April i8, 1895J 



NA TV RE 



599 



1 114, but he oiniis ttie U.iiversitiei of Loidon, of Paris, of Ihe 

 State of Naw York and of Wales, aad th; N'iw Univeriity of 



1 Brasiels. EKclaiin^ the firit three, which, bein^ of the 

 Napoleonic type, hxve n> red lent stu lents, thi un ler^ri i.ii'e 

 population of ihi Univ^rsitie; of the vv)rll is eitimitiil bv thi; 

 aca'lernic statistician as amounting to 157,513 persjns. B :rlin 

 is the mo;t populous University, Urbino the smilleit. Tn; 

 first has 7771 studints, the latter only 74. In pjint of mm 

 hers Oxford comes tenth on the list; Cambridge, twelfth; 

 Victoria, sixty-fourth, and Durham ninety-eighth. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 21. — "On the D.'velopm;nt of the 

 Branches of the Fifth Cranial Nerve in Min." B/ A. Francis 

 Dixon. 



In this paper "detailed description; of the fifth nerve branches 

 are given for five ditTerent stages of the human emliryo, begin- 

 ning with an embryo of foir weeks, at which time merely 

 the three miin divisions of the nerve are represented, and 

 ending with one of the eighth week. Tne observations on the 

 human embryo have been checked by further observations on 

 rat embryos, and an alin )st conplete correspondence between 

 the two has been mide out." In mammals, the three divisions 

 of the fifth nerve are found to rise in lependently from the 

 Gasserian gingli)n, and the nisal nerve is foanl to be the first 

 representative of the ophthalmic division, the frontal being 

 formed later. In like manner, the inferior dental nerve repre- 

 sents the first formed in'erijr maxillary nerve, the lingual 

 branch appearin.; later. No special ganglion is present either 

 for the na<al or for the ophthalmic nerve in mammals in the 

 sense of a ganglion of a posterior nerve root. Tne ciliary 

 ganglion does not represent such a ganglion, and when first 

 found is more closely connected with the f mrth and frontal 

 than with the thirl and nasal nerves. The fourth and frontal 

 nerves from an early period are closely connected. At the be- 

 ginning of the sixrh week nearly all the name! branches of the 

 fifth nerve of the adult are represe ited in the embryo ; also at 

 this lime the accessory ganglia of the fifih nerve are recognisable. 

 No evidence was found to show that the cells of these smaller 

 ganglia are derived direcily from those of the Gasserian. 

 None of the different nerves which in the adult connect the 

 fifth with the o'her cranial nerves are to be considered branches 

 of the fifth nerve ; thus the chorda tympani anl the Valian are 

 found to be derived from the faciil, and the nerve of Jacobson 

 from the Glossopharyngeal. 



"On the Conditions affecting Bacterial Life in Thames 

 Water." By Dr. E. Frankland, F. R.S. 



Since May, 1892, the author has been making monthly deter- 

 minations of the number of bacteria capable of development on a 

 peptone-gelaiine plate in a given volume of Thames water 

 collected at the intakes of the metropolitan water companies at 

 Hampton. The number of microbes per cubic centi netre of 

 water varied during this time between 6jl and 56,630, the 

 highest numiiers having, as a rule, been found in winter or 

 when the tempera'ure of the water was lo*, an 1 the lowest in 

 summer or when the temperature was high. 



The complete observations demonstrate that the number of 



microbesin Thames water depends up m ihe rate of flow of the 



river or, in other words, upon the rainfill, anJ but slightly, 



; if at all, upon cither the presence or absence of sunshine or a 



I high or lovv temperature. 



With regaid to ihe effect of sunshine upon bacterial life, the 



j author remarks that the intr:resting researches of Dr. Marshall 



\ Waid leave no doubt that sunlight is a powerful germicide ; but 



I it is prob.ible that iis potency, in this respsct, is greatly 



j diminished, if not entirely annulled, when the solar rays have co 



I pass through a straium of waier even of compiratively s nail 



' thickness before they reach the living organisms. If this he the 



case, it is held 10 tie no matter for surpri-c t'lat the eif-'Ct of 



sunshine up m liacterial life in the great mass of Thamis water 



should be nearly, if not quite, imperceptible. 



Geological Society, April 3 — Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., Pre-id^n', ill ihe chair. — Dr. K. de ICroustchotf, St. 

