46 



NATURE 



[November 14, 1895 



In conclusion, I may be permitted to express my gratification 

 that the efforts made by Prof. Callendar and myself to demon- 

 strate the accuracy and convenience of the methods of platinum 

 thermometry are, although progress has been slow, at length 

 awakening the attention of scientific inquirers. We believe (and 

 that belief is founded not only on our own experience, but more 

 especially on the work of Messrs. Heycock and Neville) that it 

 is by means of the platinum thermometer that the many difficul- 

 ties attendant on thermometric measurements, either at high or 

 low temperatures, can be most easily surmounted. 



Although the acquisition and installation of the apparatus has 

 involved a considerable expenditure of both time and money, I 

 am confident that, under the able direction of Dr. Chree, the 

 results will justify the action of the Committee. 

 Appendix. 



The following table gives the relation between the platinum 

 temperature scale and the air temperature scale, when the value 

 of S =1*500. 



* More accurately = 



0-375 and 49-625. 



E. H. Griffiths. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — It is announced that the electors to the Waynflete 

 Professorship of Mineralogy will proceed to the election of a 

 Professor in the course of the present year. Candidates are re- 

 quired to send to the Registrar of the University, on or before 

 December 7, their applications and testimonials. 



The University having accepted a bequest of ^900, given by 

 the will of the late Mrs. Fielding, for the purpose of providing 

 for the payment of a Curator of the Fielding Herbarium, it has 

 been decreed that there shall be a Curator of the Herbarium, 

 appointed by the Fielding Curators, and under the direct control 

 of the Sherardian Professor of Botany. Besides the income 

 derived from the bequest of ^900, the Curators shall have the 

 power to apply a part of the funds at their disposal to the in- 

 crease of the stipend of the Curator of the Herbarium. 



The following Examiners have l)een approved by Convo- 

 cation : — For the first examination for the degree of Bachelor of 

 Medicine, W. R. Dunstan, G. W. S. Farmer, and Dr. R. 

 Stockman ; for the second examination for the degree of 

 Bachelor of Medicine, Dr. C. W. Mansell Moullin, Sir William 

 Stokes, G. E. Herman, and Dr. S. H. C. Martin. In each 

 case the appointments are for the examinations of 1896, 1897, 

 and 1898. 



Cambridge. — Mr. T. W. Bridge, Professor of Zoology in 

 the Mason College, Birmingham, and Mr. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 

 of Peterhouse, have been approved for the degree of Doctor of 

 Science. 



Mr. C. T. R. Wilson, of Sidney Sussex College, has been 

 elected to the Clerk Maxwell Studentship in Experimental 

 Physics. 



The late Miss Jane Saul has left her collection of shells, and 

 the cabinet containing the .same, her " Conchologia Iconica," 

 and other conchological works, to the University. 



Mr. J. Gad, Extraordinary Professor of Physiology in Berlin 

 University, has been appointed Ordinary Professor of the same 

 subject, and Director of the Physiological Institute in the German 

 University at Prague. Dr. M. von Lcnhossek, of Wurzburg, 



NO. 1359. VOL. 53] 



has been appointed Prosector in the Anatomical Institute at 

 TiibingeB. Other. recent appointments are : Dr. Mark W. Har- 

 rington to be President of Washington State University ; Mr. H. 

 Landes to be Professor of Geology in the same University, and 

 Dr. H. C. Myers to be Professor of Chemistry. 



Dr. C. M. Luxmore has been appointed to a Research 

 Fellowship of the Pharmaceutical Society. 



Mr. James Wilson, Lecturer in Agriculture, University 

 College, AV)erystwyth, has been appointed to the Fordyce 

 Lectureship in Agriculture in Aberdeen University. 



From the Journal of the Society of Arts it appears that the 

 great advances made by Swiss national industry during the last 

 fifteen or sixteen years, both in the technical and artistic 

 character of its products, are attributed by the Deutsches Handels 

 Archiv to the beneficial influences of State and Municipal 

 establishments for technical education. It is very remarkable 

 how much is done in the cantons of Geneva and Neuchatel tO' 

 encourage and improve local industries, especially in finer classes 

 of goods, for the manufacture of which a considerable amount 

 of skill and artistic knowledge is required. In these two 

 cantons, numbering little more than 220,000 inhabitants, there 

 are five schools for watchmakers, and in Geneva, Neuchatel, 

 and Chaux de Fonds there are schools for instruction in the fine 

 arts and in artistic handicrafts. Besides the institutions there 

 are commercial schools in Geneva and Neuchatel, and the 

 professional schools in which instruction in various industries is 

 given to persons of both sexes. In the watchmaking school at 

 Geneva a class for girls has recently been established, where 

 certain operations peculiarly suitable for female labour are 

 taught. Considerable assistance is also rendered to the watch 

 industry by the astronomical observatories at Geneva and 

 Neuchatel, both by testing chronometers, and by their coj 

 operation in the asniiual trade competitions. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnogi-aphie , Y>z.nA viii. Heft iv, 

 — This well-illustrated journal is steadily increasing in value 

 and interest, as it is wider in its scope than it was at the com- 

 mencement. Baron van Hoevell, of Amboina, has a paper on a 

 few notes on the kinds of the worship of gods in the south-western 

 and south-eastern islands of the Malay Archipelago. Amongst 

 other interesting information is a legend of the origin of two 

 fetiches which are said to have fallen from heaven ; one, which 

 is called a sword, is probably a piece of old hoop-iron, and the.- 

 other, a supposed spear-point, appears to be a piece of meteoric 

 iron. There are also traces of a virginal conception throughi 

 divine influence. — " Dogs and Primitive Folk " is the title of 

 a comprehensive essay by Dr. B. Langkavel, in which he deals 

 with dogs in folk custom and beUef, the name as a term of 

 reproach, ornaments derived from dogs, &c. — Dr. O. Frank- 

 furter writes on dreams and their significance according to a 

 Siamese dream-book. — J. D. E. Schmeltz has three communi- 

 cations on Papuan ethnography, of which the first, on objects 

 from the Tugeri, is the most interesting. We are now beginning 

 to learn something definite about these ruthless pirates that 

 harass the western coast population of British New Guinea. A 

 bow, tobacco-pipe, drum, and two remarkable dance ornaments 

 are figured ; the latter are slabs of wood carved to represent a. 

 flying bird (?), and several lizards or crocodiles. He also 

 describes a wood-carving of what appears to be an echidna and 

 some ceremonial objects. The rest of the journal is occupied 

 with the usual notes and notices. 



In addition to articles specially interesting to Italian, 

 botanists, the Nuovo Giontak Botanico Italiano for July 

 contains the following : — A study of the action of certain, 

 alkaloids on plants in darkness and in light, by Signor A. 

 Marcacci. While quinine arrests the transformation of starch 

 into saccharose, and of dextrose into levulose, both in the dark.. 

 and in the light, strychnine does so only in the light, from 

 which the conclusion is drawn that these changes are not simply- 

 chemical processes, but are dependent on other unknown forces. 

 — On certain contrivances for dissemination in Angiosperms ; in 

 which more stress is laid than is generally the case on the action 

 of water in the dispersion of seeds ; as, for example, in the 

 production of mucilage, to which the rupture of capsules is. 

 often due. — On the fruit of Aucuba japonica, by Signor L. 

 Pampaloni.— On the affinities of the Sphenophyllacem, by Prof. G. 

 Arcangeli. The author regards this group of fossil plants as having.; 



