572 



NA TURE 



[April 14, 1892 



Another series of photographs, taken broadside, very clearly 

 showed, by means of the wave motion, the nodes of vibration 

 due to the period ; the straight and the brolten water line 

 being well defined. When the bob-weights were attached, 

 this phenomenon was naturally not present, as the vibration 

 was destroyed. Our description has extended so far beyond 

 our proper allotment of space, that we have not been able 

 to describe the "vibrometer" which Mr. Yarrow has devised, 

 and by which he obtains automatic records of the vibrations 

 of a vessel. This instrument, if not absolutely accurate, has 

 been proved quite sufficient for the purpose. On the whole, 

 one can hardly doubt, after hearing Mr. Yarrow's lecture, that 

 he has found a practical solution to the vibration difficulty, 

 which threatened to become one of such serious dimensions, 

 not only in torpedo craft but passenger steamers, in these days 

 of high speed and steel hulls. 



The other papers we must pass over very briefly. Mr. 

 Denny's monograph on the strength of steamers consisted 

 virtually of a table with some explanatory notes. It represented 

 a large amount of work, and will prove of great use to naval 

 architects. Mr. Hok's contribution added ano'her to those 

 many " rapid methods " which from time to time are brought 

 forward, but none of which have, so far as we are aware, yet 

 superseded the older methods of calculating stability. Mr. 

 Heck's paper was a useful contribution, explaining some simple 

 methods he had devised for arriving at the state of the atmosphere 

 in petroleum steamers. 



On Friday the first paper taken was that of Mr. Froude, who 

 may be safely described as our first' tiving authority on the screw 

 propeller in its scientific aspect. It will be remembered that the 

 author has of late read a series of papers on this subject before 

 the Institution. During the discussion on his contribution of last 

 year Mr. Thornycroft suggested that some of the conclusions arrived 

 at might be modified by the rotation of the race, and it was in 

 order to elucidate this point that the investigation was under- 

 taken. The present paper is the outcome of this. It would 

 be useless to attempt to abstract, ever so briefly, a paper on 

 so abstruse a subject as this ; in fact, up to the present time we 

 have not been able to give the day's preliminary study which 

 Mr. Froude's papers require before we can fairly get a grasp of 

 their drift. We should perhaps have hardly had the courage to 

 make this admission had not two such past masters of the subject 

 as Mr. Thornycroft and Mr. Macfarlane Gray confessed that 

 they had devoted a day to the study of the paper, and still were 

 not in a position to discuss it. The paper by Mr. Liversidge 

 was the last read, and led to a short discussion, in which no 

 point of special interest arose. 



FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DELE- 

 GATES OF THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY 

 MUSEUM. 



'T'HE Delegates of the University Museum have presented 

 -'■ their Report to Convocation for the year 1891. This Report 

 consists of two parts : (i) the General Report of the Delegates, 

 properly so called ; and (2) the Departmental Reports of the 

 Professors and Lecturers teaching within the Museum precincts. 



The Delegates call attention to the improved accommodation 

 provided, or in course of being provided, for the several depart- 

 ments of Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, Geology, and in the 

 Pitt- Rivers Museum. These new and improved buildings will 

 be fully available before the end of 1892. The result will 

 be, in the Comparative Anatomy Department, by altering the 

 old dissecting-room, to utilize it for convenient and well- 

 lighted rooms for laboratory and museum work. The Geological 

 Department, which has long been inadequately accommodated, 

 will be enlarged by a long working-room and a store- room 

 above. Two spacious storerooms have likewise been provided 

 for the department of Zoology and the housing of the Hope Col- 

 lection. A Curator's room has also been provided for the Pitt- 

 Rivers Collection, and additional facilities for the arrangement 

 and storage of specimens. 



The dissecting-room, lecture- theatre, museum, and assistants' 

 and working rooms required for the department of Human 

 Anatomy are in course of erection. They are expected to be 

 available for use early in 1893. 