 Petersburg, was cl.cted a Foreign C irrespon lont of the S iciety, 

 — Physical features and geology of Mauritius, by Major H. de 



NO. 1329, VOL. 5 1] 



Haga Hsig, R.E. The author gave full details of the physical 

 geography of the island, including the nature and composition 

 of the mountain ranges, the depth of the ravines, the occurrence 

 of caverns in the lavas, and the character of the coral reef sur- 

 rounding the island. Information was furnished concerning the 

 neighbouring islands, and reference made to the possible former 

 existence of an extensive tract of land at no great distance from 

 Mauritius. — On acomparison of the Permian freshwater I.araelli- 

 branchiata from Russia with those from the Karoo formation of 

 Africa, by Dr. Wladimir Amalitsky, Professor of Geology in 

 Warsaw University. The freshwater shells from the Russian 

 Permian deposits belonging to the gen\is]Pa/affmuU.'a are also 

 known from the Karoo beds of South and Central Africa, as 

 pointed out by the author in 1S92. lie had recently had the 

 opportunity of studying the actual specimens from the Karoo 

 beds, and found in them species of the groups Palcomiilela 

 Inostranzewi, P. Kryscrlingi, P. Verncitilii, and P. Miircfii- 

 soni ; also of a new.genus, the forms of wdiich he had previously 

 referred to Naiadites, Dawson. All these groups are found 

 also in Russia, and a list was given of species lound in the 

 upper horizons (A, B, and C) of the Permian beds of Russia and 

 in the Karoo beds. These upper beds of Russia have been de- 

 termined by the author as the freshwater equivalents of the 

 Zechstein ; consequently the Beaufort beds of the Karoo series, 

 if considered as the hornolaxial equivalent of the European 

 strata referred to above, should be regarded as Upper Permian. 

 The Upper Permian group of freshwater lamellibranchiata of 

 Russia, which bears traces of genetic relationship with the Car- 

 boniferous .\nthracosida;, and which was already well repre- 

 sented in Permo-Carboniferous and Lower Permian times, is, 

 accorling to the author, much older than the African fauna of 

 the Beaufort beds. These may be concluded to have migrated 

 from Russia, the Gondwana beds of India having probably been 

 the connecting-link between all these deposits. The author 

 gave a description of the fossils of the Karoo series which he 

 had examined, including a diagnosis of the new genus in which 

 he placed the fossils already alluded to as having been pre- 

 viously referred to the gsnai Naiadites. 



Paris. ' 



Academy of Sciences, .\pril 8.— M. .Marey in the chair. — 

 On the Huted spectrum, by M. II. Poincare. A mathematical 

 paper in which it is shown that a complete analysis of the 

 phenomena of Fizeau and Foucault's experiment confirms 

 Fizeau's deduction concerning the pernanence of luminous 

 movement during a large number of oscillations. — Official 

 plans and reports relating to the removal of the capital of 

 Brazil to a new site, by M. II. Faye. A series of reports 

 printed in Portuguese anl French. The district in which the 

 proposed new site fora Brazilian capital is situated lies between 

 the par.allels 15" 40' aad l5' 8' and the meridians 3° iS' and 

 3° 24' at an altitud; of above looo metres. — Structure of the 

 hymen in a species of Marasmiiis. An abstract of a memoir 

 by M. 1. de Seynes. — On substitutions, by M. Zjchios. An 

 algebraical paper. — Rem )v.al of th; Brazilian capital. A letter 

 to M. Faye, by M. Cruls. A short account of the main 

 features of the survey work undertaken on the new site. — On 

 geodetic work in the basin of the Amour, by M. Venukoff. — 

 On the determination of the mass of the cubic decimetre of dis- 

 tilled water at 4", by .M. J. Mace de Lepinay. Tnis datum is 

 yet imperfectly determined. Shuckhurg and Kater give 

 looo"4So grams, whereas Stampfer finds the value 999'653 

 grams. Tne author proposes a new method of d:termination 

 by which he expects to determine this constant within 6 mgm. 

 The proposed methoi includes (i) the study of the geometrical 

 form and dimensions of a certain solid as related to the 

 standard metre, (2) the measurement of the loss of weight of 

 this solid immersed in pure air-free water at its temperature 

 of maximum density in terms of the standard kilogram. Toe 

 solid taken is a parallclopipedon formed of transparent quartz. 

 Its thickness in different directions will be examined optically 

 by means of Talbot's fringes. — New apparatus for the measure- 

 ment of the specific inductive power of solids and liquids, by 

 M. H. Pcllat. — On a new form .of specroscipe termed the 

 " hcrna spectroscope comparateur, " by M. M. de Thierry. — On 

 a simple experiment demonstrating the presence of argon in 

 atmospheric nitrogen, by M. Gunlz. The author obtains argon 

 by replacing magnesium by electrolytic lithium. Owing to the 

 lower temperature at which lithium completely absorbs nitrogen, 

 it is possible to pass atmospheric nitrogen over several heated 



