298 



NATURE 



[May 5, 1910 



in teachmg power will repay the outlay in money, and that 

 from among the workers thus supported the exceptional 

 man will be far more likely to emerge than is the case 

 now. The practical measures by which it is possible to 

 give effect to this dual principle in London are such as 

 would at the same time constitute an intercollegiate bond 

 of union formed by the university between its colleges, 

 schools, and institutions through its faculties and boards 

 of studies. The formation of this bond of union should 

 consist in the foundation of an Imperial Institute of Science 

 and Learning, of which the present Imperial Institute 

 building should be the home and headquarters, and its 

 personnel select panels of university research fellows. Such 

 panels should consist of professors, recognised and pro- 

 bationary teachers, and other distinguished persons in 

 London, in the United Kingdom, and in His Majesty's 

 Dominions beyond the Seas, selected and nominated by 

 boards of the faculties appointed by the university. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Society, April 28.— Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., 

 president, in the chair. — R. B. Sang^ster : The rotatory 

 character of some terrestrial magnetic disturbances at 

 Greenwich and on their diurnal distribution. The paper 

 commences with an investigation of the changes in direc- 

 tion of the line of total magnetic force at Greenwich on 

 1903 October i2d. i8h. to 2311., when a considerable mag- 

 netic disturbance was in evidence. Measurements of the 

 published registers of all three force components were made 

 at equivalent time intervals of about five minutes, whence 

 is obtained a diagram showing the variation of the force 

 component perpendicular to the line of total force. The 

 diagram shows there was an almost wholl}' rotatory motion 

 of the transverse disturbance vector, the trace consisting 

 of six distinct convolutions varying greatly in size, but 

 consistent in anticlockwise progression. Several other dis- 

 turbances during epoch 1900-7 are examined in detail, and 

 it is shown that a right- or left-handed rotatory character 

 in the motion of the disturbance vector was of fairly 

 frequent occurrence, while change from left to right not 

 uncommonly occurred about midnight. It was also found 

 that the same direction of rotation often persisted for 

 several hours, and tables of the diurnal distribution of 

 right- and left-hand rotatory disturbance are furnished to 

 show that those of right-hand character were entirely 

 absent during the hours 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., while, mean- 

 time, the left-handed rotations were very prevalent, and 

 reached a notable maximum at 8 p.m. Other points in 

 the diurnal distribution are noted, including the more 

 decided effect resulting from a seasonal grouping of the 

 seventy disturbed days dealt with. — D. Orson Wood : The 

 liberation of helium from minerals by the action of heat. 

 Experiments were made to determine how the volume of 

 helium liberated from radio-active minerals by the action 

 of heat depends on the temperature, and on the time for 

 which that temperature is maintained, in particular with 

 the view of the future use of heat to release all the helium 

 contained in minerals not easily treated by chemical 

 methods. The minerals experimented on were monazite 

 and thorianite, the one comparatively poor and the other 

 very rich in helium. The ground minerals were heated, in 

 vacuo, in tubes of Jena glass or quartz, by an electric 

 heater consisting of a single coil of nickel wire, to tempera- 

 tures up to 1200° C, which were measured by a Pt 

 resistance thermometer or a Pt Pt-Rh thermocouple. 

 The gas released was purified by drawing it through KOH 

 and PoO, tubes, and finally by Na — K electrodes. The 

 volume was measured in a modified McLeod gauge (de- 

 scribed by Prof. Strutt, Proceedings, vol. Ixxx.) specially 

 constructed for the measurement of volumes over a large 

 range — 1 c.c. to 1 c.mm. Curves are given to show the 

 volume of helium liberated with time at constant tempera- 

 tures (25o°-iooo° C), and also the percentage of the total 

 content obtainable after prolonged heating at the different 

 temperatures. The way in which the gas must be sup- 

 posed to be retained within the mineral to accord with the 

 results obtained is discussed, and it is concluded (i) that 

 heat may be used for the complete liberation of the gas 

 if a sufiiciently high temperature (about 900° C.) is 



NO. 2 1 14, VOL. 83] 



reached, and (2) that the results are in agreement with the 

 supposition that a small proportion of the gas is diffused 

 through the mineral and that the remainder is concentrated 

 in very minute cavities within it. — Prof. Swale Vincent : 

 The chromophil tissues and the adrenal medulla. The 

 author gives an account of the gross anatomy and histology 

 of the chromophil tissues in mammals, and especially in 

 the dog. Descriptions and drawings of the groups of cells 

 in the sympathetic ganglia and of the chromophil bodies 

 in other regions are furnished, and comparisons are made 

 between their structure and that of the adrenal medulla. 

