376 



NA TURE 



[February 15, 1894 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Oxford. — At a meeting of the Ashmolean Society, held on 

 Monday last, Mr. V. H. Veley read a most interesting paper, 

 entitled "A Criticism of the Electrolytic Theory of Chemical 

 Change," which excited a warm discussion. At the same 

 meeting Mr. J. E. Marsh read a paper on "Some New 

 Derivatives of Camphene," which embodied some of the re- 

 sults of recent investigations made by him and Mr. J. A. 

 Gar iner. 



At a meeting of the Junior Scientific Club on Wednesday, 

 7th inst., Mr. H. Balfour exhibited primitive tobacco pipes 

 and vessels of skin and sinew from India and South Africa. 

 Papers were read on " Hertz's Researches on Electromagnetic i 

 Radiation" by Mr. E. F. Morris, of Balliol, and on "The | 

 Distribution of Extra-marine Mollusca," by Mr. E. W. W. t 

 Bowell. of Wadham. 



In the list of newly-elected members of the Board of the | 

 Faculty of Natural Science given last week, the name of Mr. | 

 W. Esson was inadvertently given instead of that of Mr, H. T. [ 

 Gerrans. 



As a result of the memorial presented by the Demonstrators 

 to the Hebdomadal Council last year, the following statute has 

 been passed by Council, and will be promulgated in Convoca- 

 tion on March 20. If all that the Demonstrators demanded has 

 not been conceded, the new statute has at least the merit of 

 recognising their position and given them a definite university 

 status 



"Whereas it is expedient to make regulations respecting (i) the 

 appointment of Demonstrators and other Assistants in certain 

 laboratories, and (2) their tenure of office, the Univer:ity enacts 

 as follows : — 



After Statt. Tit. iv. Sect, i, § 3 (page 32, ed. 1893) the follow- 

 ing subsection shall be added : — 



§ 4. Concerning Demonstrators and other Assistants in 

 laboratories. 



1. Every Demonstrator or other Assistant appointed by any 

 of the Professors enumerated in the Schedule annexed to this 

 Statute shall receive at the time of his appointment a written 

 statement of the emolument and duration of his office. 



2. In all cases in which a Demonstrator or other Assistant is 

 so appointed for a longer period than two terms, Easter and 

 Trinity terms being for this purpose computed as one term, the 

 name of the person appointed and the terms of the appointment 

 shall be submitted for approval to the Vice-Chancellor, who, if 

 he gives his approval, shall notify the appointment in Con- 

 vocation, and cause it to be published in the usual manner. 



3. Any Demonstrator or other Assistant who has been dis- 

 missed from office by the Professor shall have the right of 

 appealing against the dismissal to the Vice-Chancellor. 



Schedule. 



The Savilian Professor of Astronomy. 



The Professor of Experimental Philosophy. 



The Waynflete Professor of Chemistry. 



The Professor of Geology. 



The Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy. 



The Waynflele Professor of Physiology. 



The Sherardian Professor of Botany." 



Cambridge. — Mr. T. H. Riches has been appointed to the 

 occupation of the University's table at the Naples Zoological 

 Station for the next five months. 



The General Board of Studies recommend that Dr. Ruhe- 

 mann's Lectureship in Organic Chemistry should be con- 

 tinued for five years from Michaelmas next. Dr. Ruhe- 

 mann's teaching appears to have been very popular ; during 

 last term he had 123 students under instruction. His work, 

 though it is under University auspices, is conducted for the 

 present in the laboratory of Gonville and Caius College. 



The Agricultural Examinations Syndicate have issued, through 

 their Secretary, Mr. Francis Darwin, Deputy -professor of Botany, 

 a scheme of the Examination in Agriculture to be held next sum- 

 mer. The examination will extend from July 2 to July 8, and 

 will include papers and practical work in Chemistry, Botany, 

 Physiology, Entomology, Geology, Engineering, and Book- 

 keeping (constituting Part I.), and Practical Agriculture and 

 Surveying (constituting Part 11.). The fee for admission will 

 be one guinea for Part I., and two guineas for Part II. The 

 names of candidates are to be sent to the Registrary by 



NO. 1-268. VOL. 4q] 



June 13, 1894. Schedules of the subjects over which the exam- 

 ination will extend are published in the University Reporter 

 for February 13. Candidates who pass both parts will receive 

 a diploma testifying to their competent knowledge of the science 

 and practice of agriculture. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Wiedemann s Annalen dcr Physik nnd Chemie, No. I. — 

