October 27, 1892] 



NATURE 



627 



Scientific study should be pursued by all in a greater or less 

 degree. It teaches more important lessons than the most im- 

 pressive discourse ever preached. During the investigation of 

 what is generally termed the invisible world, men should at 

 time pause to reflect, and ask themselves such questions as these : 

 What is the meaning of, and to what end is, creation? Is it all 

 mere chance? Were such wonderful designs and properties 

 created at the beginning ? Was there in matter at the begin- 

 ning an inherent, or implanted, power of development ? Simple 

 as these questions may seem, man in the flesh will never be able 

 to find the true answers. The extraordinary design and struc- 

 ture which have existed in the unseen world for millions of 

 years, or possibly in all past time, and even at the present day 

 known to so few, demonstrate at least that the great Power has 

 bestowed the same care upon what appear to us the most insig- 

 nificant portions of creation, as upon what we think are the 

 greatest works in the universe. These silent sermons must 

 surely influence the mind, and set it thinking of the super- 

 natural and of our duties during life. 



It may now with truth be said that science gives us means, 

 such as never before existed, of appreciating the greatness of 

 the Supreme Spirit, by enabling us to read fresh chapters in the 

 book of nature. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Prof. Darwin has been appointed to represent 

 the University at the approaching tercentenary of Galileo's 

 appointment to a chair in the University of Padua. The cele- 

 bration will take place in Padua at the beginning of December. 



Prof. Green, of Oxford, is appointed an Elector to the 

 Harkness University Scholarship in Geology in the place of the 

 late Mr. T. Roberts, assistant to the Woodwardian Professor. 



The discussion in the Senate of the proposal to found a 

 mechanical sciences tripos for engineering students was unex- 

 pectedly favourable, in marked contrast to the reception accorded 

 to former schemes. Prof. Ewing is to be congratulated on the 

 skill with which the new plan has been framed, and the success 

 with which he has met and conciliated the original opposition 

 of the more mathematical members of the Senate. The grants 

 for the approval of the plan have been sanctioned by the Council, 

 and it is not likely that they will now be opposed. Some fifteen 

 students are already at work in the engineering laboratary in 

 preparation for the new tripos, which bids fair to take a good 

 place among the honours schools, and cannot fail to stimulate 

 the growth of the engineering department under its present 

 energetic head. 



Dublin.— At the meeting of Council of the Royal College of 

 Science, Dublin, held on the 5th inst., a letter was read from 

 H.M. Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, announcing that 

 they had been pleased to place at the disposal of the College a 

 science scholarship of the annual value of ^^150 for the year 

 1893. These scholarships are specially instituted for the en- 

 couragement of scientific research and are tenable for two years, 

 and one of them has already been nominated to by the Council 

 of the College for the year 1891-92. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Science, October. — On a colour system, by 

 O. N. Rood. — An ottrelite-bearing phase of a metamorphic con- 

 glomerate in the Green Mountains, by C. L. Whittle, — The age- 

 coating in incandescent lamps, by E. L. Nichols. The 

 diminution of efficiency in incandescent lamps is due to three 

 causes, viz., loss of vacuum, increase of re^istance due to the 

 the disintegration of the filament, and finally the deposition of 

 disintegrated carbon upon the inner surface of the lamp-bulb. 

 This deposition gives rise to what is called the age-coating. It 

 appears that the" rate of deposit of the coating in incandescent 

 lamp-bulbs is greatest in the early part of the life of the lamp. 

 For example, in the case of a lamp which lasted 800 hours, more 

 than half the coating was deposited during the first 200 hours. 

 The loss of brightness due to the absorbing power of the age- 

 coating is a variable part of the total loss, being greatest in 

 ■ lamps of high initial efficiency. The coating does not appreciably 

 ' modify the character of the light transmitted, as shown by a 

 series of photo-spectroscopic measurements. The distribution of 

 the coating within the bulb is nearly uniform. No marked differ- 



) 



NO. 1200, VOL. 46] 



ence between treated and untreated filaments appears to exist as 

 regards the coating produced from them. It has been pointed 

 out, however, that in the case of lamps exhausted without the 

 aid of mercury the age-coating is scarcely perceptible. — Mica- 

 peridotite from Kentucky, by J. S. Diller. — Glaciation in the 

 Finger Lake region of New York, by D. F. Lincoln. —Certain 

 points in the interaction of potassium permanganate and sul- 

 phuric acid, by F. A. Gooch and E. W. Danner. When these 

 two bodies are brought into solution together there is developed 

 a tendency towards reduction on the part of the permanganate, 

 which is the greater as the strexvg^V^ of the i is increased, as 

 the temperature is ra''-'»-A, and as the duration of the action is 

 extended. At ^' ,., the oxygen lost to the permanganate is 

 ''^"- ' iin the later stages manganese is precipitated 



. of a higher oxide or retained in solution in the form 

 ofani^.ier sulphate. — Crystallography of the caesium -mercuric 

 halides, by S. L. PenfieJd.— Silver hemisulphatc, by M. C. Lea. 