 An extract of the abdominal chromophil body of the dog 

 has precisely the same powerful effect upon the blood 

 pressure as an extract made from the medulla of the 

 adrenal. There seems no reason why one cannot admit the 

 hypothesis that all the chromophil cells have an internal 

 secretion, though this process is more completely elaborated 

 in the larger chromophil bodies and in the adrenal medulla. 



Royal Anthropological Institute, April 12. — Sir Herbert 

 Risley, K.C.I.E., president, in the chair. — S. Hazzledine 

 Warren : Charcoal burning in Epping Forest. The 

 industry was carried on near Chingford in 1908 and 1909, 

 but has since been given up. The structure of the 

 burners' hut was quite on prehistoric lines. The technical 

 terms used by the burners are also survivals, many of them 

 being Anglo-Saxon or French. — N. F. Robarts and H. C. 

 Collyer : Additional notes on the British camp at 

 Wallington. The authors described the excavations made 

 when buildings were being erected on the site of the 

 camp, no vestige of which was apparent until the ditch of 

 the camp was cut through in the course of digging founda- 

 tions, the whole area having at some time been levelled 

 for cultivation. Numerous objects were exhibited which 

 had been recovered from the ditch, including stone imple- 

 ments, mealing stones, loom weights, spindle whorls, and 

 large quantities of pottery, including drinking cups and 

 cooking pots, some of which contained charred grain. 

 Some traces of bronze were found, including a bronze 

 fibula, pointing to the date of the camp having been of 

 early Iron age, possibly about 50 B.C. Some of the stone 

 implements were considered to be of foreign manufacture, 

 and although most of the pottery was very coarse, and 

 probably made locally, a portion of it was evidently 

 imported from Gaul. Particular attention was directed to 

 some perforated tiles, which had apparently been used as 

 " grids," one actually having been found lying near a 

 cooking pot upon a hearth at the bottom of the ditch. 

 Similar tiles had not previously been found in Great 

 Britain. An amber bead showed probable intercourse with 

 Scandinavia. In the ditch itself there was no trace of 

 Roman or Romano-British pottery, although a small 

 quantity of such ware was found in the humus which lay 

 above the original land surface, and which had been 

 washed or carried down by the plough from the higher 

 ground. The authors considered that the camp had been 

 destroyed or abandoned about the time of the Roman 

 entry into London. The camp, which covered several 

 acres, had apparently held a considerable population, which 

 practised weaving and the potter's art, cultivated grain, 

 and possessed, or at all events consumed, the ox and 

 horse, the bones of which were associated with those of 

 boar and wolf or dog. 



Royal Meteorological Society, Aoril 20. — Mr. H. 

 Mellish, president, in the chair. — R. G. K. Lempfert and 

 R. Corless : Line squalls tnd associated phenomena. A 

 line squall is usually associated with the displacement of 

 an air current moving from south-west by a colder current 

 from north-west. The authors investigated the phenomena 

 associated with several well-marked line squalls, and 

 showed by maps with isochronous lines the direction of 

 front and the rate of advance of the various storms across 

 the country. 



Lmnean Society, April 21. — Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Miss M. G. Sykes : The anatomy 

 of Welwitschia mirahilis in the seedling and adult stages. 

 The development of the ridges bearing inflorescences has 

 been studied. On the whole, the investigation has served 

 further to confirm the impression of the aberrant nature of 

 the plant; it mav, indeed, be described as an "adult 

 seedling." — Prof. P. Stein : Die von Mr. Hugh Scott im 



