334 



NA TURE 



[February 6, 1896 



University for the county of London, although the County 

 Council itself has not assumed any such ambitious denomination 

 for its work. On the contrary, continued the Duke, the 

 Technical Education Board is fully aware of the need of our 

 great metropolis for a teaching University, and it has promised 

 to that new University a contribution of ;!^io,ooo a year, con- 

 tingent upon the organisation of that body being such as will 

 secure the advantages of a new University to all classes of the 

 inhabitants of London, including the artisan and the labouring 

 classes. The Council has thus shown the most practical proof 

 that in its opinion the great work which it has already under- 

 taken still requires to be supplemented by something more 

 thoroughly and more completely deserving the name of Uni- 

 versity education for the county of London. 



We learn from the Times that Mr. T H. Ismay has written 

 to the President of the Liverpool Engineering Society, offering 

 on behalf of the White Star Line Company the sum of ;[^2000, 

 to be used in founding and maintaining in connection with 

 University College a scholarship intended to perpetuate the 

 memory of the late Sir Edward Harland and his association with 

 the shipping life and engineering profession of Liverpool. It 

 is proposed that the scholarship shall be awarded for nautical 

 engineering and marine architecture, and called the " Sir Edward 

 Harland Memorial Scholarship." 



The following new announcements of gifts to educational 

 institutions in America are noted in Science. Mr. J. H. Arm- 

 strong, of Plattsburg, deeded a considerable property to Union 

 College, but retained a life interest in it. On January 2 of this 

 year he died, and by his will added to the gift, which now 

 amounts to 100,000 dols. The Legislature of Massachusetts has 

 passed the Bill granting 25,000 dols. to the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology. Mrs. Josiah N. Fiske has given Barnard 

 College 5000 dols. for the foundation of a scholarship which will 

 be open to competition. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for January 

 1896, contains but one article — on the development of Asterina 

 gibbosa, by E. W. MacBride, Fellow of St. John's College, 

 with plates 18-29. The investigations forming the subject of 

 this memoir were commenced some years ago ; the author at 

 first intended to work out the development of the so-called 

 heart, with its accompanying sinuses, in the Asterids, as he had 

 previously done in the case of the Ophiurids. Coming to the 

 conclusion, however, that our knowledge of the development of 

 most of the organs in the Asterid body was very defective, he 

 determined to thoroughly revise their whole history, embryonic 

 and larval. This work has occupied his attention for the last 

 two years, and as a result we have this carefully written memoir, 

 which the author hopes may be found to place our knowledge of 

 Asterid development on the same level as that to which our 

 acquaintance with Crinoid ontogeny has been raised by the 

 researches, among others, of Bury and Seeliger. The material 

 was chiefly collected at the Naples Station. The memoir is 

 prefixed by a statement of the methods of research adopted, and 

 concludes with a chapter entitled "General Considerations," in 

 which two questions are asked : ( i ) What light does this history 

 throw on the affinities of the Asterids with the other Echi- 

 noderms? and (2) Does it suggest any direction in which we 

 may look to find the origin of the group Echinodermata ? The 

 answer given to the former is that the Asterids have an affinity 

 with the Crinoids, and that they had a fixed ancestor ; and to the 

 latter, that assuming a free-swimming ancestor of Echinoderms 

 (provisionally called Dipleurula), it and the Tornaria ancestor of 

 Balanoglossus must have been closely allied. This further 

 involves the assumption that the Asterids were thus allied to 

 the Protochordata. 



The number of the Nuovo Giornale Botajtico Italiano for 

 January contains, among others, the following papers : — Botan- 

 ical results of a journey to the Lower Obi, by S. Sommier. — A 

 paper by A. Pizzigoni on the dry and moist cancer of the 

 potato, which he regards as two distinct diseases ; the former 

 due to the attacks of Fusisporium solani alone, the latter to 

 this fungus, together with bacteria. — Sig. G. Del Guercio 

 describes the changes produced in the cortex of the oak by the 

 attacks of the larva of Gracilaria simploniella. — Prof. A. 

