March 22, 1894] 



NATURE 



497 



Shales, apparently passing upward into the Middle Devonian 

 Slates by the irregular intercalation of grits with slates. 



During the progress of the field-work in South Devonshire a 

 large series of specimens, sent up by Mr. Ussher, has been 

 sliced and subjected to microscopic investigation by the petro- 

 grapher to the Survey, Mr. J. J. H. Teall, F.R.S., who 

 reports that the detailed examination of the rocks from the 

 metamorphic area of South Devon has brought to light the fact 

 that the [>revious!y published descriptions ot the green varieties 

 of rock were very imperfect. The specimens which have been 

 least altered by surface-agencies consist essentially of horn- 

 blende, albite and epidote. In altered specimens hornblende 

 is more or less replaced by chlorite ; and when this is the case 

 calcite is usually present. The hornblende is either uralitic or 

 actinolitic in character, never compact. The felspar is water- 

 clear, and usually without any trace of cleavage or twinning. 

 It has been defiuitely determined to be albite in one case, and 

 from its uniform character in all the slides examined there can 

 be no doubt that this is the dominant if not the only species 

 present. The association of albite with hornblende, epidote, 

 chlorite and calcite has been described by Lossen in his various 

 papers relating to the modification of the diabases associated 

 with Devonian rocks in the Hartz. Quartz, which had previously 

 been supposed to form an important constituent of these rocks, 

 appears to be comparatively scarce. 



Petrographical Department. — The important assistance of the 

 petrographical department has again during the past year been 

 largely extended to the field officers, and has greatly aided their 

 work. Mr. Teall, besides the microscopic and chemical work 

 carried on by him in this office, and the determinations and 

 reports made by him for the guidance of the officers in the field, 

 has during the past year undertaken some field-work himself. As 

 he is specially charged with the investigation of the petrography 

 of the Lewisian gneiss — the most ancient rock in the British 

 Isles — it was considered desirable that he should make himself 

 practicallyj familiar with the minutest details of the complex 

 structure of this venerable formation, and for that end should 

 himself map a portion of its area on the six-inch scale. The 

 Island of Rona, lying between Skye and Ross-shire, was 

 selected for him, and he spent nearly two months in mapping it. 

 With regard to the ordinary work of the department in the 

 office and to the more important scientific results obtained by 

 Mr. Teall during the last few years, he has at my request drawn 

 up a memorandum, from which the following passages are 

 taken : — The principal work of the petrographical department 

 during the year has been the examination and description of I 

 specimens sent up by the officers in the field. Of these 492 have 

 been prepared for microscopic examination and have been de- 

 scribed in detail. The total number of Scottish rocks from 

 which sections have been cut is now more than 5000. The 

 system of cataloguing has been improved during the year. Each 

 field officer now numbers his specimens consecutively. These 

 specimens are entered in a book under the name of the officer 

 who sends them up, and a record is kept of the destination of 

 each. Those specimens of which sections are prepared are 

 numbered consecutively in the order in which they are cut, and 

 are entered in books kept for the purpose. When they have 

 been described and named they are again entered in two distinct 

 catalogues, one of which is arranged according to the sheets of 

 the one-inch map, and the other according to petrographical 

 types. It will thus be seen that every sliced specimen is entered 

 four times, and that every specimen sent up for examination, 

 whether sliced or not, can at once be found. 



On the general question of metamorphism much important 

 detail has been accumulated. The fact that the central and 

 southern Highlands of Scotland are largely composed of 

 highly crystalline rocks of sedimentary origin has long been 

 known. Petrographical work has tended to render the correct- 

 ness of this view more and more certain. Thus fine-grained 

 quartzo-felspathic rocks, which show no decided indications of 

 clastic origin, have been found to be traversed by narrow dark 

 bands in which minute crystals of zircon, rutile, and ilmenite 

 abound. Similar bands occur in loose sandy deposits of much 

 later geological age, so that the doubtful rock may be recognised 

 as really a sandstone consolidated by the secondary enlargement 

 of the quartz, and possibly also of the felspar grains. The 

 detailed microscopic work of the department has also thrown 

 much light on the nature of the processes by which the present 

 mineralogical and structural characters of the Highland rocks 

 have been produced. 