Among the Professors' Reports, the Regius Professor of 

 Medicine regrets that the University authorities have not seen 



their way to provide, even on a modest scale, a Bacteriological 

 Laboratory for the use of his department. But under the super- 

 vision of Dr. Carl Menge, recommended by Prof Virchow, a 

 small laboratory has been arranged in the limited space devoted 

 to the departmt-nt of Medicine. The apparatus was purchased in 

 Berlin, and Dr. Menge, freed from duties abroad, conducted a 

 class during the long vacation in the technique of Bacteriology. 

 This cla^s was not only attended by several gentlemen who had 

 passed the M.B. examination, but interested many of the medical 

 practitioners in Oxford. 



Sir H. Acland hoped to investigate the condition of the waters 

 in and about the Isis and Cherwell, in connection with the 

 larger inquiry as to the bacterial condition of the water supplied 

 to London, but for various reasons this investigation is for the 

 present left in abeyance. 



The Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy divides his 

 report into two subdivisions : (i) the care and development of 

 the collections illustrating the comparative anatomy and classi- 

 fication of animals placed in the court of the Museum, and (2) 

 the administration of the laboratories and lecture-room assigned 

 to his department. 



In the first subdivision the Professor remarks that the speci- 

 mens are rather stored in cases than "exhibited." By the aid 

 of competent assistants, however, he hopes that the more typical 

 specimens may be set out and labelled in a thoroughly demon- 

 strative manner, after that introduced by Prof. Flower at the 

 British Museum. A special case, illustrating the chief treasure 

 of the Oxford Museum, viz. the head and f )ot of Ashmole's 

 Dodo, is being made ready, and also a series of specimens, casts, 

 and drawings, to exhibit the interest and importance of the six 

 fossil jaws of Mammals from the Sionesfield Slate. 



" The task of doing justice to the valuable collections belong- 

 ing to the University, by adequately exposing, labelling, and 

 arranging, some in exhibition cases, and by carefully recording 

 and storing others, where they shall be readily accessible for the 

 purposes of the student, is no hght one. Even with a full staff 

 of assistants it would take several years, and could never be 

 'finished,' anymore than the books of the Bodleian Library 

 could be finallv arranged and left so for the admiration of future 

 generations. The Natural History collection of the University 

 r quires constant care, special curators, and consequently a con- 

 siderable annual expenditure, just in the same way as does its 

 collection of books, though the former at present does not 

 require so large a sum for its proper administration as does the 

 latter. I have therefore to report that I have not sufficient funds 

 at my disposal for carrying out the arrangement of the collections 

 under my care with efficiency, or with reasonable promptitude." 



The second part of the report shows the number of students 

 attending the laboratory and lecture rooms. The number 

 averages about thirty per term, and in addition to the ordinary 

 lectures, informal meetings are held in which recently published 

 memoirs on embryological and morphological subjects are dis- 

 cussed. Dr. Benham, Mr. Goodrich, Mr. Minrhin, and Mr. E. 

 B. Poulton and others have assisted the Professor in these 

 informal classes. 



The Curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum gives a long catalogue 

 of additions to his department, and remarks that the various 

 series of musical instruments have been so far as possible com- 

 pleted, with labels, sketches, maps, &c. The weaving and bark- 

 cloth series has been re-arranged, and similarly the series of 

 mask'-, primitive boat models, and the fire-making series, which 

 is one of the most typical in the collection. 



The Report of the Lecturer on Human Anatomy has refer- 

 ence principally to the construction of the new laboratories 

 referred to in the Delegates' Report. The Lecturer in the course 

 of the summer vacation visited the medical schools of Strass- 

 burg, Munich, FVeiburg, Vienna, Huda-Pest, and Brussels, in 

 order to observe the most approved methods of teaching and 

 museum arrangement, and also to inspect the recently built 

 anatomical institutes of these various centres of medical educa- 

 tion, with the view of using the information so Oijtained in the 

 fitting up of the new Laboratory. 



The remaining reports do not present any points of special 

 inteiesi. They include reports from the Hope Professor of 

 Zoology, the Professor of Experimental Philosophy, the Wayn- 

 flete Professor of Chemistry (who lias had ninety-eight individual 

 students at work under his direction during the year), and the 

 Piolessors of Geology, Mineralogy, Geometry, Natural Philo- 

 sophy, and of the Reader in Anthropology. 



NO. II 72, VOL. 45] 



