Septemeek 26, 1895J 



NATURE 



539 



numl)er of years not exceeding five, so that at the age of seventy- 

 five the retirement of a professor should be alisoUite. 



We are (jiiite aware that there are cases where professors at 

 seventy and presidents at seventy-five are fully competent to dis- 

 charge thcirduties, but the ailvantagesderived from superannuation 

 would be seriously diminished if, to meet these rare cases, there 

 were uncertainty in regard to the application of a general rule. 

 We have observed with regret thai the<z/;/w««ofthe Queen's Col- 

 leges do not seek to go back to them as professors, and it was 

 explained to us that one reason for this is that it is useless for 

 thcni to prejxire for a professorial career in these colleges while 

 so much uncertainty prevails as to when the chairs will become 

 vacant. 



We also took the evidence of Profs. Lockyer and Riicker as 

 to the conditions which prevail in the Government School of 

 .Science at South Kensington, and we found that the age of 

 seventy for ])rofessors was considered a proper age for retire- 

 ment under ordinary circumstances. 



In our opinion, as the professors are not appointed till middle 

 life, the addition of seven years to their period of service in 

 calculating the amount of their superannuation obviously tends 

 to secure eminent specialists as candidates for office. The power 

 of voluntary retirement at the age of sixty has also much to 

 commend it in this sense. 



We have the honour to be 



Your Lordships' obedient servants, 

 Pl.AYF.ViR. 



Welkv. 

 August 5, 1S95. M. \V. Ridley. 



The report is followed by the minutes of evidence taken on 

 June 17, 18, and 19, during which nine witnesses were examined. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



We learn from S<ii:ncc, that Prof. .Strahl, of Marburg, has been 

 called to the chair of Anatomy in the University of (.liessen. Prof. 

 Hans Lenk, of Leipzig, to that of Cleology in the University of 

 Erlangen, and that Dr. Haecker, of Freiburg i.B., and Dr. v. 

 Dalla-Torre, of the University of Innsbruck, have been made 

 assistant Professors of /.oology. 



Prof. Chai'M.w having resigned the professorship of Geology 

 an<i Mineralogy in the University of Toronto, that chair is now 

 vacant. 



AccoRDl.NO to Scieiue, the conditions attached to the bequest 

 made by the late Sir William .Macleay to the Sydney University, 

 to found a chair of Bacteriolog)', are such that the University has 

 decided to decline the bequest. The money will therefore revert to 

 the Linnean Society of New South Wales, to maintain a bacterio- 

 logist, who will carry on bacteriological investigatiotis and also 

 take pu]>ils. 



The Examinations for the Royal Agricultural Society's Junior 

 Scholarships have been fixed to take place on November 12 and 

 13 next, at the schools of candidates and at the Society's house, 

 13 Hanover Square. Ten scholarships of ^20 each are thrown 

 open for competition by candidates between the ages of fourteen 

 and eighteen, and the subjects of e.xamination comprise: (l) 

 The Principles of Agriculture, especially with reference to the 

 rotation of crops, the nutrition of plants and animals, and the 

 mechanical cultivation of the soil ; (2) Chemistry as applied to 

 j\griculture; (3) Elementary Mechanics asapplied to -Agriculture ; 

 (4) Land .Surveying. The latest date for receiving entries is 

 October 15. 



The following courses of Gresham Science lectures are 

 announced : — " Physic," by Dr. Symes Thompson, on October 

 8 to 1 1 : " .\slronomy, " by Rev. K. Ledger, on October 22 to 

 25 ; ** tieometry," by Mr. W. li. Wagstaff, on November 19 to 

 22. The lectures will all be delivered at six o'clock in the theatre 

 of Gre.sham College, E.C. 



The London Society for the Extension of University 

 Teaching announces that, in co-operation with the Royal Geo- 

 gra|ihical Society, arrangements have been made for the delivery 

 at Gresham College of a course of twenty-five lectures by Mr. 

 H.J. Mackinder, on "The Principles of c;eogra]ihy." The 

 course is specially arranged for pupil teachers, and the Sessional 

 Certificate, granted in connection therewith, will carry marks at 



NO. 1352, VOL. 52] 



the Queen's Scholarship Examination. The lectures will be 

 given on Monday evenings at six o'clock, beginning October 7. 



