June i, 1893] 



NATURE 



1 1 



past years, the highest number of candidates who obtained a 

 place in the class list in any previous year being 31 in iSgi and 

 1886. There are also 51 candidates for the preliminary ex- 

 aminations in Science. Comparing these numbers with those 

 of the candidates in other subjects, we find Lilerse Humaniores 

 136 candidates, History 108, Law 70, Theology 65, and Mathe- 

 matics 14. Ol the 41 candidates who seek Honours in Natural 

 Science 5 offer Physics, 21 Chemistry, 13 Animal Physiology, 

 I Botany, and I Geology. It is remarkable that there is no 

 candidate offering Animal Morphology. 



It is understood, although it is not yet officially announced, that 

 Merlon College will give;a biological Fellowship in October next, 

 the examination for which will be held at the end of September 

 or early in October. 



A meeting of the demonstrators and assistants at the Museum 

 was held on Saturday last to discuss their position as regards 

 the rest of the University, and it was decided to memorialise the 

 Visitatorial Board on the subject. 



CAjfHRiDGE. — Prof. Foster will deliver the Rede Lecture in 

 the Senate House on June 14 at noon. The subject of the 

 lecture is " Weariness." 



Mr. F. Darwin, Deputy Professor of Botany, announces two 

 courses of lectures, to begin during the ensuing Long Vacation, 

 an elementary one by Mr. Willis, of Caius College, and a 

 more advanced course by Mr. Wager, of the Yorkshire College, 

 Leeds. 



The Special Board for Medicine have issued new schedules in 

 Physics and Elementary Biology for the First M.B. Examination. 

 In regard to the former a practical examination in Experimental 

 Physics is for the first time explicitly included in the scheme. 



By means of the bequest of ^300 to the University by the 

 late Mr. Henry Tyson, of Kendal, a gold medal in Mathematics 

 and Astronomy has been founded. The award will be made 

 on the results of the examination for Part II. of the Mathe- 

 matical Tripos. 



The Engineering Laboratory Syndicate have approved Mr. 

 W. C. Marshall's plans for an engineering laboratory, and sub- 

 mitted them to the Senate for adoption. They propose that 

 the most urgent needs of the Department of Mechanism shall be 

 met by proceeding with such portions of the work as it may be 

 possible to execute with the funds at their disposal. About 

 ;f35°°. in addition to the amouut already subscribed, will be 

 required to complete the building, and a further expenditure of 

 not less than pf locoon necessary apparatus should follow. The 

 Syndicate trust that the development of the school may not be 

 long delayed for want of these sums. 



The 'I ripos Examinations Syndicate have put forward a 

 scheme by which nearly all the Triposes will begin after the 

 last Sunday in May, and the Honours lists will be published by 

 the end of June. This will involve the postponement of the 

 general admission to the B.A, degree until the first week of 

 July, which falls in the Long Vacation. The proposal is only 

 tentative, and it will inevitably give rise to animated discussion. 



Mr. E. VV. MacBride, Scholar, of St. John's College, has 

 been nomitiated to occupy the University's table at the Ply- 

 mouth Marine Biological Laboratory in June. 



Honorary degrees are to he conferred on the Maharajah of 

 Bhaonagar, Lord Herschell (as Chairman of the Governors of 

 the Imperial Institute), and Lord Roberts of Kandahar and 

 Waterford ; Prof. Zupitza, the eminent philologist, and Mr. 

 Standish Hayes O'Grady, the Celtic scholar, are to be similarly 

 honoured. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



, The Quarterly lournal oj Microscopical Science for April, 1893, 



j contains : — Description of a new species of Moniligaster from 



India, by W. Blaxland Benham (PI. xxxii. and iii.). The 

 I species is from the Nilgiris and is named M. indicus. — 

 I Note on a new species of the genus Nais, by W. Blaxland 

 j Benham (PI. xxxiii.). The worm was found in a ditch in 

 j the neighbourhood of Oxford ; it is of a dull brownish colour, 

 j about a quarter of an inch in length, and is called ^V. helerochicia, 



from the fact that of the normally two chnjtae in the dorsal 

 •j bundles one is of a " crochet " shape, the other is capilliform.^ 

 1 On a new organ in the Lycoridea, and on the nephridium in 

 ' Nereis tlwcrsicohr, O. F. Muell., by E. S. Goodrich (PI. xxxiv. 



and XXXV.). The new organ consists of a pair of large, highly- 



differentiatel, ciliated patches of ccelomic epithelium, which 



NO. I 23 I, VOL. 48J 



are found in every segment, except the first and the last few. 

