October io, 1895] 



NATURE 



587 



followed the fall of the Koman F^nipire," says Mr. Spencer, 

 " nothing to be called science existed. But when, along with 

 gradual reorganisation, the re-genesis of science began, it began 

 as in earlier instances among the cultured men — the priesthood. '" 

 The man of science anol the philosopher have gradually ditfer- 

 entialed from the clerical class, one to deal with the concreteand 

 the other to be concerned with abstract matters, and now the 

 ■distinction between the two is tolerably definite. .Simul- 

 taneously a subdivision of the body of scientific men has .gone 

 on, until we reach these days of minute specialisation. And 

 finally, we have the combination of the units in such institutions 

 as the Royal .Society and British -Association, and in the serial 

 scientific publications which are general in their scope. In 

 arldition to the admirable article summarised in the foregoing, 

 Mr. .Spencer contributes to the Contemporary a brief note in 

 reply to Prof. Weismann. 



A suggestive paper, by Dr. \. R. Wallace, on " The Expres- 

 siveness of Speech,'' appears in the Fortnightly. The paper 

 contains a number of interesting facts which point to mouth- 

 gesture as a factor in the origin of language. Here is Dr. 

 Wallace's idea : " In our own language, and probably in all others, 

 a considerable number of the most familarjwords are so constructed 

 as to proclaim their meaning more or less distinctly, sometimes 

 by means of imitative sounds, but also, in a large number of 

 cases, by the .shape or the movements of the various parts of the 

 mouth used in pronoimcing them, and by peculiarities in breath- 

 ing or in vocalisation, which may express a mea-^ing quite 

 independent of mere sound-imitation." Anthropologists and 

 philologists should be interested in the many facts which Dr. 

 Wallace has brought together in support of his view. 



Limits of space prevent us from giving more than brief 

 descriptions of the remaining articles of scientific interest in the 

 magazines received. In Sciouc Progress, Mr. F. H. Neville 

 traces recent progress in the study of alloys ; galvanotropism 

 in tadpoles is described by Dr. .K. Waller, I". R.S. ; the chro- 

 matophores of animals, by Mr. W. llarstang; the space relation 

 of animals, by Dr. A. Eiloart ; and the synthesis of proteids, by 

 Prof. W. I). Halliburton, F.R..S. Ckamhers's Joiirna/haa shon 

 popular papers on "Horseless Carriages," "New Methods of Illu- 

 mination," and " Cotton-Seed Oil." In GoodWords we notice an 

 article on " Falconry," by Mr. R. B. Lodge, illustrated by two 

 photographs from life — one showing a peregrine and partridge, 

 and the other a go.shawk and rabbit. The two plates are finely 

 engraved, but we think their value would have been greater had 

 they been phrdographic reproductions from the original nega- 

 tives. The Humanitarian is distinguished by a p.sychical article 

 entitled " Dynamic Thought," by Prof. W. F. Barrett ; and the 

 National Keinew has a paper in which Selbornians will find 

 pleasure, by the Hon. Mrs. R. Boyle. In addition to the maga- 

 zines named in the foregoing, we have received the Sunday 

 Magazine and Longman's. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



C.A.MBRIDGE. — Five candidates, namely, R. A. Berry, G. 

 Joyce, H. C. Sheringhani, W. M. Tod, and B. N. Wale, have 

 l)een successful in the recent examination in the science and art 

 of agriculture, and have received the l.'niversity diploma. 



Mr. Charles Smith, Master of .Sidney Sussex College, and 

 author of several much-used mathematical text-books, was on 

 (Jctober I admitted to the office of Vice-Chancellor for the 

 current academical year. The outgoing Vice-t"hancelIor, Mr. 

 A. Austen Leigh, in his parting address to the Senate, referred 

 in sympathetic terms to the loss sustained by the University in 

 the death of Prof. Cayley and of Prof Babington. He announced 

 that the latter had bequeathed to the University his large and 

 valuable collection of plants. A part of the address was devoted 

 to a description of the diOiculties, chiefly financial, which have 

 attended the ince]ition of the Sedgwick Memorial Museum of 

 Geology. The satisfactory progress made with the extension of 

 the Cavendish Laboratory, now approaching completion, was 

 made .a matter of congratulation. 



Two scholarships in Natural Science, one of ^^70 and one of 

 ^40 a year, will be competed for at Sidney Sussex College on 

 December 12 to 14. Candidates are to make preliminary ap- 

 plication to the tutor, Mr. G. M. Edwards. 



