58 



NATURE 



[March 15, 1917 



long devotion to the scientific side of dental education, 

 so well illustrated by this unique collection, the council 

 decides that the museum shall in future be named 

 'The John Humphreys Odontologlcal Museum.'" 



The family of the late Frederic Milward of Red- 

 <]itch has placed the sum of 1200Z. in trust for the 

 foundation of a scholarship to be known as the 

 Frederic Milward Scholarship, which will be open to 

 pupils on the registers of the county secondary schools 

 of Redditch, and will be tenable at the University of 

 Birmingham by students attending day courses in 

 science, commerce, or engineering. 



The Rev. P. S. Belton (a voluntary war-worker) 

 has been appointed honorary assistant and demon- 

 strator in the metallurgical department. 



Miss B. M. Bristol has been appointed honorary 

 assistant demonstrator in botany for the present term. 



Oxford. — All Souls College has come to the assist- 

 ance of the University finances by devoting fifteen 

 hundred pounds in aid of the general fund and the 

 like sum to the purposes of the Bodleian Library. 

 In the present depleted state of the University chest, 

 owing to the war, these gifts are especially welcome. 



On March 13 the form of statute establishing the 

 degree of doctor of philosophy was passed by Con- 

 gregation, and the statute was amended in certain 

 particulars. 



In view of the value of the rabbit as food, the 

 vice-chancellor of the University of London has given 

 instructions that it shall not be used in practical ex- 

 aminations in zoology for science students or in 

 general biology for medical students during the 

 period of the war. 



A READING from the poems of Sir Ronald Ross, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S. (including the suite now appearing 

 in the Poetry Review), will be given on Friday, March 

 23, at 3 p.m., at the house of Sir William Lever on 

 Hampstead Heath. Sir Herbert Warren, K.C.V.O., 

 will preside. 



The United States Department of the Interior has, 

 says Science, designated Minnesota as one of the three 

 States where mining experiment stations are to be 

 established within a year. The Government will 

 appropriate 5000/. annually for the support of such 

 a station, and the State must supply the building. 

 The regents have asked for 35,000^. for this purpose. 

 There are to be ten such stations established eventu- 

 ally. Minnesota's importance ajs a mining centre 

 has caused her to be selected as one of the first 

 group. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, March 1.— Sir J- J. Thomson, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Prof. W. E. Dalby : A graphical 

 method of drawing trajectories for high-angle fire. 

 A previous paper by the author, printed in Series A, 

 vol. xcii., p. 239, explained a graphical method of 

 finding the range, time of flight, angle of elevation, 

 and other elements of a trajectory, from the data 

 given by a curve showing the resistance of a standard 

 shell in terms of the velocity. The graphical method 

 followed the analytical method laid down in the mili- 

 tary text-books. The paper dealt with direct fire, 

 which is officially defined as "fire under angle of 

 elevation 150°." The present paper is a continuation 

 of the paper referred to above, adapting the graphical 

 method to high-angle fire. For this the density of 

 the atmosphere has to be brought into the calculation 

 as one of the variables of the problem. Briefly, the 



NO. 2472, VOL. Qq1 



method consists in applying the graphical method 

 explained in the first paper in a series of steps, dealing 

 in each step first with the vertical element of the 

 trajectory and then with the corresponding horizontal 

 element of the trajectory. The magnitude of a step 

 is so selected that the influence of the change of 

 tenuity on the resistance is negligibly small during 

 the part of the trajectory corresponding to the step. 

 The value of a quantity corresponding to, but not the 

 same as, the ballistic coefficient in direct fire is 

 changed from step to step to allow for the changing 

 value of the tenuity as the shot moves in its trajectory. 

 The method is applied to determine the trajectory of 

 a shell weighing 380 lb., fired from a q-2-in. gun 

 elevated to 40°, taking the conditions of the shots 

 fired during the Jubilee Trials in 1898. — Earl of 

 Berkeley, E. G. J. Hartley, and C. V. Burton : Osmotic 

 pressures derived from vapour pressure measure- 

 ments. — Aqueous solutions of cane sugar and methyl 

 glucoside. The paper forms a continuation of re- 

 searches on the same subject already communicated 

 to the society. If the ratio of the vapour pressure of 

 a pure solvent to the vapour pressure of a solution is 

 known, the osmotic pressure between the solution 

 and the solvent can be theoretically calculated. Since 

 the osmotic pressure is proportional to the logarithm 

 of the ratio of the vapour pressures, a specially 

 accurate determination of the value of the ratio is 

 required in order to obtain good values for the 

 osmotic pressure. The paper deals with the experi- 

 mental arrangements for determining the vapour 

 densities and the special precautions that have been 

 taken to secure a high degree of accuracy. A number 

 of corrections applicable to the simple theoretical 

 formula have been examined, both experimentally and 

 theoretically. The experimental results given refer to 

 solutions of different detrrees of concentration. The 

 dissolved substances dealt with are cane-sugar and 

 methyl glucoside and sulphuric acid, while the solvent 

 in each case is water. The experiments were made 

 at standard temperatures of 0° C. and 30° C. — W. 

 Wilson : The complete photo-electric «^mission from 

 the alloy of sodium and potassium. The subject of 

 this investigation is the law governing the variation 

 of the complete photo-electric emission with the tem- 

 perature of the source of full radiation causing it. 

 Theoretical considerations indicate that this law should 

 be the same as that governing the temperature varia- 

 tion of the thermionic emission from hot bodies, 

 namely, that expressed by the formula 



C = AT^^ 



2T 



where T is now the temperature of the source of 

 radiation, C is the photo-electric current per unit area 

 of the emitting substance, A and ^ are characteristic 

 of the substance and independent of T, and A. is a 

 small number, probably not differing much from 2. 

 Experiments are described in which the alloy of 

 sodium and potassium was exposed to approximately 

 full radiation. A. wide range of photo-electric currents 

 and the corresponding temperatures of the radiator 

 w^ere measured, and the relation between them was 

 found to be well expressed by the above formula. 



Aristotelian Society, February 5. — Dr. H. Wildon 

 Carr, president, in the chair.— F. C. Bartlett : Valua- 

 tion and existence. Three important stages mark 

 the development of the act of valuing, (i) The atti- 

 tude of satisfaction, or of contentment, which is con- 

 ditioned bv readiness of apprehension and the presence 

 of a feeling of ease. In this there is psychologically 

 no element of direction upon an object, .although, as a 

 matter of fact, what is apprehended, the act of appre- 



