i8S 



NA TURE 



[June 21, 1894 



In the dry state numerous minute crystals of sulphate of calcium 

 were visible in the clay. 



In the least low-lying parts of the area salt water is reached 

 at from two feet and a half to three feel ; in the most depressed 

 it remained permanently on the surface during the whole period 

 of the excavations, which extended over the dry months of 

 August, September, October, and November. In parts which 

 are neither the highest nor the lowest the surface clay remains 

 merely damp, and it was in ground of this character that the 

 bones in be»t condition were lound, provided that the under- 

 lying water did not approach the surface too nearly. In such 

 cases, and in the very low places where the water remained per- 

 manently on the surface, it was impossible to excavate on account 

 of the excessive inflow into the holes. 



(To be continiiiJ.) 



UNIVERSITY AXD EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



O.XFORD.— Sir Henry \V. Acland, Bart., and Prof. J. S. 

 Butdon Sanderson have been appointed representatives of the 

 Vniversily at the eighth International Congress of H)giene 

 and Demography, to be held at Buda-l'esth in September. 



The Sixth Annual Report of the Delegates of the University 

 Museum has been publi<hed, and gives evidence of steadily 

 increasing aciivi:y in the scientific work of the University. Willi 

 increasing activity increased wants are felt, and the Regius 

 Professor of Medicine, the Professor of Experimental Philo- 

 sophy, and the Hope Professor of Zoology state that extra 

 space is required for particular subjects required to be taught or 

 exhibited in their departments. The reports of the Linacre 

 Professor, and of the Curator of the Pilt Rivers Museum, con- 

 tain long lists of specimens which have been added by gift, 

 purchase, or exchange to the collections under their care, and 

 one of the most satisfactory features of the report is the state- 

 ment of the various researches which have been carried out in 

 different laboratories during the fast year. 



CA.MBRIDCE. — In addition to the honorary doctor's degrees 

 to be conferred in connection with the visit of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society to Cambridge, the honorary degree of M.A. 

 will be conferred on June 27 on Mr. Krnesl Clarke, secretary, 

 and Dr. J. \. Voelcker, consulting chemist, to the Society. 



Mr. A. E. Shipley, of Christ's College, has been appointed 

 University Lectuier in the Advanced Morphology of the 

 Invertcbrata for live years from Michaelmas 1S94, in the room 

 of Prof. S. J. Hickson. 



Mr. S. Ruhemann, of Gonville and Caius College, has been 

 reappointed University Lecturer in Organic Chemistry for five 

 years from Michaelmas 1894. 



Mr. J. J. Lister, of St. John's College, has been appointed 

 University Demonstrator of Comparative .Anatomy. 



At St. John's College the lolloAing awaids in Natural 

 Science were announced on June iS : — 



Foundation Scholarships assigned or continued : W. L. 

 Blown (Physiology); W. Nlcl>ougall (Physiology and 

 .Anatomy) ; S. S. F. Blackman (Zaology) ; \V. C. Brown, 

 Butler, Orton, and K. J. llortonSmith (subjec:s of Natural 

 Sciences Tiipo?, Part L); V. H. Blackman, Norlhcott, 

 Tollent, West (iccond year subjects) ; Hemmy, Morgan 

 (fiist year ouljecis). Hutchinson Studentship (for research in 

 Pathology): F. Villy. Hughes Piize (third year); S. S. F. 

 Blackman. Wiighi'» Prizes : Tallent (second year), Hemmy 

 (fini year). Herschel Prize (for Astronoui}), Feamley. 



came from those points. Other names for the winds are 

 associated with certain definite characteristics. In some places, 

 on lakes, the winds are termed lower or upper winds, according 

 to whether they originate at the lower or upper end of the lake ; 

 on the lake of Garda the upper wind is called Sofero, from the 

 Italian Sopra, on the lake of Geneva ; the wind coming down 

 from the Vaud country is known as V'au.lairt ; and in the 

 Rhine valley, the breeze blowing from the Wisp V.illey is called 

 Wi'fcr-^LHtiii. The Italians call their north-e.ist wind Grto, 

 and the Romans called the south-west wind A/riciis. while the 

 Italians still call it .-Ijf'iiii'. Homer names four winds only: 

