October 29 1903J 



NATURE 



^39 



tions, one is struck by the fexcellence of the equipment of 

 the laboratories and workshops. We reproduce on a re- 

 duced scale an illustration showing the installation for the 

 study of synchronous motors and problems connected with 

 the paralleling of alternators. The character of the wiring 

 is a noticeable feature ; the switchboard looks more like a 

 diagram than an actual board, having all the leads plainly 

 visible and easily accessible, which must prove a consider- 

 able advantage in teaching and experimental work. The 

 apparatus and machinery installed cover practically the 

 whole field of flcn-dtrThnicMl iii.'.isurcnipnts, a separate 



installation, complete in itself, being provided for the study 

 of each branch. In addition to these " industrial labor- 

 atories " there are well-equipped standardising laboratories, 

 chemical and photometric laboratories, drawing oflices, and 

 lecture theatres. Altogether the institution appears to be 

 thoroughly equipped for teaching electrical technology. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Manchester. 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, October 6. — Prof. 

 W. Boyd Dawkins, president, in the chair. — Dr. Henry 

 Wilde, F.R.S., read a paper on the resolution of elementary 

 substances into their ultimates and on the spontaneous 

 molecular activity of radium. The author referred to several 

 of his papers published by the Society on the genesis of 

 elementary substances and on the multiple proportions of 

 their atomic weights, wherein certain gaps appeared in the 

 several series in his tables, which have since been filled up 

 by scandium,, germanium, helium, argon, neon, krypton 

 and xenon. The remarkable properties of radium were held 

 to represent further realisations of the predictions made in 

 the author's earlier papers. The author had previously 

 indicated the interruption in the regularity of his multiple 

 series H2n through the absence of elements of atomic 

 weights i6o and 184 respectively. As there is only one place 

 vacant higher in this series for an analogue of calcium, 

 strontium and barium, radium was identified by the author 

 as the tenth elementary condensation of H2«, with an 

 atomic weight of 184, and a specific gravity of 48, as shown 

 in his tables. The authoj had shown in former papers that 

 helium was the unknown typical molecule of the same 

 series, with an atomic weight of 2, and had previously in- 

 dicated the' probability of the resolution of the higher 

 members of each series into their elementary typical mole- 

 cules. The production of helium from radiurn by Profs. 

 Rutherford, Soddy and Ramsay confirmed the author's pre- 

 vision in the case of the series H2n, and this result may 

 lead to the resolution of the higher members of other series 

 into their ultimates. — Fossil plants from the Ardwick series 

 of Manchestef, by Mr. E. A. Neville Arber. The author 

 has carefully reinvestigated the fossil plants from the Ard- 

 wick series of rocks collected by the late Mr. Binney, and 

 ^ which are now in the University Museum of Cambridge. 



iHe has also examined the numerous fossil plants from this 

 Series in the Manchester MuSeum, and has come to the con- 

 NO. 1774, VOL. 68] 



elusion that the Ardwick series of rock does not belong, as 

 stated, to the Upper Coal-measures, but forms a definite 

 transition series between the Upper and Middle Coal- 

 measures of Lancashire. Such a transition series has been 

 already recognised in the Coal-measures of South Wales, 

 Somerset, and Staffordshire. 



October 20. — Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, president, in the 

 chair. — Mr. Henry Sidebottom read a paper on recent 

 Foraminifera from the coast of the island of Delos, in which 

 he enumerated some seventy species of Miliolidae, including 

 four new species and several interesting variations. The 

 new species and variations were fully described, and draw- 

 ings both of the specimens and their sections exhibited. 

 Mr. Sidebottom stated that the dredgings from this locality 

 were extraordinarily rich in Foraminifera. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 19.— M. Albert Gaudry 

 in the chair. — On the state of vaporised carbon, by M. 

 Derthelot. At a temperature of i200°-i500°, carbon 

 possesses an appreciable vapour pressure, which is so small 

 that, even after several hundred hours in a vacuum, the 

 amount vaporised amounts only to a few milligrams. This 

 carbon is amorphous, and contains no trace either of 

 diamond or graphite. — On the periods of double integrals 

 and their relations with the theory of double integrals of 

 the second species, by M. Emile Picard. — On the estim- 

 ation of argon in atmospheric air, by M. Henri Moissan. 

 Pure metallic calcium, prepared by a method previously 

 described by the author, is used to absorb the nitrogen ; 

 this metal also absorbs the traces of hydrogen which are 

 always present if a mixture of lime and magnesium powder 

 has been used in the preliminary treatment. Samples of 

 air from various sources gave, with one exception, very 

 concordant figures between 0-931 and 0-938 per cent, by 

 volume, the exception being a sample of air taken on the 

 Atlantic, which gave o 949 per cent. — On the products of 

 condensation of tetramethyldiamidophenyloxanthranol with 

 benzene, toluene, and dim'ethylaniline, by MM. A. Haller 

 and A. Guyot. — On the acclimatisation and culture of 

 pintadines, or true pearl oysters, on the coasts of France, 

 and on the forced production of fine pearls, by M. Raphael 

 Dubois. Successful experiments have been carried out 

 with Margaritifera vulgaris, which has been acclimatised 

 and made to yield pearls which, although small, are of 

 good quality. — On linear equations of finite differences, by 

 M. Alf. Guldberg^. — On a reflection refractometer, by 

 M. Th. Vautier. An interference refractometer composed 

 of three mirrors is described, allowing of the complete 

 separation of the two interfering light bundles. — On the 

 composition of zinc peroxide, by M. Kuriloff. The only 

 definite peroxide of zinc appears to be Zn03.Zn(OH)2.-^ 

 The phagocyte organ of the crustacean decapods, by M. L. 

 Cudnot. — On the phases of folding in the French intra- 

 alpine zones, by M. W. Kilian. — The part played by com- 

 pression in the localisation of the tendons, by M. R. 

 Anthony. — On the relations existing between the Surra 

 and the Nagana, according to an experiment of Nocard, bv 

 MM. Valine and Carrtf. The authors confirm the view's 

 of M.M. Laveran and Mesnil as to the non-identity of Surra 

 and Nagana. — Parthenogenesis and treatment of rheuma- 

 tism, by M. L. P«ni6re». — Experimental researches on the 

 sense of smell in the old, by M. Vaschide. In old people 

 the sense of smell is better preserved in women than in 

 men, but in all cases there is a marked diminution in 

 olfactory sensibility due to age. 



New South Wales. 

 Royal Society, August 5.— Mr. F. B. Guthrie, president, 

 in the chair. — The economic effects of sanitary works, by 

 .Mr. J. Haydon Cardew. The principal object of the paper 

 was to give municipal and health authorities some basis to 

 work upon in devising sanitary services and forecasting 

 I their economic effects. — On the protection of iron and other 

 metal-work, by Mr. William M. Hamlet. The author 

 dealt with an investigation of the causes of the rapid rust- 

 ing away of the iron casing at one of the Australian artesian 

 bores, where abundance of carbonic acid gas was evolved at 

 100° F. ; the water also contained alkaline carbonates and 

 bicarbonates with sodium chlorides, silica, &c., amounting 

 to between thirty and forty grains of total solid nriatfer to 

 the gallon. Probably a specially hard and resistant ^lloy 



