March 12, 1896] 



NA TURH 



45 



The new photography has hitherto, so far a.'^generally known> 

 been performed only by light obtained from electric action in 

 vacuum ; but that vacuum is not essential for the generation of the 

 Rbntgen light might seem to be demonstrated by an experiment 

 by Lord Blythswood, which he described at a meeting of the 

 (llasgow Philosophical Society on Wednesday, February 5. 

 As a result he exhibited a glass photographic dry plate with 

 splendidly clear marking which had been produced on it when 

 placed inside its dark slide, wrapped round many times in black 

 velvet cloth, and held in front of the space between the main 

 electrodes of his powerful Wimshurst electrical machine, but not 

 in the direct line of the discharge. He also exhibited photo- 

 graphic results obtained from the same arrangement with only 

 the difference that the dark slide, wrapped in black velvet, was 

 held in the direct line of the discharge. In this case the photo- 

 graphic result was due, perhaps wholly, and certainly in part, to 

 electric sparks or brushes inside the enclosing box, which was, 

 as usual, made of mahogany with metal hinges and interior 

 metal mountings. It is not improbable that the results of the 

 first experiment described by Lord Blythswood may also be 

 wholly due to sparking within the wooden case. I have sug- 

 gestecl to him to repeat his experiments with a thoroughly well 

 closed aluminium box, instead of the ordinary photographic dark 

 slide which he used, and without any black cloth wrapped round 

 outside. The complete metallic enclosure will be a perfect 

 guarantee against any sparks or brushes inside. 



If the arrangement which I now suggest, with no sparks or 

 brushes between aa and the roof, gives a satisfactory photo- 

 graphic result, or if it shows a visible glow on phosphorescent 

 material placed anywhere in the space between aa and the roof 

 above it, or above the aluminium roof, it would prove the truth 

 of Rontgen's hypothesis. But failure to obtain any such results 

 would not disprove this hypothesis. The electric action, even 

 with the place of the spark so close to the field of the action 

 sought for as it is at D, in the suggested arrangement, may not 

 be sudden enough or violent enough to produce enough of longi- 

 tudinal waves, or of condensational-rarefactional vibrations, to 

 act sensibly on a photographic plate, or to produce a physical 

 glow on a phosphorescent substance. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — At a Congregation held on Tuesday, the series of 

 resolutions relating to the claims of women, the consideration 

 of which was adjourned last week after the rejection of the 

 proposal for admitting women to the B.A. degree, were discussed 

 and rejected. 



Cambridge. — Mr. Charles Davison, well-known for his 

 researches on earthquakes and and other seismic phenomena, 

 has been approved by the General Board of Studies for the 

 degree of Doctor of Science. 



The Isaac Newton Studentship in Astronomy and Physical 

 Optics has been conferred on Mr. John Gaston Leathern, 

 Scholar of St. John's College. 



Dr. Joseph Cirifliths has been appointed an additional 

 Examiner in Surgery. 



. The Panjab University has, like the University of Calcutta 

 and Allahabad, become affiliated to the University of Cambridge. 

 Graduates in Arts of the Panjab are thereby exempted from the 

 previous examinations, and may proceed to their degree by 

 means of a Tripos Examination after two years' residence in 

 Cambridge. 



The Syndicate for the consideration of the question of degrees 

 for women has been nominated, and consists of the Vice- 

 Chancellor, Dr. Butler, Master of Trinity, Dr. Peile, Master of 

 Christ's, Mr. Austen Leigh, Provost of King's, Prof. E. C 

 Clark, Prof. Clifford Allbutt, F.R.S., Prof. Sidgwick, Dr. 

 Tackson, Prof. Forsyth, F. R.S., Dr. Keynes, Prof. Armitage 

 Robinson, Prof. Foster, F.R.S., Mr. R. T. Wright, Mr. W. L. 

 MoUison, and Mr. R. A. Neil. Its appointment will be 

 opposed on the ground that an excessive proportion of its 

 members have already committed themselves to definite views 

 on the questions at issue, and that only two members of less than 

 twenty years' standing are included. 



The Examination in Sanitary Science for the diploma in 

 Public Health will begin on April 7, and will extend over ten 



A conversazione will be held to-night in the Cavendish 

 horatory, in commemoration of the opening of the new 



buildings. The President of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society (Prof. J. J. Thomson) and Mrs. Thomson are the hosts. 