 Radiation of gases, by F. Paschen. The experiments were 

 conducted upon gaseous carbonic acid and steam. By using 

 mirrors instead of lenses, and a prism of fluor spar, purer spectra 

 and more decif^ed maxima were obtained than those found by 

 Angstriim. The absorption spectra of CO2 at ordinary tem- 

 peratures, and of steam at 100°, correspond in general to the 

 emission spectra at higher temperatures, except that at higher 

 temperatures the maxima are displaced towards the less re- 

 frangible end. This displacement was found, however, to be 

 reversed for at least one of the steam maxima. The principal 

 maximum of C0.> was at A 4630. The other, at 2710, nearly 

 coincided with that of steam, at 2660. The other maxima due 

 to steam were found at 8060 and 7160. All these maxima were 

 very decided. A layer of CO., 7 cm. thick showed almost com- 

 plete absorption at the darkest bands. These bands did not, as 

 sometimes supposed, broaden with increasing thicknesses of 

 layers. A layer of air S3 cm. thick showed them clearly. One 

 principal band due to steam was found represented in the absorp- 

 tion spectrum of water, but those of water were as a rule displaced 

 towards the red end. No absorption by oxygen and nitrogen 

 could be discovered under similar conditions. — On the artificial 

 colouring of crystals and amorphous bodies, by O. Lehmann, 

 The recently discovered phenomenon of " liquid crystals," i.e. 

 dissolved crystals retaining their doubly-refracting properties in 

 the state of solution, has confirmed the author's belief that the 

 properties of crystals depend more upon those of their molecules 

 than upon the aggregation of the latter. Hence it is probable 

 that substances which are not isomorphous may, after all, be 

 capable of crystallising together. This has been actually ob- 

 served in the case of sal-ammoniac and copper chloride, and 

 subsequently in a large number of substances, such as meconic, 

 hippuric, and succinic acids when brought into contact with 

 bodies like Hofmann's violet, phenyl blue, or methyl orange. — 

 On galvanic deposits arranged in streaks, by U. Behn. The 

 streaky deposit found in silver voltameetrs and similar apparatus 

 owes its arrangement to currents within the liquid due to varia- 

 tions of density during electrolysis, as was proved by varying 

 the position of the voltameter. In the case of silver nitrate, the 

 streaks are most highly developed when the solution is dense 

 and the current feeble. The amount of E.M.F. is without in- 

 fluence. — The polarisation of solid deposits between electro- 

 lytes, by P. Springmann. The counter E.M.F. generated by a 

 current, flowing through two electrolytes was determined, in 

 cases where the two liquids gave a solid deposit upon the mem- 

 brane (parchment or gypsum) separating them. With a current 

 of 21 '4 milliampt-res, solutions of lead nitrate and copper .sul- 

 phate gave a polarisation of i '964 volts after five, and 2*02 volts 

 after ten minutes. 



Bulletin de i Acad/ime Royale de Belgique, No. 12. — Essay 

 on the variations of latitude, by F. Folic This is an attempt to 

 explain the observed variations of latitude by a superposition of 

 initial nutation and an annual displacement of the earth's pole 

 of inertia due to inequalities in the distribution of snow in the 

 various north circumpolar regions. Supposing that the snow 

 falling in America between the meridians of 235° and 285° E. 

 of Gr. is counterbalanced by that falling in Europe and Siberia 

 from 55° to 105^ the chief unbalanced tracts would be those 

 between 105° and 135" in Siberia, and 15° and 55° in Europe^^ 

 These masses would have their centres ot gravity at about 120° 

 and 35' respectively, giving a resultant centre ot gravity at 77°. 

 Assuming that the thickness of snow accumulated from autumn 

 till midwinter is equivalent to 0-3 m. of water, and that the 

 solid crust extends down to the extent of one-tenth of the 

 earth's radius, a rough calculation gives o'o6" as the angle by 

 which the pole of inertia would be displaced towards North 

 America during the period considered, afterwards returning by 

 the same amount between midwinter and midsummer. The 

 combination of this annual period with that of initial nutation, 

 of 427 days, would give an apparent period of 396 days, 

 agreeing closely with that of 398 days found by Chandler. — 



