May 24, 1894J 



NA TURE 



91 



which they have studied as research students, under conditions 

 prescribed In another ordinance of the Commission just issued 

 dealing with the regulations for higher degrees in arts and 

 science. In regard to the degree of Doctor of Science, it is 

 provided that graduates who have taken the degree of Master of 

 Arts with honours in mathematics and natural philosophy, may 

 proceed to the degree of Doctor of Science in the same univer- 

 sity after the expiry of five years from the date of their gradua- 

 tion in arts, under the same conditions as if they held the degree 

 of Bachelorof Science. Research students wiihin the meaning 

 of the ordinance relating to the regulations for the encourage- 

 ment of special study and research may offer themselves for the 

 degree of Doctor of .Science of the university in which they 

 have pursued some special study under that ordinance, although 

 they have not taken the degree of Bachelor of Science, or the 

 degree of Master of Arts with honours in mathematics and 

 natural philosophy in that Uuiversity, under the following con- 

 ditions : — ■ 



(i) That they hold the degree of Bachelor of Science or 

 Bachelorof Medicine of a Scottish or any recognised university, 

 or a degree of any such university, which the Senatus Academ- 

 icus shall hold to be equivalent to the degree of Bachelor of 

 Science or to the degree of Master of Arts with honours in 

 mathematics and natural philosophy. 



(l) That they have spent not less than two winter sessions or 

 an equivalent period as research students in the university 

 granting the degree, and that they produce evidence of satis- 

 factory progress in the special study or research undertaken by 

 them during that period. 



(3) That a period of not less than five years shall have elapsed 

 from the date of the graduation required in subsection (l) of 

 this section. 



All candidates for the degree of Doctor of Science have to 

 present a thesis or a published memoir or work, to be approved 

 by the Senatus on the recommendation of the Faculty of 

 Science ; provided that, if required by the Senatus, the candi- 

 date shall also be bound to pass such an examination as may 

 from time to time be determined. The thesis must be a record 

 of original research undertaken by the candidate, and has to be 

 accompanied by a declaration signed by him that the work has 

 been done and the thesis composed by himself. 



It will be noted with regret that no provision is made for the 

 publication of the thesis. This is a serious omis-ion, for 

 scientific work, if worthy of a degree, is surely worthy of 

 publication. 



Thi-: name of Dr. D. H. Scott should have been added last 

 week to the list of Oxford men who are among the selected can- 

 dates for the Fellowship of the Royal Society. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Amciicait Journil of Science, May. — Observations on the 

 derivation and homologies of some Articulates, by James D. 

 Dana. It is probable that all Articuhtes are successional to 

 the Rotifers. There is reason for believing further that the 

 types of Annelids, Crustaceans, and proba'ily that of Limuloids, 

 had their independent Rotifer origin. Tfie line to the lower 

 and earlier Arachnols, that is to the Scorpions, leads up from 

 the early I'terygotus — like Limuloids. A line of succession 

 from Worms to Myriapods and from these to Insects, although 

 not proved geologically, is suggested by the fact that in low- 

 grade insects there is no proper metamorphosis, while in the 

 higher the larval stage is lower and lower in embryonic level. 

 The larval stage would result from an attendant retrograde 

 embryonic change to a line parallel with the Myriapod, and 

 beyond to the memberless cmdition of a worm. — Notes on 

 apparatus for the geological laboratory, by J. E. Wolfi". This 

 paper contains instructions for making diamond saws, for sawing 

 thin sections of rock specimens, and for the management of the 

 arc light for purposes of projection. — .An elementary expression 

 in ihermoelectrics, by Carl Barus. Two metals are thermo- 

 electricallv identical when the sign and the number of available 

 molecular paths which the current (or belter, the elementary 

 charge) is free to take, is the same in both metals. — Gases in 

 Kilauea, by William Lihbey. Observations of bluish-green 

 flames bursting out from the lava, made with a pocket spectro- 

 scope, revealed what was probably carbonic oxide and some 

 hydrocarbons, shown by a hand in the green, and bands in the red 

 and blue. — Transformations of mechanical into chemical energy, 



N). I 2S2, V OL. 50J 



III. Action of shearing stress continued, by M. Carey Lea- 

 The most instructive experiment was that with mercuric oxide- 

 Half a gram was taken, and after trituration the unchanged 

 oxide was diss ilved out by repeated digestions with hydrochloric 

 acid. The reduction products were dissolved out by a few drops 

 of aqua regia, filtered, and precipitated by hydrogen sulphide. 

