January i8, 1894] 



NA TURE 



283 



tubes of electric displacement has been developed by Prof. J. J. 

 Thomson, who draws attention to their strong analogies to 

 tubes of vortex motion ("Recent Researches...," 1893, 



P- 52). 



Prof. Oliver Lodge has kindly looked for an effect of a 

 magnetic field on the velocity of light, but has not been able to 

 detect any, though the means he employed were extremely 

 searching ; the inference would follow, on this theory, that the 

 motion in a magnetic field is very slow, and the density of the 

 medium correspondingly great. 



UNI VERSITY A ND ED UCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — The lectures announced by the various departments 

 of Natural Science are for the most part a continuation of the 

 courses given during the last term. In all, thirty-two separate 

 courses of lectures are announced, nine in Physics, eight in 

 Chemistry, two in Geology, four in Animal Morphology, four 

 in Physiology, two in Botany, and three in Anthropology. The 

 Hope Professor of Zoology, Mr. E. B. Poulton, is absent from 

 Oxford this term, and the charge of the collection devolves on 

 his assistant. In addition, Mr. Hatchett Jackson has consented 

 to give any information that may be required respecting the 

 Hope Collections. 



The next examination for admission to a Radclifife Travelling 

 Fellowship will be held on March i. Candidates are required 

 to have obtained a first class in one of the honour schools, or to 

 have gained an open University prize or scholarship, and to 

 undertake a course of medical study with the view of proceeding 

 to a medical degree. 



Cambridge. — Mr. J. E. Purvis, of St. John's College, 

 has been appointed Assistant to the Professor of Chemistry in 

 the room of Mr. H. Robinson, who died on January 4. Mr. 

 Robinson had held his office for sixteen years, and had, with 

 Prof. Liveing and independently, conducted a number of import- 

 ant researches. Those on lanthanum and didymium, and on 

 certain points in bacteriological chemistry deserved greater 

 notice than they received. Mr. Robinson's work in agricultural 

 chemistry, in which he was an expert, will be carried on by Mr. 

 T. B. Woo J, of Caius College. Dr. Lorrain- Smith and Dr. 

 Wesbrook, John Lucas Walker Students in Pathology, will this 

 term conduct, in Prof. Roy's laboratory, a new course of 

 instruction in pathological chemistry. The lectures will be 

 given on Mondays and Saturdays at noon, beginning on January 

 20. Mr. H. Yule Oldham, University Lecturer in Geography, 

 will resume his lectures in physical geography on Thursdays at 

 noon in the lecture theatre of the chemical laboratory ; and will 

 give informal instruction and assistance to students of geography 

 in King's College on the same days at six o'clock. The election 

 to the ;i^ioo studentship, offered by the Council of the Royal 

 Geographical Society for members of the University attendmg 

 the lectures, will be held on March 12. 



An influential deputation, representing the University Col- 

 leges of Wales, waited upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 on Friday last, to ask for an annual grant of ;/^3,ooo to the new 

 Welsh University. In reply, Sir W. Harcourt said he would 

 request the Government to grant the request for the present 

 year, but he could promise nothing for the future. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Btilletin de F Academic Royale de Belgique. — Stas's determina- 

