. A, Blondel. In the experiments described, the 

 passage of the current across the carbon poles was only broken 