 The amount of sulphide obtained correspond to the reduction 

 of '0329 gram of mercuric oxide. The amount of mechanical 

 energy transformed into chemical was found to be 322 gram 

 meters. Silver oxide, potassium ferricyanide, ferric ammonia, 

 alum, silver carbonate an I sulphite, and sodium chloroaurate 

 were also successfully reduced by grinding, but not cupric 

 chloride. A porcelain mortar was found much uiDre efBcient 

 than i>ne made of agate. 



BuUetiii of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. iii. No. 

 7, April 1894. (New York : Macmillan.) Prof. H. Maschke, 

 in a thorough analysis of Harkness and Morley's "Theory of 

 Functions" — it occupies pp. 155-167 of the present 

 number — records the opinion that "the great merits of 

 this valuable work will secure it a high rank in modern 

 mathematical literature " Dr. G. A. Miller, in a note on sub- 

 stitution groups of eight letters (pp. 16S-9), makes an important 

 addition to Dr. Cole's list in vol. ii. which is suitably 

 acknowledged by him. Prof. J. McMahon writes on the 

 general term in the reversion of series (pp. 170-2). In the 

 notes the Simson-Lines are printed Simpson's lines. Dr. J. S. 

 Mackay's discovery that no such properly has been found in 

 R. Simson's published writings, has not yet "caught on." 

 There is a long list of new publications. 



V Anthropologic, tome v. No. 2, March-April, 1894. — M. 

 Ed. Piette contributes some notes to be used for the history of 

 primitive art. The bulk of the accumulations found in 

 caves are composed of broken bones of animals eaten by man, 

 and a cursory examination of the debris suftices to show that 

 whilst the remains of Equida; predominale in the lower strata, 

 those of Cervida3 are more abundant in the upper strata. 

 Hence, the Glyptic period, as M. Piette calls the age in which 

 quaternary man was in the habit of ornamenting bone, horn, 

 ivory, and stone with sculpture or engraving, has two primary 

 divisions — the Equidian age and the Cervidian age. The former 

 of these may be considered to have two subdivisions, namely 

 the elephantine, or ivory epoch, and the epoch of the horse, 

 c.illed by .M. Piette the Hippiquian epoch ; two subdivisions are 

 also comprised in the Cervidian age, viz. the epoch of the rein- 

 deer and that of the red-deer, or the Rangiferian epoch and the 

 Elaphianepoch. -Inapaperon the female deilyandthesculplures 

 of the-Allee Couverte of Epone, M. Kmile Cartailhac describes 

 several blocks and menhirs from various parts of the country on 

 which a female figure is sculptured with more or less detail. On 

 the breast of one of these figures is the representation of an 

 implement or weapon much like the ancient Egyptian 

 boomerang. In a dolmen, excavated by Canon Greenwell at 

 Folkestone, there were found two small cylindrical blocks of 

 limestone, covered with geometrical designs, in the middle of 

 which, in a prominent place, is seen a human face, confined to 

 the forehead, nose and eyes, but, so far, identical with the 

 French sculptures. — M. Maurice Delafosse gives an account of 

 the Hamites of Eastern Africa, in a brief summary of the ethno- 

 graphical parts of the most recent works that have appeared on 

 the subject. He refers more particularly to the valuable mono- 

 graph by Dr. Philipp Paulitschke, entitled "Ethnographic 

 Nordost-Afrikas, die materielle Culiur der Danakil, Galla und 

 Som.il" (Berlin, 18931. The Danakil, Somal and Galla 

 peoples, each comprising a large number of tribes, divide the 

 eastern horn of Africa between them. The Danakil dwell 

 along the coast of the Red Sea and to the east of Abyssinia, 

 the Somal occupy the whole of thai point of Africa which pro- 

 jects into the Indicn Ocean, while the Galla tribes inhabit the 

 country west of the Somal and to the south of the Danakil 

 and .\byssinia. They are all of Ilamilic origin, and differ as 

 much from their neighbours, the Berbers and the Semites of the 

 north, as they do from the negroes and the Binui of the south. 

 Their hair is not frizzly, but only woolly, and sometimes it 

 attains to a considerable length, especially among the women. 

 The nose is not flit ; it is frequently bioad and short, but it is 

 sometimes even aquiline. The lips are rarely protuberant, 

 though they are almost always thick. M. Salomon Reioach 

 continues his account of sculpture in Europe prior to Greco- 

 fioman inllaence ; and M. E. Vouga discusses the probable age 