 tions of atomic weights, by E. Vogel. In spite of Stas's 

 conclusion that the atomic weights of the elements have no 

 common measure, Prout's hypothesis has recently been 

 I regaining ground. Hinrichs's experiments have thrown doubt 

 upon Stas's atomic weight determinations ; and the suppositions 

 made by Stas himself place it beyond doubt that all his atomic 

 weights without exception are inaccurate. The cause of the 

 great discrepancies in the values found by Stas himself lies in 

 I the variation of the weights of the substances taken. When to 

 !a solution of an alkaline chloride is added nitrate of silver to 

 shght excess, a precipitate will be formed on adding more 

 chloride. But experiment shows that a precipitate is also 

 formed on adding more nitrate, up to a certain limit which 



Mulder termed the limit of silver, as distinguished from the 

 limit of salt for the addition of the chloride. The author shows 

 that the true atomic weight cannot be derived from the mean 

 between these two limits, and proves from Stas's own data 

 that they may be equally well interpreted for entire as for 

 fractional multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. — 

 Chronometric determinations relating to the regeneration of 

 nerves, by C. Vanlair. The experiments, conducted by the 

 physiological method, were made upon a motor nerve, the 

 facial, a nerve whose simultaneous bilateral section is incon- 

 sistent with life, the pneumogastric, and a mixed sensory nerve, 

 the sciatic. The right facial nerve of an adult rabbit, the two 

 inferior branches of which were cut as they emerged from the 

 parotid, required eight months for their regeneration. The 

 right pneumogastric of an adult dog was cut in June 1889, and 

 the left, one year afterwards. In August, 1891, the right nerve 

 was cut again, but, after some initial troubles, the dog's health 

 remained perfect throughout. Since the simultaneous section 

 of the two branches is invariably fatal, it follows that during 

 the time intervening between the sections the branch last cut 

 must have reunited. This gives a velocity of reproduction of 

 3 cm. per month, or i. mm. per day. In the dog, and doubtless 

 also in man, nervous regeneration, undisturbed by any acci- 

 dental obstacle, takes place with an almost perfect chronological 

 regularity. The average time necessary for initial proliferation 

 is about forty days. For a section of about I cm. length, the 

 development of the new fibres takes place at a rate of o'25 mm 

 per day. The speed is greater at 2 cm. but decreases again for 

 greater lengths in proportion to such lengths. 



Meinoires de la Socielc d' Anthropologic de Paris, Tome i. 

 (3e Serie) ler Fascicule. — A new series of the memoirs of the 

 Anthropological Society of Paris commences with this number, 

 and opportunity has been taken to introduce a few modifications 

 into the manner of their publication. In future each memoir 

 will be paged separately, and will be sold at the price of three 

 centimes a page. This part contains an essay by M. A. 

 Dumont, on the birth rate in the canton of Beaumont-Hague. 

 The author says that France is menaced by five great perils : 

 (i) Foreign invasion ; (2) advance of plutocracy ; {3) increase 

 of clericalism ; (4) lowering of the birth-rate ; (5) increase of 

 rural emigration. W^ith regard to these last two dangers, it is 

 of the utmost importance to determine their extent, their causes, 

 and their remedies. The tables given by the au.horshow that in 

 almost all the villages in the canton of Beaumont-Hague the 

 population has steadily diminished within the last sixty years, in 

 some cases as much as fifty percent., and this large diminution of 

 population appears to result from the excess of the death rate 

 over the birth rate. In one parish only has the population in- 

 creased, and this has been due to the fact that a number of 

 those employed in the Government works at Cherbourg have 

 taken up their residence here within the last few years 

 since 1886. M. Dumont discusses at length the causes of the 

 very low birth rate throughout the canton, and comes to the 

 conclusion that it is closely connected with the emigration of the 

 more well-to-do inhabitants, and that ircrease in population is 

 in inverse proportion to individual effort for personal advance- 

 ment. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Royal Society, Dec 14, 1893. — " Sugar as a Food in the 

 Production of Muscular Work." By Dr. Vaughan Ilarley. 



In the above paper the author first gave the chemical reasons 

 that led him to believe that sugar was the principal factor in the 

 production of muscular energy. 



He then went on to prove that it could be experimentally 

 demonstrated that the addition of large quantities of sugar to 

 the diet caused an increased capability of doing muscular work. 



By means of the ergograph it was possible to estimate the 

 amount of work accomplished under various circum.stances by 

 the middle finger of each hand, weights of 3 and 4 kilogrammes 

 being raised. The total height to which the weight was lifted, 

 being multiplied by the weight used, expressed in kilogramme 

 metres the amount of work accomplished. 



The first step was to ascertain the value of sugar when taken 

 alone in the production of muscular work. During a twenty- 

 four hours' fast, on one day, water alone was drunk ; on another, 

 500 grammes of sugar was taken in an equal quantity of water. 

 It was thus found that the sugar not only prolonged the time 



NO. 1264, VOL. 49] 