NO. 1354, VOL. 52] 



The late Prof. Babington has left to the University his 

 botanical library as well as his valuable collection of plants. 



Mr. H. F. Baker, of St. John's, and Mr. J. E. Edwards, of 

 Sydney, have t)een appointed the Moderators, and Mr. R. A. 

 Ilcrman, of Trinity, and Mr. 11. W. Richmond, of King's, the 

 Examiners for the Mathematical Tripos of 1896. 



Dr. Glaisher has been appointed an Elector to the Isaac 

 Newton Student.ship in Astronomy. 



A complete series of lectures for agricultural students, under 

 the Cambridge and Counties Agricultural Education Scheme, has 

 been arranged for three terms of the academical year. The 

 syllabus is published in the University Reporter of October 8. 



The first Entrance Scholarship in Natural .Science, of the value 

 of ^^150, into .St. Thom.as's Hospital Medical School has been 

 awarded to .Mr. Frank B. Skerretl ; the second, of the value of 

 £(iO, being divided between Messrs. Walter B. Fry, George W. 

 Hare, and Alfred B. Lindsey, bracketed equal. "The Entrance 

 .Scholarship, value ^50, for students from the Universities, has 

 been awarded to Mr. Percy W. (j. Sargent, St. John's College, 

 Cambridge. 



At Guy's Hospital, the Entrance Scholarship in Science, of 

 the value of ^^150, has been awarded to Mr. P. W. L. Camps, 

 and the Second Entrance Scholarship in Science, of the value of 

 ^60, has been awarded to Mr. .S. Hoilgson. 



The Treasury has decided that the annual grant of which 

 King's College, London, was deprived under the late Govern- 

 ment may be restored to the college next year without any 

 stipulation as regards tests. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Ameriian Meteorologiial /ournal. September. — Synchronf)US 

 or simultaneous geographical distribution of hourly wind velo- 

 cities in the United States, by Dr. F. Waldo. This article is 

 part of a memoir prepared for the U.S. Weather Bureau, 

 and is supplementary to one which appeared in the lournal 

 for July (N.XTl'RF., p. 335). Charts are drawn for midnight 

 and noon, for the extreme months of January and July, for about 

 the centre of the United States, and afford a comprehensive view 

 of the synchronous wind conditions and relations as regards the 

 average velocities. This method of representation obviates the 

 necessity of a lengthy text. -The origin and work of marine 

 meteorology, by Lieut. W. H. Beehler, U.S.N. The author 

 deals more particularly with the history and development of this 

 service in the United .States, from the ap]xiinlment of Lieut. 

 Maury as .Superintemlent of the U.S. Naval Ob.servalory, in 

 1844, which led to the Maritime Conference held at Brussels in 

 1853. The numerous charts i)ui)lishcd by the American Office 

 formed the basis of the useful wind charts subsequently issued 

 by the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade, during 

 Admiral Fit/Roy's lifetime, and which were widely distributed 

 among seamen. The U.S. I lydiogr.qihic <3tfice was establisheil 

 in 1866, and in 1893 tl'cre were nearly 3000 observers co-operat- 

 ing with it. The outcome (tf this was (he publication of the 

 Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic (Jcean, to which we have often 

 had occasion to refer. About 4000 copies of this chart are dis- 

 tributed monthly, and among other things they have done much 

 towards bringing about the general recognition of the value of 

 the use of oil to .still the waves, by which numbers of vessels 

 have been saved from total loss. 



Bulletin of the Ameriian Mathematical Society (vol. i. No. 

 10, July 1S95). — This closing number of vol. i. contains, in 

 addition to the usual list of new publicatiims and the index, a 

 li,st of the jniblished papers read before the Society during the 

 year, together with the places of their publication. — .Mr. J. W. 

 Brooks gives a clear account of Lie's work <m continuous groups 

 ii propos of Schetfers' edition of the Vorlesungen liber Conlinuir- 

 liche Gruppeii mil geometrischen und anderen Anwendungen. 

 " The import.ance of the group idea itself has long been recog- 

 nised in its application to the theory of substitutions, and some 

 continuous transformations, such as the pedal transformation, 

 were in use before Lie's work, b\it were useil without their con- 

 nection with the group idea being iliscovered, and the di.scovery 

 and the presentation of the results of it in a systematic form are 

 due to Prof. Lie." Dr. Schefters has aimed at giving in outline 

 the general theory, and he indicates some lines in which if may 

 be applied. — Prof J. llarkness, ina review of the second volumo 



