JULY 6, 1893] 



NA TURE 



239 



We have received from the Cambridge University Extension 

 authorities the detailed programme of their summer meeting. 

 Courses of study extending over a month (from July 29 to 

 August 26 inclusive) have been arranged, intended primarily 

 for those connected in some way with the University Extension 

 Movement, though all members of the teaching profession and 

 other students are also admitted. Though the full course ex- 

 lends over a month it has been arranged that those who can 

 only spare a fortnight shall have a fairly complete course of 

 work to go through. The subjects on which instruction is 

 offered are extremely varied, including history, literature, and 

 language, art, economics, and natural science. On the scien- 

 tific side several courses of laboratory work are provided and in 

 adilition there are to be a set of lectures illustrating, from the 

 hisciry of several sciences, the progress and methods of natural 

 science. The services of Sir Robert Ball, Sir Henry Roscoe, 

 and a number of other well-known lecturers have been secured. 

 Many intending visitors will be glad also to see that the 

 authorities have not forgotten that August is a time for recrea- 

 tion as well a^; study and have made special arrangements for 

 l)oating, for admission to college gardens, as well as for several 

 excursions to places of historic, artistic, or scientific interest. 

 Three colleges have agreed to board students at extremely 

 moderate rates, and there is an abundance of lodgings. The 

 total expense of the month for a student living economically 

 need not exceed £(> or £'J. There are probably not many 

 other ways in which such a pleasant and profitable holiday can 

 be spent for so small a sum. 



The following elections to natural science scholarships at 

 Oxford have been announced : — Mr. H. C. H. Carpenter, of East- 

 bourne College, to a Natural Science Postmaslership at Merton 

 College. Mr. T.J. Garstang, of Manchester Grammar School, 

 to a Natural Science Scholarship at Corpus Christi College. 

 Mr. Richard Warren, of the Charterhouse, to an Open Natural 

 Science Scholarship at New College. In each case the value 

 gained is jf 80 per annum. 



Summer courses seem to be the order of rhe day. The 

 Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Holl, Massachusetts, 

 was opened on June I, and will remain open until August 30. 

 The Laboratory has aquaria supplied with running sea-water, 

 boats, a steam launch, collecting apparatus, and dredges. 

 There are thirty-three private laboratories for investigators, and 

 five general laboratories. Short courses has also been arranged 

 In zoology and botany, the laboratory work in each case being 

 accompanied by lectures. Every facility is given for the obtain- 

 of general knowledge, while those who are prepared to begin 

 original work, under the guidance of instructors, are provided 

 for as well as the practised investigator. This classification of 

 workers into three grades is an excellent one and well worthy 

 of imitation. 



Cou Sir Charles W. Wilson, F.R.S., has been appointed 

 Honorary Master of Engineering of the University of Dublin. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



American Meleorological Journal, June. — The principal 

 articles are : Note on the relation of solar spots to terrestrial 

 anticyclones, by A. Searle. The relation considered is not one 

 of cause and effect, but simply an analogy recently suggested in 

 the Astronomische Nachrichten, by E. von Oppolzer, whose 

 idea is to substitute the anticyclone instead of the cyclone as is 

 usually done, as the terrestrial term of the comparison. The 

 author considers the comparison to be bath striking and 

 l)lau5ible, Irat Prof. Davis thinks it should be limited to ter- 

 restrial anticyclones during winter nights. — A new series of 

 itanoaialous temperature charts, based on Buchan's isothermal 

 charts, by S. F. Batchelder. The author has constructed anew 

 set of isabnormal charts, based on the observations of the 

 CUallenger expedition, which are said to show more plainly than 

 those of Humboldt and Dove the departures from the average 

 '-mperature of a parallel of latitude. The cold area on the 

 .vest coast of .South America is found t ) be 10° too cool, in- 

 >'ead of 6°7 ; that on the west coast of Africa to be 6° instead 

 if 4°'5. The excess of heat of Southern Alaska is given as 10° 

 mslead of 6'7, and the south coast of Norway (under the influ- 

 ence of the Gulf Stream) is found to be 23° over the average 

 for the latitude, instead of 20° -3, while the cold areas in the 



NO. 1 236. VOL. 48] 



