February 27, 1896] 



NATURE 



405 



It will be seen that the curve commences moving round the 

 origin of coordinates, gradually closing up, and becoming more 

 elongated in form, the difference between its instantaneous and 

 mean positions decreasing up to 1895 very perceptibly. The 

 dotted path is traced through points which have been inter- 

 polated, and which could not be directly obtained owing to 

 insuflficiency of observations. 



The general trend of the plotted points indicates an unmis- 

 takable decrease in the amplitude during the five years of 

 observation, and, as Prof. Albrech points out, the movement is 

 by no means simple, but necessitates the presence of more terms 

 in the expression for representing this motion. 



The communication concludes with a table giving the values 

 for every 30° of longitude of the terms 



X cos A. + _y sin A. 

 and y cos \ - jr sin A. 



for the different epochs in connection with the three equations 

 for calculating the variations in the altitude, azimuth, and 

 longitude, namely, 



4> - <f>i, = -h r cos K -\- y sin \ 

 o - a^ — + {y cos \ - X sin A) sec ^ 

 A Afl = - ( J cos A — jr sin A) tan ^ 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., has been ap- 

 pointed Rede Lecturer for the present year. 



The Natural Sciences Tripos will begin on May 27, and the 

 various practical and oral examinations will not be concluded 

 until June 16. 



Prof. Ramsay, F.R.S., has been appointed an Elector to the 

 Jacksonian Professorship of Natural Philosophy, now held by 

 Prof. Dewar, F.R.S. 



A meeting of members of the Senate, presided over by the 

 I'rovost of King's, was held on Saturday last, at which resolu- 

 tions were passed unanimously in favour of granting a titular 

 recognition (such as an honorary B.A.) to qualified women, and 

 against conceding anything that might lead to the transforma- 

 tion of Cambridge into a " mixed " University. 



Sir HexN'RY Roscoe has been elected Vice-Chancellor of the 

 University of London, in the place of the late Sir Julian 

 Goldsmid. Mr. F. V. Dickins, the Assistant-Registrar, has 

 been elected Registrar, in the place of Mr. A. Milman, retired. 



We have received a combined Calendar, History, and General 

 Summary of Regulations of the Department of Science and 

 Art (1896). From the statistics therein given it appears that 

 there are 2889 Science and Art Schools in the United Kingdom, 

 and that they contain among them 167,822 students in science 

 'lasses, and 132,256 students in art classes. 



The fourth annual Report of the Technical Instruction Sub- 

 ' inmittee of the City of Liverpool, which deals with the work 

 uiplished by them during 1895, is eminently satisfactory, 

 iiidant evidence is furnished that great things have been 

 accomplished in Liverpool during the past year. Preliminary 

 steps have been taken towards the erection of a central institu- 

 tion for the accommodation of evening science and techno- 

 logical classes. Three organised day science schools have 

 been established ; and a school of applied arts has been called 

 into existence. An electro-technical department, evening 

 courses of advanced work in the engineering laboratories, a 

 special department deaiing with the science and art of educa- 

 tion, have all grown up at the University College of the city as 

 a result of the assistance given by the Technical Instruction 

 Sub-Committee. But the difficulty arising from insufficient pre- 

 vious education, which is hampering the work of similar Com- 

 mittees in all parts of the country, is very much felt in Liverpool. 

 The Chairman reports : ' ' Institutions which were founded to give 

 a strictly technical education have had, in many cases, to enlarge 

 their borders, and provide preparatory departments or classes, 

 in which to prepare students, by a general preliminary training, 

 to take proper advantage of the special technical teaching." 

 We cordially commend the following decision of the Liverpool 

 Committee to all whom it may concern : " Partly on this ground, 

 but still more from a conviction that the best preparation for 



NO. 1374, VOL. 53] 



commercial pursuits — the staple 'industry' of Liverpool — is to 

 be found in a thoroughly good modern general education, the 

 Committee have sought to encourage and assist the public 

 secondary schools of the city to adapt themselves to give such 

 an education." 