NO. 1376, VOL. 53] 



The hall which Mr. M'Ewan has added to the Edinburgh 

 University buildings, at a cost of between ;^6o,ooo and £jo,ocx>, 

 will be opened early in the ensuing summer. 



The University of Indianapolis has just been organised by 

 representatives of Butler College, the Medical College of Indiana, 

 the Indiana Dental College, and the Indiana Law School. 



President John >L Coulter, of Lake Forest University, 

 has resigned in order to accept the head Professorship of Botany 

 in the University of Chicago, which has been endowed with 

 1,000,000 dollars in its Botanical Department. 



The following are among recent appointments : — Dr. Christ- 

 opher Childs to be Assistant in the Hygienic Department 

 at University College, London, under the direction of Prof. 

 Corfield ; Dr. Allan MacFadyen to act as hon. secretary of the 

 British Institute of Preventive Medicine ; M. Salih Zeky to be 

 Director of the Observatoire Imperial Meteorologique et Seis- 

 mique at Constantinople, in succession to the late M. A. 

 Coumbary ; Dr. W. Kurchinski, of Kieff, to be appointed 

 Extraordinary Professor of Physiology at Turieff (Dorpat). 



The Executive Committee of the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute have awarded the second Salters' Company's Research 

 Fellow.ship, for the encouragement of higher research in chem- 

 istry in its relation to manufactures, to Dr. Sidney Williamson, 

 who was for two years a student at the City and Guilds Technical 

 College, Finsbury, and subsequently for three years at the City 

 and Guilds Central Technical College. The Fellowship is 

 tenable at the latter, and Dr. Williamson proposes to work on 

 some questions bearing on food-stuffs generally, more particularly 

 the examination of some definite albumenoids, with the ultimate 

 object of ascertaining the influence of various manures on the 

 growth of crops in so far as quality of produce is concerned. 



The Middlesex County Council have voted the sum of 

 ;^lo,785 for the purpose of technical education classes in the 

 county during the current year. This is a slight increase on the 

 amount appropriated during 1895, t""^ since the available amount 

 exceeds twenty-two thousand pounds, there still remains a large 

 surplus which ought to be devoted to its proper purpose. The 

 explanation of the unwillingness of the Council to benefit 

 education in their midst to the fullest possible extent may be 

 found, perhaps, in the falling off in the number of candidates 

 for county scholarships. This diminution is most marked. For 

 the fifteen scholarships of ;^20 each for three years for boys, 

 there were 100 candidates fewer than in 1893, i"^ which year the 

 scholarships were first offered. The decrease in the number ol 

 competitors has been gradual. In 1894 the number was 220, 

 in 1895 it had fallen to 184, and it is less again this year. As 

 there are at least 80,000 children in elementary schools in 

 Middlesex, the number of candidates ought certainly to be much 

 larger. 



The Report of the Director of Technical Instruction to the 

 County Council for the County Palatine of Lancaster for the year 

 ending August 31, 1895, which was presented to the Council at 

 a meeting held on the 6th ultimo, contains many interesting 

 statistics of the work which is being accomplished in Lancashire. 

 The work in many departments is pre-eminently satisfactory. 

 We are glad to notice that the Committee have made a grant ot 

 ;^250 to each of the University Colleges of Liverpool and 

 Manchester, for we believe that one of the surest ways of 

 improving the education of any county is to strengthen the 

 centres of higher instruction within its borders. It is certainly 

 one of the weaknesses of the Lancashire scheme for technical 

 education that they give no assistance to secondary schools in 

 their county. The middle classes are as much in need ot 

 all kinds of education as any section of the community, and 

 though in Lancashire the lollowing annual grants can be 

 afforded — viz. horology, ;^500 ; plumbing and sanitary science, 

 ;^75o; horticulture and bee-keeping, ;^500; practical agri- 

 culture (including veterinary science, poultry-keeping, and 

 allied subjects), ^looo; as well as grants to encourage the 

 .study of music, yet for the development of the modern side of 

 their secondary schools nothing is allowed. It is interesting to 

 compare the decision of the Lancashire Committee with the 

 recommendation of the recent Commission, " that this grant 

 . . . ought to be all of it paid in future to the local authorities 

 for secondary education . . . not merely to technical education, 



