iiS 



NA 7 URE 



[May 31, 1894 



from an examination of the work of London Polytechnics. 

 In the lirst place, the funds at the disposal of the Institutes are 

 usually not sufficient to permit the educational needs to be 

 properly supplied. In order to supplement the sum arising 

 from endowment, grant-e.irning classes have to be held, which 

 means that subjects come to be considered for what they will 

 bring to the Institute's exchequer rather than for what they are 

 worth. The Technical Education Board of the London County 

 Coancil have taken steps to remedy this evil by contributing 

 maintenance grants, and capital grants for equipment, appa- 

 ratus, &c., the former being allotted according to a scale 

 calculated to promote educitional efficiency, and regularity of 

 attendance. The Department of Science and Art, and other 

 Examining Bodies, should consider the advisability of treating 

 Polytechnic Institutes in a similar manner, instead of regarding 

 them as mere collections of classes. The less an institute of 

 this kind depends upon payment by results, the more likely is it 

 to develop in the proper direction. 



Very little provision is made in the institutes for really ad- 

 vanced work or research, but this will probably come, for in 

 London, technical education is only in its experimental stage. 

 Many years of work will have to be done before any London 

 institute will be able to find students for instruction of such an 

 advanced character as that given in continental Polytechnics. 

 Mr. LI. Smith recommended, in his report to the London 

 County Council, that a grant should be made "towards the 

 maintenance of an advanced department of applied science, 

 bearing on some local industry, under the control of a well- 

 qualified instructor who gives all his time to the work of the 

 institute." 'i'he Technical Education Board have promised a 

 contribution for this purpose when a Polytechnic desiring it 

 shall have drawn up a detailed scheme of work, and the Board 

 is satisfied that the proposed class will be of value to the indus- 

 tries of the district. 



As to the recreative side of the institutes, little need be said. 

 The desire for physical exercise is so much stronger than that for 

 mental development, that there is a possibility of recreation 

 swamping education in one or two cases. Generally, however, 

 the two sides are very well balanced, and admirably assist one 

 another in the development of men of thought as well as men 

 of muscle. 



For the rest. Polytechnic Institutes have aroused the interest 

 of the working class, and men now realise the necessity of a 

 scientific grounding for every trade. To have done this in so 

 short a lime promises well. In a few years, perhaps, London 

 Polytechnics will be able to compare favourably with those in 

 other European capitals, and when that day arrives a generation 

 of workmen will have sprung up which, for aptitude and 

 efficiency, should be able to hold its own against the world. 



K. A. Gregory. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford.— Mr. V. M. Vcley and Mr. G. C. Bourne have 

 been appointed Examiners for the Burdett-Coutts Scholarship. 



The sixth annual report of the Curators of the Botanic 

 Garden shows a deficit of nearly jf2oo on the close of the 

 financial year. This is due principally to the decrease of income 

 derived from rents and profits of estates. The Curators report 

 that the existing endowment is inadequate to maintain the 

 Garden, and that it will be necessary to call on the University 

 at no distant date, to consider whether a moderate annual 

 subvention should not be made to place the Garden on a 

 satisfactory basis. The deficit would have been greater but 

 that the Professor of Botany has made, propria molii, a con- 

 tribution of ;^5o towards the funds of the Garden. The new 

 range of gla-,<-houses, including the palm house and the 

 succulent house, h.-Ls been completed and proves satisfactory. 



Elections to .Scholarship? in Natural Science will be held at 

 the following Colleges : — Balliol College, examination to begin 

 on November 20, a scholarship in Natural Science wcrlh £'io 

 a year, on the foundation of Miss Hannah Brakenbury. 

 Balliol, Christ Church and Trinity College. At Balliol two 

 Scholarships of the value of ;^8o a year and one Exhibition of 

 the value of £^o a year. Christ Church, one Scholarship of 

 the value of £io a year and one Exhiliiiion of the value of 

 £%i a year. Trinity College, one Scholarship of the value 

 of ;^8o a year. The cx.iminalions for these Scholarships will 

 begin on Tuesday, November 20. 



NO. 1283, VOL. 50] 



Cambridge. — Dr. Bradbury, the Downing Professor of 

 Medicine, h.-is appointed as his assistant in Pharm.icology Mr. 

