300 



NA TURE 



[July 24, 1890 



should have authority to increase the sum out of the additional 

 funds now placed at their disposal. ... As regards Ireland we 

 shall propose that the ;^40,ooo which falls to her share should 

 be utilized for the further promotion of intermediate education, 

 and for this purpose should be placed at the disposal of the 

 Intermediate Education Board for Ireland, a body which, I 

 believe, commands the confidence of the Irish public generally, 

 irrespective^of political and religious differences." The Govern- 

 ment propose that the ;^5o,ooo which falls to the share of Scot- 

 land shall be handed over unconditionally to the county councils ; 

 but Mr. Campbell- Bannerman has given notice that he will move 

 an amendment to the effect that the money be devoted directly 

 to the completion of a scheme of free primary education. 



The Drapers' Company, London, has contributed ^3000 

 towards the cost of the new buildings for technical instruction in 

 connection with Nottingham University College. This branch 

 of the College will be under the care of the recently-appointed 

 Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, Mr. 

 William Robinson, late chief assistant at the City and Guilds 

 Technical College, Finsbury. 



A PUBLIC MEETING was held at the Town Hall, Kensington, 

 yesterday, under the presidency of the Hon. and Rev. E. Carr 

 Glynn, to consider measures whereby the technical and scientific 

 education of apprentice and other plumbers may be ensured. 



Last week the Institute of Electrical Engineers held a series 

 of meetings at Edinburgh in connection with the International 

 Exhibition. The series began on Tuesday, when Dr. Hopkinson 

 occupied the chair. Dr. Walmsley read a paper on some of the 

 principal features of the Exhibition, in which he referred particu- 

 larly to the telegraph and electric light apparatus and gas-engines. 

 Mr. A. R. Bennett read a paper on "Foreign Currents in 

 Telegraph and Telephone Lines." He described experiments 

 he had carried out with overhead wires, and pointed out their 

 effect in wet weather. Mr. W. H. Preece said that the foreign 

 currents found in electric wires were far more readily perceptible 

 in telephone than in telegraph wires. The currents were due 

 often to the swing of the wires, and greatly to the alternating 

 system of generating electric light recently introduced. Mr. 

 Bennett said that disturbances might be caused by the intro- 

 duction of electric tramways. In the evening the members of 

 the Society attended a conversazione given in their honour in the 

 grand hall of the Exhibition. On Wednesday, when the chair 

 was taken by Mr. W. H. Preece, a paper on "The Working 

 Efficiency of Secondary Cells " was read. This paper, of which 

 we hope to give some account, was the joint work of Messrs. 

 W. E. Ayrton, C. G. Lamb, E. W. Smith, and M. W. Woods. 

 On Thursday, Mr. Spagnoletti was in the chair, and Mr. A. R. 

 Bennett read a paper on "Experiments on Radiometry." Some 

 discussion followed, in which Dr. Walmsley, Mr. Stroh, Mr, 

 Fairfax, and others took part. 



At the instance of a number of Magdeburg manufacturers, an 

 electro-technical experimental station is about to be founded in 

 that town, to afford to companies or private persons opportunity of 

 experimenting as to the practicability and cost of various electrical 

 arrangements, and of testing machines, apparatus, &c. The 

 station will be arranged on the pattern of one already in exist- 

 ence at Munich, but expanded in several directions. Dr. M. 

 Krieg, editor of the Electrotechnical Echo, will be at its head. 

 Among other matters which will come under consideration, are 

 the examination of arrangements for illumination, transmission 

 of force, and metallurgical purposes, determination of the 

 luminous power of arc and glow lamps, and of constants, such 

 as intensity and tension of current, testing of carbon rods, of 

 measuring-instruments, accumulators, primary batteries, &c., 

 examination of conducting and insulating materials, lightning 

 conductors, private telephone arrangements, and soon. Youths 

 NO. 1082, VOL. 42] 



devoting themselves to electro-technical work will have 

 opportunities of gaining thorough practical knowledge in the 

 place. 



The death of Mr. John Ralfs, at Penzance, on the 14th inst., 

 at the age of 83, removes one of the last survivors of a past 

 generation of botanists. His " British Desmidieae," published in 

 1848, remains to the present time unsurpassed in botanical 

 literature for the beauty and accuracy of its coloured plates. 

 As it was the first British work (except Hassall's "British 

 Fresh-water Algae," published three years earlier) which did 

 any justice to this beautiful class of fresh-water organisms, so it 

 remained the only one until the appearance of Dr. Cooke's 

 " British Desmids " in 1887. Mr. Ralfs also contributed several 

 papers on the Mosses, Fungi, and Algae of his native county to 

 the Transactions of local scientific Societies. Of a retiring dis- 

 position, and practising as a surgeon in Penzance, he was but 

 little known personally to his fellow-workers. Within the last 

 two years he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal 

 Microscopical Society. 



Mr. G. W. Rafter has contributed to the Transactions of 

 the American Society of Civil Engineers an interesting paper on 

 freshwater Algae, and their relation to the purity of public 

 water-supplies. He finds that a number of Algae may assist in 

 rendering drinking-water unpotable, producing a nauseous or 

 "fishy" smell, generally due to the decomposition of their 

 mucilaginous envelope, or of the starch or oil contained in their 

 cells. In addition to the well-known Fungus or Schizomycete 

 Beggiatoa, which has the remarkable property of withdrawing 

 sulphur from sulphates in solution, the following freshwater 

 Algae are especially deleterious when occurring in large 

 masses: — Cladophora, Vaucheria, Batrachospermum, Dra- 

 parnaldia, Chcelophora, Volvox, Eudorina, Pandorina, Hydro- 

 dictyon, Palmella, Crenothrix, Oscillaria, and diatoms gener- 

 ally, especially Meridion circulare. Desmids appear to be 

 usually innocuous. 



The British Vice-Consul at Los Angeles, in California, 

 in his last Report, has some observations on the vine and 

 orange pests in that region. The vine-disease now seriously 

 menaces the existence of the viticultural industry in the vicinity 

 of Los Angeles. At first it attacked chiefly the "mis- 

 sion " vines ; now, other varieties of red vines are dying, 

 and the white varieties are also suffering. The disease 

 first appeared in its present dangerous form in the southern 

 part of California, and destroyed many vineyards. Prof. 

 Dowlen, an expert employed by the Viticultural Commis- 

 sion to ascertain its cause, and, if possible, discover a 

 remedy, inclines to the opinion that it is due to a fungus. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Wheeler, Chief Executive Officer of 

 the Viticultural Commission, reports that he is fully convinced 

 that the fungus found on the dead vines is not the prime cause 

 of their decadence, and that it attacks them only when they 

 have been weakened by other causes. As to the Icerya, or 

 " white scale," which has ravaged the orange-groves, the 

 Vice-Consul says that a year ago many of the principal 

 orange- growers in the vicinity of Los Angeles had abandoned 

 their efforts to exterminate this pest, concluding that their trees 

 must die. Fortunately, it was learned that an Australian para- 

 site, the Vedolia cardinalis, had exterminated the white scale 

 in Australia. A colony of the bugs was imported, and placed 

 on the trees in an orchard in Los Angeles ; they multiplied so 

 rapidly that in a few months the scale was entirely exterminated 

 in the district ; many trees, which a year ago were nearly dead, 

 have revived and borne half a crop this season. 



Artificial musk is a recent chemical achievement. A 

 process for its production has been patented in Germany, the 

 inventor being Herr A. Bauer, of Gisparsleben, in the Erfurt 



