May 5, 1892; 



NA TURE 



\% 



On two of these cliches it has been remarked that the 

 colours seen by transmission are very plainly comple- 

 mentary to those that are seen by reflection. 



The theory shows that the complex colours that adorn 

 natural objects ought to be photographed just the same 

 as the simple colours of a spectrum. There was no 

 necessity to verify the fact experimentally. The four 

 cliches that I have the honour of submitting to the 

 Academy represent faithfully some objects sufficiently 

 diverse, a stained glass windowof four colours, red, green, 

 blue, yellow ; a group of draperies ; a plate of oranges, 

 surmounted by a red poppy ; a many-coloured parrot. 

 These showed that the shape is represented simultaneously 

 with the colours. 



The draperies and the bird required from five to ten 

 minutes' exposure to the electric light or the sun. The 

 other objects were obtained after many hours of exposure 

 to a diffuse light. The green of the foliage, the grey of 

 the stone of a building, are perfectly produced on another 

 cliche ; the blue of the sky, on the contrary, was repre- 

 sented as indigo. It remains, then, to perfect the ortho- 

 chromatism of the plate, and to increase considerably its 

 sensibility. 



NOTES. 



The Royal Society'.s soirSe is being held as we go to press. 

 We hope to give next week some account of the principal objects 

 exhibited. 



The Bureau des Longitudes is sending an expedition to 

 Senegambia to observe the total solar eclipse of April 1893. 



The first session of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy 

 is to be held in the theatre of the Geological Museum, Jermyn 

 Street, on Wednesday, May 18, when the President, Mr. George 

 Seymour, will deliver the inaugural address. There will bean 

 inaugural supper at the Criterion. 



At the Royal Academy dinner Sir John Lubbock responded 

 for science. He said that no class derived more benefit and 

 enjoyment from works of art than men of science. Sir 

 John referred also to the growing importance of art in relation 

 to the material prosperity of the country. Our merchants and 

 manufacturers, he said, could no longer rely entirely on 

 excellence of material and solidity of workmanship, but had 

 to look to artistic charm and beauty of design. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Institution on May 2, 

 the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing 

 year : the Duke of Northumberland, President ; Sir James 

 Crichton-Browne, Treasurer; Sir Frederick Bramwell, 

 Secretary. 



It is reported from Melbourne that Sir Thomas Elder has 

 decided not to send out another exploring expedition into Central 

 Australia at present. He attributes the failure of his recent 

 expedition, under Mr. Lindsay, to the severity of the seaso.n, 

 the drought having been unusually trying. 



Ox May 7 the members of the Geologists' Association will 

 make an excursion to Walthamstow, Mr. J. Walter Gregory 

 acting as director. The object of the excursionists will be to 

 examine sections on the Tottenham and Forest Gale Railway. 

 The best section is about half a mile from St. James's Street, 

 and shows the lower terraces of the Lea Valley gravels resting 

 on a very eroded surface of London Clay. Masses of the 

 London Clay stand up, which were probably once islets. The 

 alterations in the poiition of the bed of the Lea are well shown 

 by this cutting. 



NO. 1175, VOL. 46] 



On Tuesday next (May 10) Mr, Frederick E. Ives will 

 begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on 

 photography in the colours of nature. 



At the meeting of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on 

 March 16, Mr. John Carbutt made some remarks on the results 

 achieved by Mr. Frederick E. Ives in the field of colour photo- 

 graphy, which, in his judgment, so far as practical results were 

 concerned, were far in advance of anything that had as yet 

 been accomplished elsewhere. Mr. Carbutt urged that it was 

 eminently fitting for the Institute to recognize the value of the 

 woik of one of its own members, and moved that the subject of 

 Mr. Ives's investigations and results in the field of colour photo- 

 graphy should be referred to the committee on science and the 

 arts for investigation and appropriate recognition. The motion 

 was carried. 



Sir James Crichton-Browne delivered the annual oration 

 at the itSth anniversary meeting of the Medical Society of 

 London, held on Monday evening. He chose as his subject 

 "Sex in Education." He showed that the female brain is 

 lighter than that of the male, not only absolutely, but relatively 

 to the respective statures and weights of the two sexes ; that the 

 specific gravity of parts of the female brain is less than that of 

 corresponding parts of the male brain ; and that the blood 

 supply, which in the male is directed more towards the portions 

 which are concerned in volition, cognition, and the ideo-motor 

 processes, is in the female more directed towards portions which 

 are mainly concerned in the discharge of sensory functions. Sir 

 James urged the necessity of such structural differences being 

 taken into account in the conduct of education ; and, while dis- 

 claiming any intention of bringing a wholesale indictment against 

 high schools for girls, he nevertheless held that some of their 

 methods were capable of leading to great evils, especially when 

 not controlled by a judicious and sympathetic mistress. He 

 pointed out the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy information as 

 to either the methods of many schools or their effects, more 

 especially as the pupils themselves were often hostile to the in- 

 quiry ; but he referred to one school at which he had been per- 

 mitted to ascertain the facts, and in which he found that, out of 18 7 

 girls belonging to the upper and middle classes, well-fed and 

 clad and cared for," and ranging from ten to seventeen years 

 of age, as many as 137 complained of headaches, which 

 in 65 instances occurred occasionally, in 48 frequently, 

 and in 24 habitually. He cited the authority of Sir Richard 

 Owen for the position that children have no business with head- 

 aches, and that something must be wrong in the school in which 

 they fiequently suffer from them. An account was given of the 

 modus operandi of excessive brain work as a factor in the produc- 

 tion of ill-health, and statistics were quoted to show the special 

 liability of the female organism to disease at the period of life which 

 the educator has seized on for his own. He attached great import- 

 ance to loss of appetite, especially morning appetite, as a result 

 of overstrain, and as one which was calculated to be itself the 

 fruitful parent of other evils ; and he strongly condemned the 

 recent decision of the University of St. Andrews to open its 

 classes in arts, science, and theology to women as well as to men, 

 thus, as he declared, taking not a retrograde step, but a down- 

 hill step towards confusion and disaster, " What was decided 

 amongst the prehistoric protozoa cannot be annulled by Act of 

 Parliament; and the essential difference between male and 

 female cannot be obliterated at a sweep of the pen by any 

 Senatus Academicus." 



The weather during the past week has been unsettled 

 generally, and showers of cold rain, hail, or sleet have occurred 



