June 7, 1894J 



NA TURE 



141 



magazine. In Good Words Sir Robert Ball gives the second of a 

 series of articles on "The Great Astronomers," the subject of his 

 biographical sketch being Kepler. E. M. Caillard foundi an 

 excellent article on " Matter," and manajes to impart clear 

 and accurate notions on the universal properties of extension, 

 inertia, unity, indestructibility and structure. 



We note in Chambers s jfoiirnal " The Science of Colouring 

 in Animals," "The Sargasso Sea," " Spiders and their Habits, ' 

 and "The Identification of Habitual Criminals." Mr. A. 

 Binel's " Mechanism of Thought," in the Fortnightly, is chiefly 

 concerned with psychology and hypnotism. H »nour is done to 

 ihe late Prof. Kobertson .Smith by Mr. J. G. Frazer in the 

 same magazine. Prof. Victor I lorsley replies in the //kw/ok/- 

 tari'in to the paper on vivisection contributed by Bishop Barry 

 to the April number. The seventh of Mr. Phil Robinson's 

 articles on " Ttie Zoo Revisited," in the EnglisJi Itltistrattd, 

 deals with the animals in the " Small Cats' House." In the same 

 magazine, Mr. \V. B. Tegetmeier brielly describes the sco[>e of 

 his forthcoming hook on horses, asses, and zebras. The May 

 number of the Namical Magaziia: contains an article in which 

 Capt. Wilson Barker points to the study of " Natural History" 

 (a term used to cover the ground of physiography) as a recrea- 

 tion for sailors. 



In addition to the magazines mentioned in the foregoing, we 

 have received the Contemporary and National reviews. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Camrridge. — The Provost of King's, Mr. A. Austen Leigh, 

 has been re-elected Vice-Chancellor lor ihe ensuing year. 



St. John's College has cariied ofT both the Smith's prizes 

 this year ; the winners are Mr. S. S. Hough and Mr. H. C. 

 Pocklington, third and bracketed fourth Wranglers respectively 

 in 1892, and first class in Part II. of the Mathematical Tripos, 



iS93- 



Candidates for the University Lectureship in Invertebrate 

 Morphology, vacated by Pr.)f. Hickson, are requested to send 

 their names to the Vice-Chancellor by June 9. The stipend is 

 £^0 a year. 



Prof. Foster has been re-appointed a Manager of the Balfour 

 Studentship Fund for the ensuing five years. 



Mr. J. J. Lister, of St. John's, is to occupy the University's 

 table at the Plymouth Biological Lab iratory this summer. 



The first examination for Diplomas in Agricultural Science 

 will be held on July 2. Candidates are to send their names 

 and fees to the Registrary by June 13. 



The next examination for Diplomas in Public Health will 

 begin on October 2. The names of candidates, with their 

 certificates, are to be sent to the Registrary by September 18. 



Sir G. G. Stokes, Dr. Sandys, and Prof. Robinson, are to 

 represent the University at the Bi-c^ntenary Festival of the 

 L niversity of Halle, to l>e held next August. 



The following Examiners have been nominated by Ihe 

 Special Board lor Medicine : — In Medicine, Dr. W. H. 

 Dickinson, Dr. J. K. Fowler, Dr. L. Humphry, Dr. J. F. 

 I'ayne; in Midwifery, Dr, W. S. A. Griffith, Dr. J. Phillips; 

 in Surgery, Mr. H. H. Glutton, Mr. F. Treves, Mr. II. Marsh, 

 .Mr. W. H. Bennett. 



-Mr. H. Woodi, of S". John's College, has been appointed 

 an Elector to the Harkness Scholarship in Giology and 

 Palaeontology. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



.American Meteorological foinual, May. — The principal 

 article is " Meteorology and Geodesy," by Prof. C. Abbe. 

 It contains tables showing the variations in the force of gravity 

 over the North American continent and the Atlantic ocean and 

 iheir effect on the mercurial barometer. The author points 

 out that there is a local attraction of gravitation that is less 

 iver the continents than over the oceans, and probably, on the 

 .iverage, less in the northern than in the southern atmosphere ; 

 these differences must be allowed for, in combination with the 

 effects due to the density of the atmosphere and to centrifugal 

 force. The principal resistance to the motion of the atmosphere 

 originates in the connective |)rocesses that force stagnant air to 

 ni'n with air in mDlion ; this coiiveclive friction is quite 



NO. I 2^4 \OL. 50] 



by A. 



by N. 



independent of viscosity, which has been generally introduced 

 into the formulae for atmospheric motion, and it is much more 

 elTective. The most important subject lor the meteorologist to 

 study is these conveclive mixtures and the resistances or 

 accelerations that result therefrom. The author considers it 

 unnecessary to take up the minute irregularities treated of in 

 this paper, until after the study above referred to lias explained 

 the larger part of the irregularities of atmospheric motions. 