 These " dorsal ciliated organs " seem to occur throughout the 

 Lycoridea, having been found in all the genera of that family 

 examined by the author. Some notes on the minute structure 

 of the nephridia of the Nereids are added.— On the nephridia 

 and body-cavity of some Decapod Crustacea, by Edgar J. Allen, 

 (PI. xxxvi. vii. viii. ). i. The green gland of Palsemonetes 

 (and Palaemon) at the time of tlie hatching of the larva has 

 not developed a lumen. When the larva leaves the egg the 

 lumen commences to open and the gland consists of an end-.'ac 

 and a U-shaped tube, of which the distal portion gives rise to 

 the bladder. The bladder then enlarges greatly, growing at 

 first inwards towards the middle ventral line, then upwards, 

 within the oesophageal nerve-ring and anterior to the cesophagus, 

 to the middle dorsal line, where it meets its fellow of the 

 opposite side. The two bladders grow backwards over 

 the stomach and beneath the dorsal sac, subsequently 

 fusing together in the middle line to form the unpaired 

 nephro-peritoneal sac. 2. The shell-glands are the functional 

 excretory organs at the time of the hatching and during the 

 latter part of the embryonal period. They open at the bases 

 of the second maxillse, and each consists of an endsac and a 

 Y-shaped renal tube, which have the typical structure of a 

 crustacean nephridium. 3. A dorsal sac, which is completely 

 enclosed by an epithelial lining, persists in adults of Palaemon, 

 Paleemonetes, and Crangon. 4. At its anterior end the dorsal 

 sac is surrounded by a mass of tissue which appears to have the 

 power of producing blood corpuscles. 5. The dorsal sac is 

 formed as a hollowing-out in masses of mesoderm cells, which 

 lie on either side of the cephalic aorta. 6. The body-cavity 

 of these Crustaceans varies in different regions : (a) In the 

 anterior part of the thorax it consists of a true ccelom (the 

 dorsal sac and nephridia) and a hremoccele ; (Ji) in the posterior 

 part of the thorax and in the abdomen, the body cavity is 

 entirely a hsemoccele. — Note on the coslom and vascular 

 system of the Mollusca and Arthropoda, by Prof. E. Ray 

 Lankester. A reprint of an abstract of an important paper 

 read at the 1887 meeting of the British Association, and 

 published in these pages (vol. xxxvii. p. 498). The author 

 adds a request for specimens of Lernanthropus to enable him 

 to complete his researches. Five species of this genus are 

 recorded from the Mediterranean in Cams' " Prodomus Faunae 

 Mediterraneae." — Contributions to a knowledge of British 

 marine Turbellaria, by F. W. Gamble (PI. xxxix. xli.), 

 records 71 species, of which 28 are now added to the British 

 fauna. Plate xxxix. contains coloured figures of ten species. — 

 Peculiarities in the segmentation of certain Polycbsetes, by 

 Florence Buchanan (PI. xlii.).— Review of Bolsius' researches 

 on the nephridia of Lee ches by A. G. Bourne. 



In the notice of the January number of the Q.J.M.S. the 

 too brief account of Mr. Arthur W'illy's paper on the I'roto- 

 chordata is we regret deemed calculated to produce a mistaken 

 impression ; it should read "that the author in consequence of 

 new observations on the Ascidians, found it necessary to 

 repudiate the theory of van Beneden and Julin, as to the pre- 

 chordal vesicle of Ascidians and Amphioxus, which he had 

 previously, without having made peisonal observations on the 

 Ascidians, provisionally adopted." 



The number of the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano for April 

 contains three papers : — Sig. S. Sommjer gives the results of a 

 botanical tour in the region of the Lower Obi, in Siberia, in- 

 cluding lists of the flowering plants. Vascular Cryptogams, 

 Muscineae, Lichens, Fungi, and Algas obtained. A new species 

 of fungus is described, Helotium Sommieriauum, parasitic on 

 Lycopodium ciavaliim. Dr. N. C. Kindberg contributes a list 

 of mosses gathered in Southern Switzerland and Italy. Dr. E. 

 Baroni gives measurements of the pollen-grains of various 

 species of Papaver, Chelidonium, and Eschscholtzia. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



LO.NIION. 



Royal Society, May 4.- — " On the Thickness and Electrical 

 Resistance of Thin Liquid Films." By A. W. Reinold, M.A., 

 F. R.S., Professor of Physics in the Royal Naval College, 

 Greenwich, and A. W. Riicker, M.A., F. R.S. , Professor of 

 Physics in the Royal College of Science, London. 



The paper gives an account of experiments made for the pur- 