 — Restorations of Claosaurus and Ceratosaurus, by O. C Mi-rsh. 

 — Restoration of Mastodon Am^ricanus (Cuvier), by the same. 



The number of the Nuovo GiornaU Bolanico Italiano for Octo- 

 ber is entirely occupied by the confinu.ition of Sig. Nicotia's 

 Statistics of the Flora of Sicily. 



American Journal of Mathematics, vol. xiv.. No. 3 (Balti- 

 more, the John Hopkins Press, 1892). — The title of Prof. 

 Cayley's communication, ** Corrected Seminomiant tables for 

 the Weights 11 and 12" (pp. 195-200) explains itself. It con- 

 tains a better form of tables, which were given in a previous 

 volume (vii., pp. 59-73). Weierstrass, in his memoir " Zur 

 Funktionenlehre," called attention to certain functions, which 

 offer special singularities. " Au lieu de presenter un nombre 

 fini ou infini de points singuliers essentials isoUs elles off"rent des 

 lignes singulieres essentielles ou meme des espaces lacunaires a 

 I'interieurdesquels elles cessent d'exister." — By request of Mr. 

 Hermit, M. H. Poincare discusses the subject in an article " Sur 

 les fonctions a espaces lacunaires " (pp. 201-221). — J. C. Field, 

 writes on " Transformation of a System of Independent 

 Variables" (pp. 230-236). — Mansfield Merriman discusses "The 

 deduction of final formulas for the Algebraic Solution of the 

 Quartic Equation " (pp. 237-245), and L. S. Hulburt in 

 remarks on " A class of new theorems on the number and arrange- 

 ment of the real branches of plane Algebraic Curves " (pp. 246- 

 250), follows up recent work, in the same direction, by Messrs. 

 Harnack and Hilbert." — " The Symbolic notation of Aronhold 

 and Clebsch" (pp. 251-261) has for its object the exposition of 

 this notation, " so well adapted to the expression of functional 

 invariants," in an English form. The same writer, W. F. 

 Osgood, also contributes a note on "the System of two simul- 

 taneous Ternary Quadratic^- forms " (pp. 262-273). This, like- 

 wise, is a simplification for the benefit of English readers. It 

 contains an account of Gordon's method, and employs the 

 notation of the preceding article. — H. S. White communicates 

 notes "on generating systems of Ternary and Quaternary Linear 

 transformations" (pp. 274-282), and "a Symbolic demonstra- 

 tion of Hubert's method for deriving Invariants and Covariants 

 of given Ternary forms" (pp. 283-290). This latter paper also 

 uses the symbolic notation of Aronhold and Clebsch in a sim- 

 plified statement of recent results developed in Hilbert's notable 

 paper " Ueber die Theorieder Algebraischen Formen " (Math.- 

 Aca., vol. 36, pp. 524-6). The only paper, in the present 

 number, which was read before the New York Mathematical 

 Society is one by the President, Emory McClintock, " On the 

 Computation of Covariants by Transvection " (pp. 222-229). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 17. — M. Duchartre in the 

 chair. — On Mr. Barnard's discovery of the filth satellite of 

 Jupiter, by M. F. Tisserand.— On the application of certain 

 methods of successive approximation to ordinary differential 

 equations, by M. Emile Picard. — On a reaction alleged to be 

 peculiar to spermine, by M. Duclaux. — Observations of three 

 new small planets discovered at the Nice observatory by means 

 of photography, by M. Charlois ; report by M. Perrotin (see 

 Astronomical Column). — On the coexistence of dielectric power 

 and electrolytic conductivity, by M. E. Bouty. A vindication 

 of priority. — On the polarization of light of various colours by 

 the atmosphere, by M. N. Piltschikoff". There is a well-marked 

 difference between the intensity of polarization of blue light and 

 that of red in the atmosphere The intensities are measured by 



