252 



NA TURE 



[January ii, 1894 



of silver, and may be awarded for useful invention, important 

 discovery, and meritorious work in, or contributions to, science 

 or the industrial arts. Full directions as to the manner and 

 form in which applications for the investigation of inventions and 

 discoveries should be made will be sent to interested persons 

 on application to the Secretary of the Franklin Institute, 

 Philadelphia. 



In the annual report just issued by the University of Edin- 

 burgh, acknowledgment is made of several benefactions. We 

 read that a legacy of ^looo has been bequeathed by the late 

 M-:; Elizabeth Trevelyan for the foundation and endowment of 

 a scholarship in engineering and mechanical and useful arts, and 

 another bequest, by the late Mr. George Scott, of ;^iooo is 

 destined for the foundation of a scholarship in arts. Since the 

 close of the previous academic year a handsome bequest of ^5000 

 by the late Mr. Alexander Low Bruce, to assist in the foundation 

 of a chair of public health, has been intimated. Of very special 

 interest and value is a collection of Arctic and other relics and 

 curiosities, made by the late Dr. John Rae, the distinguished 

 Arctic explorer, along with his bust, presented by his widow. 



We would call attention to a new departure in University 

 College. During the Easter Term Dr. L. E. Hill, Assistant 

 Professor of Physiology, will give a practical course of instruc- 

 tion in psycho-physiology. The course will take the student 

 methodically over the several senses, and familiarise him with 

 the methods by which the new branch of science known as 

 physiological-psychology or psycho-physics determines the pre- 

 cise manner in which sensation varies both quantitatively and 

 qualitatively with variations of the stimulus, of the particular 

 portion of the sensitive surface stimulated, and so forth. This 

 is, we believe, almost the first attempt in this country to give to 

 students systematic laboratory instruction in those experimental 

 methods of investigating sense-phenomena which have already 

 borne such valuable fruit in Germany and America. As supply- 

 ing an exact and practical method of measuring sensibility the 

 course should further prove valuable to teachers and others. 



The increasing interest in psychological investigation in 

 America is shown by the establishment of many psycho-physical 

 laboratories, and by the formation last year of the American 

 Psychological Association, which drew to Columbia College at 

 its second meeting, December 27 and 28, a distinguished 

 gathering of original investigators. The programme, besides 

 the annual address of the president, Prof. G. T. Ladd, of Yale 

 University, included the following papers : — The psychological 

 standpoint, by Prof. G. S. Fullerton, University of Pennsylvania ; 

 the case of John Bunyan, by Prof. Josiah Royce, of Harvard 

 University ; some account of investigations at Columbia College, 

 by Prof. Cattell ; same at Harvard University, by Prof. Miin- 

 sterberg ; same at Yale, by Prof. Scripture ; experiments on 

 visual memory, by Mr. H. C. Warren, of Princeton University ; 

 Do we ever dream of tasting ? by Prof. J. C. Murray, of McGill 

 College, Montreal ; an early anticipation of Mr. Fiske's doc- 

 trine as to the meaning of infancy, by Prof. N. M. Butler, of 

 Columbia College ; accurate work in psychology, by Dr. E. W. 

 Scripture, of Yale University ; the problem of psychological 

 measurement, by Mrs. G. H. Mead, of the University of 

 Michigan ; the perception of magnitude and distance, by Dr. 

 J. H. Hyslop, of Columbia ; pain and pleasure, by Mr. H. R. 

 Marshall, of New York ; pain contrasts, by Prof. Edward 

 Pace, of Catholic University, Washington ; the confusion of 

 content and function in the analysis of ideas, by Prof. D. S. 

 Miller, ofBryn Mawr College. Prof. James, of Harvard, was 

 elected president for the ensuing year, and Princetown was 

 named as the place of the meeting on December 27 and 28 

 of this year. 



NO. 1263, VOL. 49] 



At the general meeting of the Association for the Improvement 

 of Geometrical Teaching, to be held at University College, Lon- 

 don, January 13, a new undertaking will be proposed by the 

 Council, viz., the establishment of a journal of elementary 

 mathematics, to appear three times a year, and to be specially 

 devoted to such subjects as are usually taught in secondary 

 schools. 



A COURSE of lectures on matters connected with sanitation 

 will be given at the Sanitary Institute from January 26 to 

 April 2. Among the lecturers are Sir Douglas Galton, Profs. 

 Corfield, H. Robinson, A. W. Blyth, A. B. Hill, Dr. J. F. J. 

 Sykes, Dr. A. Newsholme, and Dr. Hamer, The lectures 

 have been arranged for the special instruction of those desirous 

 of obtaining a knowledge of the duties of sanitary officers. 



On Tuesday next (January 16), Prof. Charles Stewart, the 

 newly elected Fullerian Professor of Physiology in the Royal 

 Institution, will begin a course of lectures on " Locomotion 

 and Fixation in Plants and Animals." The Friday evening 

 meetings will begin on January 19, when Prof. Dewar will 

 discourse on the " Scientific Uses of Liquid Air." 



The annual general meeting of the Royal Meteorological 

 Society will be held on January 17, when the report of the 

 council will be read and the election of officers and council for 

 the ensuing year will take place. The president of the society 

 will deliver an address on "The Climate of Southern 

 California." 



A PERIOD of very severe weather has recently been experienced 

 over these islands and the whole of Western Europe. On the 

 1st inst. an anticyclone lay over Scandinavia^ and subsequently 

 spread over the northern parts of this country, causing frost 

 in many places, while snow showers occurred in England, 

 accompanied by bitter easterly gales. For some days the 

 frost and snow continued with increased intensity. The 

 reports issued by the Meteorological Office show that on the 

 morning of the 6th inst. the minimum temperature in South 

 London fell to 13°, while on the previous day a temperature of 

 16° was recorded at Jersey, being 22" below the average mini- 

 mum for January, and at Biarritz a reading of 14° was recorded 

 on the 4th, being 20" lower than the reading at Bodo in Norway, 

 within the Arctic Circle. Towards the end of the week the 

 easterly gales had subsided in the south-east, but had spread to 

 the northern parts of the kingdom. On Saturday morning the 

 Meteorological Office reported a temperature of 5" in the Mid- 

 land Counties and (y' in the centre of Ireland, but later inform- 

 ation in the Weekly Weather Report shows that the absolute 

 shade minimum recorded was minus 4° at Braemar and in the 

 Midlands on that day. With reference to the temperature in 

 the north-west of London, Mr. Symons recorded I3°'i on the 

 5th, and a maximum temperature of 18° '4. His long series of 

 observations shows that the severity of the night of the 4th and 

 5th was only exc ceded three times in the last thirty-five years, 

 viz. December 25, i860, January 4, 1867, and January 17, 1881 

 (the day preceding the blizzard); while as regards the maximum, 

 there ha s been only one day as severe during the same period, 

 viz, January 4, 1867, when the temperature did not exceed i6°'9. 

 The frost continued until the morning of the 8th, when a deep 

 depression appeared off the south-west of Ireland, causing 

 southerly winds and a considerable rise of temperature, and by 

 Monday evening a thaw had set in generally. 



Owing to delay at the Government Printing Office, Mr. H. 

 C. Russell, the Government Astronomer for New South Wales, 

 has only just been able to issue the results of rain, river, and 

 evaporation observations made in that colony in 1892. In ad- 

 dition to the usual matter, the report contains the results of an 

 attempt to determine the average rainfall of Australia. It will 