interior of North America and Asia, given as ll°3hyDove, 

 are now shown to be 14° below the mean temperature of their 

 latitude. — Proposed subjects for correlated study by State 

 Weather Services, by W. M. Davis. The non-telegraphic 

 records are almost entirely reduced in an arithmetical manner, 

 suitable for the determination of climate, but not for the deter- 

 miuation of unperiodic factors of the kind with which weather 

 changes are concerned. The author suggests that all observers 

 should make hourly records of the ordinary weather elements on 

 certain days, that these observations should be charted for every 

 hour, and afterwards consolidated on a single map for the whole 

 country, by which means some extremely interesting illustrations 

 of weather phenomena would be gained, and give a better know- 

 ledge of processes now imperfectly understo .d. — -Meteirology 

 as the physics of the atmosphere, by W. von liezold. This con- 

 cluding part deals more especially with observations made in 

 balloons, and with thermometer exposure. Tne author thin'<s 

 it probable that Dr. As.smann's aspirator will show that the 

 temperatures hitherto made in balloons are affected by radiation 

 to the extent of 10" at least. He also gives some valuable ad- 

 vice as to the observation of clouds, and draws especial attention 

 to the importance of observing not only their outward appear- 

 ance, but more particularly their formation and dissolution, so 

 as to establish their classification and nomenclature upon a 

 natural basis. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, June 8.— "The Experimental Proof that 

 the Colours of certain Lepidopterous Larvoe are largely due to 

 modified Plant Pigments, derived from Food." By E. B. 

 Poulton, F.R.S. 



The object of this investigation was to afford a conclusive 

 test as to the theory, previously submitted by the author, that 

 some of the colours of certain Lepidopterous larvfe are made up 

 of modified chlorophyll derived from the food-plant. 



Larva; from one batch of eggs laid by a female Tryphcena 

 proimba were divided into three lots fed (in darkness) re- 

 spectively throughout their whole life upon (l) green leaves, (2) 

 yellow etiolated leaves, and (3) white mid-ribs of cabbage Tr e 

 larvge fed upon (l) and (2) becam; green or brown as in nature, 

 thus proving that etiolin, no less than chlorophyll, can form the 

 basis of the larval ground-colour. Those fed upon (3), in which 

 neither chlorophyll nor etiolin was accessible, were entirely un- 

 able to form the green or brown ground colour. The production 

 of dark superficial cuticular pigment was, however, unchecked. 

 One of the larvae fed in this way was perfectly healthy, and had 

 become nearly mature when it was accidentally killed. Miny 

 others died early, but resembled that last described in the in- 

 ability to form a ground-colour. 



The experiment seems to leave no doubt as to the validity of 

 the conclusions previously reached. Interesting questions as to 

 the changes passed through by the derived pigjients are sug- 

 gested by this inquiry. 



"The Menstruation oi Semnopilhecus entellus." By Walter 

 Heape, Halfour Student at the University of Cambridge. Com- 

 municated by Prof. M. Foster, SecR. S. 



" Researches on the Structure, Organisation, and Classifica- 

 tion of the Fossil Reptilia. Part viii. On farther Evidences of 

 Deuterosaurus and Rhopxlodon from the Permian Rocks of 

 Russia." By H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. 



Royal Meteorological Society, June 21.— Dr. C. Theodore 

 Williams, President, in the chair.— Mr. R. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 read a paper on fifteen years' fogs in the British Islands, 1876- 

 1890, which was a discussion cfihe fog observations made at the 

 stations which appear in the Da '!y Weather Report. From the 

 observations it appears that there is no trace of a regular in- 

 crease either in the monthly or in the annual curve. All that 

 can be said is that taking the three lustral periods of five years 

 each, the last of these, 1886-90, comes out markedly the worst, 

 the successive totals being 262, 250, 322. — A paper on upper 

 currents of air over the Arabian Sea, by Mr. W. L. Dallas, 

 of the Indian Meteorological Ofii,:e, was also read, in which it Is 

 shown that there exists a regular arrangement in the vertical 

 succession of the upper currents, and that the Doldrum region, 