{To be continued.) 



NO. 1273, VOL. 49] 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



The results of an inquiry into the position taken by Univer- 

 sities in difTerent parts of the world as regards the admission of 

 women, are given in the Revue Scientijiqtte. It appears that 

 the French Faculties opened their doors to women for the first 

 lime in 1863. None of the German Universities yet admit 

 women either to lectures or examinations. There will be a diffi- 

 culty, however, in resisting for long the force of opinion in 

 favour of the admission of women to courses of study, and 

 especially to meriical classes. A petition for the removal of 

 the present restrictions was presented to the Reichstag not long 

 ago, containing more than 50;Ooo signatures of women. In 

 Austria-Hungary and Spain the laws are against the access of 

 women to higher education. Women possess a special school 

 of medicine in Russia, in spite of their exclusion from the 

 Universities. In Belgium, women are admitted to the courses 

 in all the Faculties, and are eligible for all diplomas. They 

 may also follow the medical profession, or become dispensing 

 chemists. Holland has a large number of women students in 

 its Universities, but Switzerland heads the list in this respect. 

 During the summer semester of 1892, no less than 541 women 

 students were studying in Swiss Universities. In Italy women 

 are admitted to all the Faculties, and are at liberty to exercise 

 all professions except the legal. Among the professors in 

 Bologna University, a lady occupies the chair of histology in 

 the Faculty of Medicine. The Universities of Jasi and 

 Bucharest, in Roumania, are open to women, as are also those 

 of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland. Higher educa- 

 tion is available for women in most parts of the United Stales. 

 The result of this is that America has about 3500 women follow- 

 ing various branches of the medical profession, 70 have been 

 appointed physicians in hospitals, and nearly 100 are professors 

 in schools of medicine. 



The Council of the Association of Technical Institutions have 

 sent a letter to Mr. Gladstone with reference to the Royal Com- 

 mission on Secondary Education, the appointment of which was 

 recently announced. The signatories point out that, as the 

 education given in the institutions represented by them is a 

 necessary and important part of the general secondary edu- 

 cation of the country, it is of great importance that the Royal 

 Commission should be fully informed as to the nature of the 

 work that is being done, as to the best means of improving and 

 extending this work, and so enabling the institutions most effi- 

 ciently to take their share in the work of national education. 

 They therefore urge that the Royal Commission should be 

 expressly empowered to deal with technical education, and in 

 order that it might be able to do so eff"ectually, that there should 

 be among the Royal Commissioners an adequate number of 

 gentlemen of experience as administrators and teachers of tech- 

 nical institutions. 



The Italian Government has decided to suppress six small 

 universities — those of Messina, Catania, Modena, Parma, 

 Sassari, and Siena — the academic population of which is from 

 100 to 400. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. iii. 

 No. 5. — Prof. Klein's recent visit to Chicago was taken advan- 

 tage of by American mathematicians. One of the most inter- 

 esting results was the publication of twelve lectures on mathe- 

 matics, with the title of "The Evanstnn Colloquium." An 

 abstract of the contents of this work, by H. S. White, occupies 

 pp. 119-122 of the present number. L. E. Dickson contributes 

 a note on the number of inscriptible regular polygons (pp. 123- 

 125). E. M. Blake (pp. 125-127) writes upon the "Biblio- 

 graphy of Mathematical Dissertations." His remarks are based 

 upon two recently issued works, viz. " Catalogues des Theses 

 de Sciences soutenues en France de 1810 a 1890 inclusivement, 

 par A. Marie (1892)," and " Verzeichnis der Seit 1850 an den 

 Deutschen Universniilenerschienenen Doctor-Dissertation en und 

 Habilitationsschriften aus der reinen und Augewandten Mathe- 

 matik " (Miinchen, 1892). The Paris dissertations are 701 in 

 number, and the departments furnish 172 more. The German 

 work gives references to 939 dissertations. Both books supply a 

 want which has long been felt, lor most of these dissertations 

 appear unannounced at irregular intervals, and are with difficulty 