 Boreas, the north wind coming from Xorihern Greece ; Zephyros, 

 the west wind, from the word meaning darkness ; Euros, in- 

 dicating light, means a wind from the east ; and Notos, from 

 the word .Votins, wet, a south wind in Greece. Winds are 

 further named according to their inlluences and effects for good 

 or evil; in Switzerland and the Tyrol the warm wind which 

 melts the snow is known as Afei-riiui : while IHsl; Bii or 

 Bass are the names given to the cold north wind ; and Maalro, 

 or master-wind, is the name given to the north west wind 

 which prevails in summer over the .Adriatic ; in France the 

 word becjmes Misiral^ and it is a destructive wind. The word 

 Samooiii, given to the destructive desert wind of .Arabia, is 

 derived from the .Arabic word Ssirn, poison. For further 

 particulars we refer our readers to the original article, which has 

 also been reprinted in the Mtttorologische Zeitschrift for 

 January last. 



Wiciietnanit's AnnaUn th'r Physik und Cht'mie^ No. 6. — On 

 the radiation of gases, by F. Paschen. The long- wave spectrum 

 of water vapour and the absorption spectrum ol liquid water is 

 here dealt with. Rubens's latest re-determinations of the dis- 

 persion curve of fluorspar show that all the author's wave- 

 lengths above 26/1, based upon Rubens' and Snow's previous 

 results, are untrustworthy. The author deals fully with Prings- 

 heim's criticism of his work. — On some methodsof determining 

 the pitches of high notes, by F. Melde (see p. 155). — On 

 the relation between the lowering of the freezing-point of solu- 

 tions and their osmotic pressures, by C. Dieterici. The author 

 works out an equation by which the osmotic work may be calcu- 

 lated from the depression of the freezing point, even in cases 

 where the latter amounts to 50' C. — On the absorption of 

 hydrogen by water and aqueous solutions, by Paul Steiner. The 

 coelhcients of absorption may be roughly divided into two 

 groups — those of solutions of monad salts, of K, Li, and Na, 

 and those of dyad salts, such as K^CO^, CaClj. NajSOi. The 

 curves exhibiting the relation between absorption and concen- 

 traliDU form two bunches for the two groups. The curve for 

 sugar s ilulion is approximately a straight line, interscvting the 

 cutves of the second group. — On the electric conductivity of 

 sooie sails dissolved in ethyl and methyl alcohol, by If. Vullmer. 

 The molecular conductivities of the electrolytes tested in the 

 alcohol increase as the concentration decreases. With extreme 

 dilution they approach a liniiiing value, except those of CaClj 

 ani CaN^O,, in ethyl alcohol. The conductivity also decreases 

 OS the molecular weight of the solvent increases. — On the simi- 

 laiity of the light emitted by an after-glo.ving Geissler tube 

 and the beginning of the gl iw of solid bodies, by Carl Kirn. 

 The spectrum of the after glow contracted into a space between 

 the wave lengths of 555 and 495fi^,ai.d appeared greyish-jellow. 

 This is in accordance with Weber's observation, who n^iticed 

 that a solid does not begin to glow red, but thit the first colour 

 to appear is a greenish-yellow band in the region of maximum 

 luminosity of the solar siicctrum. — On the electric and magnetic 

 forces of the atoms, by F. Richarz. — Un the forms of motion 

 upon which electromagnetic phenomena may be based, by Her- 

 mann Eberl. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 

 Tht American Afeltorohgical Journal for June contains a 

 summary of an interesting article by Dr. F. Umlauft, on the 

 names of the winds, oii^inally published in the Deutsche 

 Kiindichau fur Geo^iaphic uuJ Slalislik (vol. xvi. No. 3). The 

 winds are mostly named according to the regions from which 

 they come ; thus winds blowing from land 10 sea are called 

 land-breezes, and '.ice vena. 'I he original names of the cast 

 and we»t points of the compass, and uf ihc winds from those 

 points, were deiivcd from words connected with the appearance 

 anil d.sappearancc of daylight ; the names of nonh and south 

 were principally associated with the kinds of weather that 



NO. I 2 5:6. VOL. 50] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, May 24. — " On the Measurement of lh« 

 Magnetic Properties of Iron." By Thomas Gray, Professor of 

 Dynamic Engineering, The Rose Polytechnic Institute, Terre 

 Haute, Indiana. 



This paper gives the results of a continuation of the investiga- 

 tion which formed Ihc subject of a paper communicated to the 

 Royal Society in 1892, and published in the rhtlowphical Trant- 

 acltons, vol. clxxxiv. A. pp. 531-542. The results now given 