 Borzl has a paper on the hydrophorous apparatus of xerophilous 

 plants belonging to the Mediterranean flora; those specially 



NO. 1 37 1, VOL. 53] 



described are the nodal sheath and cushion of many Caryophyll- 

 acese, the leaf- sheath of Graminea; and Umbelliferae, and the 

 ochrea of Polygonaceae. — Sig. A. Lenticchia contributes a useful 

 list of the flowering plants of Italian Switzerland. 



In the Bullettino of the Italian Botanical Society for Decem- 

 ber 1895 and January 1896, are papers on the dimorphism in the 

 flowers of Convolvulus arvensis, caused by the attacks of 

 Thecaphora hyalina. — On the meteorology of the year 1895, ^"'l 

 its effects on the plants in the Botanic Garden at Florence. 

 The lowest temperature recorded during the severe winter 

 1894-95 was -7 C. — On the biology of the flowers of Oxalis 

 cernua, with especial reference to the occurrence of fertile 

 flowers intermediate between the normal and the true cleis- 

 togamous flowers. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



London. 



Royal Society, December 5, 1895.^" The Measurement of 

 High Potential Difference." By H. C. Leake, R. Leventhorpe, 

 and C. S. Whitehead. 



This paper describes firstly the method adopted by Prof. 

 Ayrton and Mr. Mather for the accurate calibration of electro- 

 static voltmeters in electro-magnetic units. For this purpose a 

 high alternating potential difference is employed, which can be 

 measured by the apparatus in several ways, each of which is a 

 check on the others. By means of a divided resistance and a 

 new type of low-reading idiostatic electrometer, the high 

 alternating potential difference can be measured without involving 

 determinations of either current or resistance. It is probable 

 that the measurements of 2000 volts are correct to about yV pc 

 cent, in terms of the Clark cell. 



With the aid of this apparatus, and the most probable value 

 of " V," the authors determined the accuracy with which 

 measurements of steady potential differences of about 2000 volts 

 could be made in terms of the absolute electrostatic unit by 

 means of the Kelvin absolute electrometer, when used in the 

 ordinary way, and they found that measurements made with this 

 instrument were always too large by, on the average, i^ per cent. 



They traced this error to imperfection in the action of the 

 coach-springs, the greater part of which could be eliminated by 

 keeping the springs constantly loaded. 



The remaining error, which was due to change of temperature 

 of the coach-springs, was reduced by very carefully shielding the 

 instrument from heat when in use, and was finally eliminated by 

 the use of a simple correction formula. This method of 

 correction had the great advantage of not depending on thermo- 

 meter readings, as the coach-springs themselves were virtually 

 used as a metallic thermometer to indicate their own tem- 

 perature. 



With these precautions it was found possible on some occasions 

 to make measurements with the absolute electrometer accurate 

 in absolute electrostatic units to about xV per cent. , in so far as 

 the authors were able to judge ; but it was found that on many 

 days there was an error of about \ per cent, in the constant of 

 the instrument, due to some inherent defect, intermittent in its 

 action, which could not be satisfactorily explained. 



A theoretical investigation is given to determine the most 

 suitable values of the mass to be used for the initial adjustment 

 of the coach-springs, and of the potential difference to which the 

 electrometer should be charged, for the heterostatic measurement 

 of a given potential difference, with the result that the former 

 should be proportional to the § power, and the latter to the first 

 power of the potential difference to be measured. It is also 

 shown that, in addition to the well-known advantages of the 

 heterostatic over the idiostatic method, there is the additional 

 advantage that the error in the ordinary assumption as to the 

 value of the effective area of the attracted disk is of far less 

 importance in the former than in the latter method. 



Finally an investigation is given in which Schwarz's rnethod 

 is applied to determine the error in the ordinary assumption as 

 to the value of the effective area, for the case when the disk and 

 guard-ring are not quite in the same plane. 



Geological Society, January 8.— Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., President, in the chair. — A delimitation of the Ceno- 

 manian, being a comparison of the corresponding beds in 

 Southern England and Western France, by A. J. Jukes-Browne 

 and William Hill. The object of the authors has been to com- 

 pare the beds which form the lower part of the Upper Cre- 