 The same journal contains ^ome very useful suggestions by 

 Prof. Abbe, on the various meteorological problems that might 

 be taken up by mathematical students. 



Bulletin de la Societi des Natiiralisles de Moscoti, 1 893, Nos. 

 2 and 3. — On the copulation organs of the males of the genera 

 Crosica, Melecta, Pieudomelccta, &c., by General O. Radoczkow- 

 sky (in French, with four plaio) — Conirihulion ti the patho 

 logic evolution of the nervous system, by Mme. O. V. Leonova, 

 being a description of a complicated case of total anencephaly 

 in a human embryo. ^A case of seeming hermaphroditism with 

 Perca /hivialiiis, by N. Iwanzoff. — The Tithonian deposits of 

 Theodosia. Crimea, by O. Relowski (in German, with six 

 plates). This elab .rate monograph contains the description 

 of sixty-five fossil species from those little-known beds — no less 

 than thiriy-one species and one genus being new. — Pala.'onto- 

 logical data for the vertical subdivision of the Sarmathian 

 deposits of South Russia, by A. P. JvanofT (in Russian, 

 summed up in Fiench). The following five zones are distin- 

 guished: — (l) Zone of Cerilhiu'H niitrale. uicditerraneum, and 

 rubiginosum ; (2) C. disjiiiiclum and mitrale ; (3) C nodosa- 

 pticatnin, disjiinctum, and mitrale ; (4) C. rubiginosum, nodo- 

 soplicatum, disjunctum, mitrale, var. bicoslata, and nympha ; 

 (5) C. mitrale, var. bijuga ; and (6) C. disjunctum. The beds 

 overlying the above are characterised by the absence of Certthes, 

 and the appearance, for the first time, of Trochus podolicus, and 

 a great development of Mactra pondcro'.a. The uppermost 

 layers of the .series contain no Trochus podolicus, while 

 other species of 1 rochus and Turbo appear in great numbers. 

 — The birds of Moscow, by Th. Lorenz, continued. — Note 

 on J. D. Chersky, with a complete list of his works, 

 Iwanowski. — On a new species, Parus Iranscaspius 

 Zaroudnoi (in French). 



Memoirs of the Kazan Society of Naturalists, vol. xxvi. 

 Nos. 4, 5, and 6. — On the theory of the root-force in the plant, 

 by Dr. Alexis Horvath. The manometric measurements of the 

 author prove the existence of a rarefaction within the plant, 

 and he therefore considers the vessel of a plant as a tube, in 

 which we should have a succession of drops of a liquid, separated 

 from each other by bulbs of air. The heating of the gas and 

 its expansion acts in the tube as the piston of an aspirating 

 pump. — On the consequences of the decapitation of the plant 

 on some of its organs, by W. Rothert. — On the supply of water 

 to Kazan, by Prof. Stscherbakoff. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, .\pril 19. — " On Variations obs«rved in the 

 Spectra of Carbon Electrodes, and on the Influence of one Sub- 

 stance on the Spectrum of Another." By W. N. Hartley, F.R.S. 



Certain "lines" in Hartley and Adeney's spectrum of carbon 

 are attributed to cyanogen in a recent paper by Eder and 

 Valenta. ' These lines are not produced by cyanides such as 

 potassium cyanide or mercuric cyanide. Graphite electrodes 

 immersed in solutions show beautiful groups of lines which co- 

 incide with the edges of certain bands in spectra of the flame of 

 burning C) anogen. These bands can be recognised in the groups 

 iii. and iv. on the spectra photographed by Kayser and Runge. 



The origin of these coincident portions of spectra, namely, 

 from the combustion of cyanogen and from carbon electiodes in 

 saline solutions, taken in conjunction with the fact that they are 

 not rendered liy cyanides, makes it doubtful whether the 

 cyanogen spectrum is not due to elementary carbon, as first ad- 

 vocated by Marshall Watts. There are other facts and circum- 

 stance; which somewhat support this doubt. First, variations 

 have bjen observed in the spectrum of carbon which cannot be 

 easily accounted for. Secondly, the effect of one substance on 



' " Line Spectrum of Elementary Carbon and the Ullr.a-violet Spark 

 Spectrum of Wet and Dry Wood Charcoal " (Vienna : •' Akad Wiss. Denk- 

 scliriften," vol. 60, 1893). 