The variegated nature of the technical education which has been 

 developed throughout the country as a result of the Acts dealing 

 with the question, is strikingly apparent to us each time we 

 receive a new report. Though that of Liverpool is so satis- 

 factory as a whole, its list of " technical " subjects emphasises 

 this point yet again. On p. 49 of the Technical Instruction 

 Committee's report, we find they encourage the teaching 

 (amongst a large numl^er ot other subjects) of singing and 

 musical notation, instrumental music, type-writing, tailors' 

 work, cabinet-making, ship carpentry and joinery, and so 

 on. The extraordinary thing is, in view of the express clause 

 of the Technical Instruction Act, 1889, "that technical in- 

 struction shall not include teaching the practice of any trade or 

 industry, or employment," that the Science and Art Depart- 

 ment should sanction such subjects as these. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin de la Sodett' des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1895, ^o. 

 I. — The vascular cryptogams of the Middle Urals and the sur- 

 rounding territory, by P. W. Ssiisew (in German). The ferns 

 which freely grow in the shadow of the pine forests of the 

 Urals, make a substantial and most picturesque part of the flora 

 of the country. The most common species are : — Polypodium 

 dr-yopteris, Phegopteris polypodiodides, Athyriiiin filix femtna, 

 Asplenhim crenatiun, Aspidittiii spinulosiini, &c. In the stony 

 parts of the highlands one finds the elegant species of 

 Allosurus, IVoodsta, Asplenitim rtita viiiraria, A. vtride, A. 

 septentrioiiale, and many others, which disappear already at a 

 short distance from the Ural range, although the conditions 

 for their growth seem to be the same. Latest research has 

 shown that only three species, characteristic of the Northern 

 Urals, do not appear in the middle and southern parts of these 

 mountains. Forty-seven different species are described. — On 

 adhesion between metals, glass, and different other sub- 

 stances, by J. Weinberg (German). The observations of M. 

 Charles Margot are discussed, and the author shows that the 

 different degrees of adhesion between different substances agree 

 with his molecular formula. — From the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean, by H. Trautschold (in German). The structure of the 

 conglomerates and other deposits on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean Sea at Nizza is discussed in order to show 

 that the phenomena are best explained by a retreat of the 

 sea, but do not agree with an upheaval of the coast. — 

 Laniiis eleagtii, a new species, akin to Otoinela Bogdanowii, 

 Bianchi, by P. Suschkin. — The tail-organ of the Raja, by 

 N. Iwanzoff (in German), with three plates. Detailed 

 anatomical work, in which the difficulties that the pseudo- 

 electrical organs of fishes are supposed to offer to Darwin's 

 theory are discussed and explained. — On the Lihellnlidett of 

 Poltava and Kharkov, by V. N. Roozianko (in Russian). 

 P'ourteen species are described. — Catalogue of the fungi of 

 Smolensk, by A. A. Jaczewski (in Russian). Two hundred and 

 fifty-four species are enumerated. The author makes the 

 remark that the forests are extremely rich in species of Russula, 

 and that all the species of this genus, without exception, are 

 used for food by the peasants, but that cases of poisoning are 

 never heard of. He makes the suggestion that perhaps the 

 poisonous species, Rttsstila emetica and R. rubra, are very rare 

 (each was found only once) ; but altogether it must be supposed 

 that the manner of cooking destroys their poisonous properties, 

 if they exist — a question which well deserves scientific investiga- 

 tion. — List of members. 



Bolleltiuo della Societa Sismologica Italiana, vol. i. , 1896, No. 8* 

 — The Cecchi microseismograph, by G. Giovannozzi. The first 

 description of the instrument published in a scientific journal. — 

 Hydrothermal observations at Fiumecaldo (Catania) in May 

 and June 1895, by C. Guzzanti. — Notices of Italian earthquakes 

 (June-July 1895), the more important being the Venetian and 

 Lubiano earthquakes of June 10, and the disastrous earthquake 

 which occurred on the east coast of the Caspian Sea during the 

 night of July 8-9. Copies of two of the microseismographic 

 records of the latter earthquake obtained at Rome are given. 