 C. R. Marshall, Research Fellow of Owens College, Man- 

 chester. 



The Rede Lecture will be given in the Anatomy School \\ 

 Mr. J. W. Clark, Registrary, on June 13 .it noon. The subjf 

 is " Libraries during ihe Middle .Ages and the Ren.iissance. 



A consider.ible number of courses in scientific subjects, in- 

 cluding Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, .Vnatomy, and Path- 

 ology are announced for the ensuing Long Vacation, which is 

 more and more assuming the character of a regular term. 



No less than twenty-three women are announced as haviiii; 

 "deserved Mathematical Honours" in Part I. of the Mathema- 

 tical Tripos. 



By the election of Dr. Ilickson to the Professorship of 

 Zoologyat Owens College, Manchester, a vacancy is created for 

 a University Lecturer in Invertebrate Morphology. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



M'iidema nn' s AniiaUii iter Pliysik tniii Cliemie, No. 5. — On 

 the measurement of surface tension of water and mercury in 

 capillary tubes, by G. Quincke. In accurate measurements of 

 the surface tension of water by elevation in capillary tubes the 

 marginal angle must be taken into account. It is different from 

 zero, and generally increases with the age of the tubes. For 

 the same kind of glass the surface tension of water at 18° is 

 generally found to increase with the diameter of the capillary 

 tube. For wide tubes of normal Jena glass or English flint 

 gliiss the surface tension at 18' was 7'S46 and 7776 mgr. — On 

 the magnetic deflection of cathode r.ays, by Philipp Lenard. 

 The magnetic deflection is not aflected by the medium in which 

 the rays are observed, but remains the same for a given species 

 of cathode rays, whatever may be the g.as, the intensity, and 

 the pressure. But at different pressures within the generating 

 apparatus different cathode rays are produced, showing varying 

 amounts of deflection — On a sodium nitrogen compound, by 

 L. Zehnder. Sodium mirrors deposited eleclrolylically in 

 vacuum tubes gave rise to strong absorption and rapid fall of 

 pressure, accompanied by the formation of a brown mirror 

 during the glow discharge. .\ detailed investigation showed 

 that this action takes place as soon .as metallic sodium has been 

 transferred to the cathode. The compound formed, probably 

 NNaj, is not deposited on the cathode, but on the glass walls 

 near the anode. — On the elliptic polarisation of reflected light, 

 by K. E. F. Schmidt. In the case of glasses of equal refractive 

 indices and different dispersive powers the glass with ihe higher 

 dispersion shows the wider range of angle at which elliplicity is 

 observed. — On the spectra of tin, lead, arsenic, antimony and 

 bismuth, by II. Kayser and C. Runge. The authors have 

 continued their efforts to find uniformilies in the structure of 

 the metallic line spectra through the periodic series of the 

 elements. The above melals were taken as convenient repre- 

 sentatives of the fourth and fifth rows. The spectrum of tin 

 may be reconstructed by superimposing three equal spectra 

 diflering by a constant oscillation frequency. The same law 

 applies to the spectra of lead and arsenic. In the case of anti- 

 mony, six such spectra are superposed, and in bismuth four. — 

 Line spectra, by J. R. Rydberg. This is a comparison of the 

 spectra of calcium and strontium. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society. May 10. — " Preliminary Report on the 

 Results obtained with the Prismatic Camera during the Total 

 Eclipscof the Sun, April 16, 1893." By J. Norman Lockycr, 

 C.B., F.R.S. 



During the total eclipse of 1871 observations were made by 

 Respighi and the author with a spectroscope deprived of its 

 collimator, and a series of rings was seen corresponding to the 

 different rays emitted by the corona and prominences. A 

 similar instrument, arranged for photography, was employed 

 during several succeeding eclipses, but the photographs were 

 on so small a scale that none of the results came up to the 

 expectations raised by Ihe observations of 1871. As the Solar 

 Physics Committee is now in possession of a prismatic camera 

 of 6 inches aperture, the prism having a refracting angle of 

 45", it was determined to employ it during the eclipse of 1893. 

 The instrument was placed at the disposal of the Eclipse 



