May 2 2, 1890J 



NATURE 



93 



purities, and that afterwards tin was added to the copper in 

 increasing proportions with the object of producing a hard alloy. 



Mr. Percy Newberry, exhibited by permission of Mr. W. 

 M. Flinders Tetrie .— (l) Three pages of an ancient Egyptian 

 book on medicine written on papyrus, by a scribe named 

 Usertesen Sen, in the twenty-sixth or twenty fifth century before 

 Christ. This papyrus, together with a number of others of the 

 same date referring to miscellaneous subjects (letters, legal docu- 

 ments, accounts, a fragmentary treatise on mathematics, &c.), 

 was recently discovered by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, during 

 excavations in a ruined town of the XII. Dynasty, at Kahun, 

 in Central Egypt. It contains directions for the use of midwives, 

 written in black and red ink, in hieratic characters (a cursive or 

 written form of hieroglyphics). The black ink is used in the 

 body of the work for the symptoms, diagnoses, and prescrip- 

 tions, and the red ink is used at the heads of the sections. The 

 following translation of the last two and a half lines of the first 

 page will 'serve to show the kind of directions given in this 

 ancient work : — " Treatment of a woman ^ who is pained in her 

 legs and in all her limbs, as one who is beaten. Saywith regard- 

 to her,'^ it is the growth of the at (vulva). Do thou with regard to 

 her'^ thus : let her eat grease until she is cured." — (2) Facsimile 

 of an unpublished papyrus preserved in the British Museum con- 

 taining medical prescriptions written in the Egyptian hieratic 

 writing of the XIX. Dynasty (B.C. 1400-1200). This papyrus 

 is chiefly interesting from the fact that it'contains prescriptions 

 copied from an earlier work, now lost, which is said (by the 

 ancient copyist) to have dated from the IV. Dynasty {eirca B.C. 

 4000). Facsimiles of these two papyri, together with transla- 

 tions, notes, &c., will shortly be published, under the editorship 

 of Mr, F. LI. Griffith and Mr. Newberry. 



Egyptian spear-head of bronze, bearing the name and titles 

 of Kames, a king at the end of the XVII. Dynasty, circa 

 1750 B.C., exhibited by Dr. John Evans, Treas.R.S. The 

 blade is cast, and the socket is made of hammered bronze, 

 and these two pieces that form the weapon seem to have been 

 " burnt " together. 



MM. Richard Freres, Paris, exhibited :— (i) Continuously 

 recording hair hygrometer. This is the latest form of the Saus- 

 sure hair hygrometer, so much used on the Continent, owing to 

 its working satisfactorily when most other hygrometers fail, viz. 

 near 32° F. In some of Saussure's instruments more than one 

 hair was used, but in none did the apparatus give a continuous 

 record. In the present hygrometer, the expansion and contrac- 

 tion of a bundle of hairs raise and lower a pen, which leaves on 

 a paper-covered cvlinder a continuous record of the humidity of 

 any position, garden, or sick-room in which it may be placed. 

 — (2) Curves produced by the anemometers on the summit 

 of the Eififel Tower, and on that of the Central Meteoro- 

 logical Office at Paris. These show (i) that the average velocity 

 of the wind on the top of the tower (994 feet) is about 3^ times 

 that at 66 feet, and (2) that the hour of greatest average velocity 

 on the summit was u p.m., whereas at 66 feet (as at most 

 observatories), it was i p.m. ; so that the times of maximum and 

 minimum are almost precisely reversed. — (3) Isochronous regulator 

 for electric contacts. An instrument for making and breaking 

 electrical contact at equal intervals of time. 



Chastopod^, Medusae, Ascidians, Nudibranchs, and other 

 Invertebrate, prepared as lantern slides, showing not only the 

 general form, but also much of their anatomy, exhibited by Mr. 