-\r the City of Lon<lon College, Moorfields, a course of 

 twenty-five lectures on " The History of Chemical Discovery " 

 will be delivered, under the auspices of the London Society for 

 the Extension of University Teaching, by Prof. W. kamsay, 

 K. R.S. Th= course will be begim on Tuesday evening, October 

 8, at eight o'clock, and be continued weekly. 



On Tuesday evening, October i, Sir Henry E. Roscoe will 

 presitie at a meeting at the Royal \ictoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge 

 Road, when the presentation of certificates to students of the 

 Morley Memorial College will take place. The lecture arrange- 

 ments at the Royal X'ictoria Hall for the month of October are 

 as follow : — On the Sth, Mr. W'. P. Bloxam will lecture on 

 " Combu.stion " ; on the 15th, Dr. W. D. Halliburton will 

 lecture on the " Human Brain " ; and on the 22nd, Mr. P. J. 

 Hartog will lecture on " Lavoisier." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American Journal of Sa'eiue, September. — Distribution and 

 secular variation of terrestrial magnetism, by L. .\. Bauer. 

 Starting from the supposition that the earth is magnetised sym- 

 metrically to its axis of rotation, the author shows that the chief 

 cause of distortion of this primarj- field can be represented as 

 due to a secondary polarisation approximately equatorial in 

 direction. Of these two systems, the polar systems would base 

 to l)e five or six times stronger than the equatorial. Since, in 

 going round the earth along a geographical parallel of latitude, 

 the deflections due to the secondary sj-stem almost balance each 

 other, the inference might V)e drawn that the secondary field is in 

 some way connected with the earth's rotation. — Relations of the 

 diurnal rise and fall of the wind in the United States, by Frank 

 Waldo. For January- the rise of wind towards the mid-day 

 maximum is followed by a more rapid fall over nearly the whole 

 of the United States. For July the same law holds, except in 

 the W'estern States, where the morning rise is more rapid. As re- 

 gards the time during which the wind rises, this is about seven 

 hours in the Mississippi valley. On the .Atlantic coast there is a 

 decrease from ten hours in the north to five hours on the coast 

 of Florida. — The rate of increase varies from 0-410 o'6 miles 

 per hour. Native sulphur in Michigan, by W. H. .Sherzer. 

 During the past year interesting deposits of sulphur have been 

 discovered in the Ujjper Helderberg limestone, of Monroe 

 County, Michigan. The sulphur bed lies from sixteen to 

 eighteen feet below the surface between a compact, dolomitic 

 limestone and a calcareous sand rock. The sulphur generally 

 I occurs in bright lustrous masses towards the centre of the cavity, 

 I intermatted freipiently with the above minerals. Fragments as 

 large as a fist are readily removed. Some of the smaller cavities 

 contain nothing but sul]ihur, and one was found filled with 

 selenite crystals. About an acre of this bed had been removed 

 when the locality was visited, and from this the superintendent 

 estimated that one hundred barrels of pure sulphur had been 

 obtained. 



Wiedemann' s Anna/en der Pltysik nnd Chemie, No. S. — 

 Simple objective presentation of the Hertzian reflection experi- 

 ments, by Victor Biernacki. The author places one of Lodge's 

 " coherers ' in the focal line of the secondary mirror. Under 

 these conditions, mirrors with a length as small as 45 cm. and 

 an aperture of 30 cm., with a focal length of 3 cm., exhibit the 

 reflection phenomena well. The coherer employed is a hori- 

 zontal glass tube filled with copper filings, whose resistance is 

 reduced as sotm as electric oscillations impinge upon it. The 

 polarisation experiment is easily performed with a tiled wall, 

 which behaves as a transparent solid to the electric rays. A 

 striking experiment analogous to the introduction of a doubly- 

 refracting crystal between two crossed nicolls is the introduction 

 of a thick slab of good ice between the two crossed mirrors, with 

 its axis of 45° to both the focal lines. The galvanometer con- 

 nected with the coherer, which before was motionless, now gives 

 a distinct reflection, thus showing the doubly-refracting nature of 

 ice. — A convenient method for showing the electric refractive 

 piwers of liquids, by P. Drude. For this purpose, strong 

 oscillations are necessary. These may be produced by a modi- 

 ficaticm of Blondlot's arrangement, using an exciter without a 

 condenser, whose total length is slightly smaller than half the 

 wave-length required. The wave-lengths in water and other 