 H. C. Sorby, F. R. S. The success of the method depends on 

 the fact that when soft-bodied animals are dried on glass the 

 extreme edge dries first, and adheres firmly, so that on further 

 drying the animal does not contract irregularly, but becomes 

 thin and flat, and shows like a drawing projected on the plane 

 of the glass. In many cases the natural colour is well seen, but 

 in other cases artificial staining is used, which brings out the 

 anatomical structure to great advantage. In some cases the 

 specimens are best seen by reflected light, and it is then well to 

 use a photographic slide, taken under such conditions. Some 

 details may also be brought out to greater advantage by means 

 of a properly developed photograph. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 

 Cambridge. — Among the distinguished persons on whom 

 lionorary degrees will be conferred at the Comitia Maxima, on 



' In red iiiki 



NO. 1073, VOL. 42] 



June 10, are the following :— Mr. Henry M. Stanley, Sir 

 Andrew Clark, F.R.S., President of the Royal College of 

 Physicians, Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S., President of the 

 Royal College of Sui^eons, George Richmond, R.A. (retired), 

 Prof. J. J. Sylvester, K.R.S., Dr. John Evans, Treasurer R.S.,. 

 and Alexander J. Ellis, F.R.S. 



A discussion by the Senate took place on May 17, on the pro- 

 posal, recently referred to in Nature, that the experimental 

 work in chemistry carried on by candidates previous to the 

 Natural Sciences Tripos Examination (Part II.) should be aU 

 lowed to count in determining the places in the Class List. The 

 opinions expressed by members of the Senate were, in general,, 

 unfavourable to the proposal, as tending to diminish the con- 

 fidence felt in the independence of the Examiners. It was 

 stated that it would be impossible to make commensurable in 

 practice the testimonials to the work of candidates given by 

 difTerent teachers ; and further, that it would tend to make the 

 superintendence of that work more formal, and so diminish its 

 freshness and originality. 



The Council of the Senate report that in January 1887, the 

 late Mre. Clerk Maxwell bequeathed the residue of her estate to 

 the University for the purpose of founding a Scholarship in the 

 Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, to be called the "Clerk 

 Maxwell Scholarship." The estate of the testatrix has now beea 

 realized, and the residuary account furnished by the executors 

 shows a balance of ;i^5963 14^. \od. with accruing interest on the 

 sum of ;{^50oo deposited with the National Bank of Scotland. 

 After consulting the Lucasian and Cavendish Professors and 

 Mrs. Clerk Maxwell's executors, the Council have framed regu- 

 lations for the Scholarship, of which the following are the most 

 important : — 



A Scholarship to be called the Clerk Maxwell Scholarship 

 shall be instituted in the University in connection with the 

 Cavendish Laboratory, for the advancement by original re- 

 search of experimental physics, and especially of electricity, 

 magnetism, and heat. 



The person elected to the Scholarship shall be called the 

 Clerk Maxwell Student in Experimental Physics. 



Any member of the University who has been a student for 

 one term or more in the Cavendish Laboratory shall be eligible 

 for the Scholarship. 



The Electors to the Scholarship shall be the Cavendish Pro- 

 fessor of Experimental Physics and the Lucasian Professor of 

 Mathematics, and in case of any difTerence of opinion between 

 them the final decision shall rest with the Master of Trinity 

 College or with someone specially appointed by him for this 

 purpose. 



The Electors, in electing the student, shall be guided by the 

 promise shown by the candidate of capacity for original research 

 in experimental physics, and shall take such steps as they may 

 think desirable to enable them to form a judgment of such 

 promise. 



The student so elected shall devote himself, under the direc- 

 tion of the Cavendish Professor, to original research in experi- 

 mental physics within the University ; he may, however, carry 

 on his researches elsewhere if he has first obtained the written 

 permission of the Cavendish Professor to do so. 



The Scholarship shall be tenable for three years, and a student 

 who has once held the Scholarship shall not be capable of 

 re-election. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The most important paper of original research in the numbers 

 of the Journal of Botany for March, April, and May, is the con- 

 clusion of Mr. G. Massee's " Monograph of the Genus Fodaxis," 

 in which he gives his views of the systematic position of this 

 genus of Fungi consequent on some recent discoveries as to 

 its structure, together with descriptions of the seven known 

 species, one of them new. — Messrs. H. and J. Groves describe 

 and figure an interesting addition to the British flora in the 

 minute Nitella A^ordstedtiana. — Dr. W. O. Focke gives a de- 

 scription of no less than fifty-two species or forms of British 

 Rubi. — Mr. R. A. Rolfe contributes a monograph of a small 

 and interesting genus of Orchids, Scaphosepalum.—U.x. E. M. 

 Holmes enumerates the marine Algae of Devon. — Messrs. 

 Britten and Boulger's " Biographical Index of British and Irish 

 Botanists," has now advanced as far as the letter Q. 



