554 



NATURE 



[April 5, 1900 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



An association of American Universities has been formed for 

 the purpose of considering matters of common interest relating 

 to graduate study. The association includes most of the leading 

 universities of the United States. 



It has already been announced that a school of forestry is 

 about to be established at Yale University. We now learn from 

 Science that, at a meeting of the corporation on March i6, a gift 

 of 150,000 dollars for this purpose was acknowledged. Mr. 

 Henry S. Graves, assistant in the Division of Forestry, U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, has been appointed professor of 

 forestry. 



Sir George W. Kekewich, K.C.B.. has been appointed 

 Secretary of the Board of Education, which came into existence 

 on April i. A circular letter has been issued stating that in 

 future all communications relating to elementary education 

 should be addressed to the Secretary, Board of Education, 

 Whitehall, London,. S.W., and letters concerning science, art, 

 and technical education should be addressed to the Secretary, 

 Board of Education, South Kensington, London, S. W. 



As the subjects which should form part of elementary educa- 

 tion in rural districts have recently been much under discussion, 

 it is of interest to call attention to a chapter on methods of in- 

 struction in agriculture, included in vol, ii. of the Report of the 

 U.S. Commissioner of Education, for 1897-98. The chapter in- 

 cludes reprints of leaflets illustrating the educational work done 

 at the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, and at Purdue 

 University. The volume also includes reports of U.S. Consuls 

 on school gardens and gardeners' schools in Russia. 



The Cambridge Summer Meeting will be held on August 

 2-15, and August 15-27. Among the lectures to be delivered 

 in the section on scientific progress are the following : Physical 

 Science. — The development of the nebular theory in the nine- 

 teenth century, by Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S. ; the spectroscope in 

 astronomy, by Mr. Arthur Berry ; the wave-theory of light, by 

 Sir George Stokes, Bart., F.R.S. ; advances in the science of 

 electricity, by Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. ; the conserva- 

 tion of energy, by Prof. J. A. Ewing, F.R.S.; chemistry and 

 its applications, by Mr. M. M. Pattison Muir ; electro-chemical 

 methods, by Mr. D. J. Carnegie. Biological Science. — The 

 theory of evolution and its influence on thought and research, 

 under arrangement ; researches on the brain, by Dr. Alex. Hill. 

 There will also be lectures on some aspects of advance in the 

 following sciences : — geology, by Prof. T. McK. Hughes, 

 F.R.S. ; anthropology, by Prof. A. Macalister, F.R.S. ; agri- 

 culture, by Prof. W. Somerville ; bacteriology, by Prof. Sims 

 Woodhead. IMr. H. Yule Oldham will give a lecture on geogra- 

 phical exploration in the nineteenth century ; Prof. W. M. 

 Davis, of Harvard, U.S.A., will give six lectures on the study 

 of the development of land forms. The study of special points 

 in the following departments will be undertaken in sectional 

 meetings : — chemistry and physics, under the direction of Mr. 

 A. W. Clayden ; evolution, under the direction of Mr. F. W. 

 Keeble, Mr. C. Warburton, and others ; anthropology, under 

 the direction of Prof. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S. There will in 

 addition be arranged, primarily for teachers, practical courses in 

 chemistry and geography. 



The Passmore Edwards Museum in the Romford-road, Strat- 

 ford, is now approaching completion, and arrangements for the 

 opening will shortly be made. The museum has been built and 

 furnished by the Council of the County Borough of West Ham 

 at a cost of about 9000/., of which 4000/. was the gift of Mr. 

 Passmore Edwards. The main portion of the museum will be 

 devoted to the Essex Museum of Natural History, belonging to 

 the Essex Field Club, which is deposited in the building under 

 agreement between the club and the Borough Council. The 

 remainder of the building will be used as an educational museum 

 in connection with the adjoining Municipal Technical Institute. 

 The scientific control of the Essex Field Club collections remains 

 with the club, and they contribute 50/. a year towards the cura- 

 torial expenses, the council contributing 100/. a year. The 

 club appoints the curator. At their meeting on March 27, the 

 council resolved to set aside annually out of the Estate Duty 

 Grant the sum of 1000/. for museum purposes. It is expected 

 that from 500. to 600/. of this will be needed for the up-keep and 

 maintenance charges, the balance being placed to the credit of a 

 museum purchase fund", which will be treated as a capital fund. 



NO. 1588, VOL. 6f] 



from which payments may be made from time to time for the 

 purchase of objects and of the necessary cases, &c., in which 

 to exhibit them. The Essex Field Club have appointed Mr. 

 W. Cole as curator of their Natural History collections. The 

 building itself and the educational collections of the council are 

 under the charge of the principal of the Technical Institute, Mr. 

 A. E. Briscoe. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, February. — 

 The opening articles respectively give abstracts of the proceed- 

 ings and papers read at the sixth annual meeting, at New 

 York, December 28, 1899, by Prof. F. N. Cole, and at the 

 sixth semi-annual meeting, at Chicago, December 28 and 29, 

 1899, by Prof. T. F. Holgate. — On cyclical quartic surfaces 

 in space of n dimensions, by Dr. V. Snyder, was read at the 

 first of the above meetings. The method employed is a gene- 

 ralisation of that first employed by Darboux, using Lie's more 

 general co-ordinates. For w = 2 (bicircular quartic curves) refer- 

 ence is made to memoirs by Casey, Darboux, Cox, Loria and 

 others, where the curves have been discussed from a different 

 point of view, and for « = 3 (cyclides) reference is again made 

 to Casey, and to Maxwell, Cayley, Darboux, Reye, Loria, 

 Bocher and others. In the case of n = 4, the number of 

 distinct types is 58, and of n = higher numbers, the number 

 of types has not been determined. — At the same meeting. 

 Prof. H. Taber read a paper on the singular transformations 

 of groups generated by infinitesimal transformations, and Prof. 

 Dickson gave a proof of the existence of the Galois field of 

 order />^ for every integer r and prime number /. Exist- 

 ence proofs have been given by Serret (Alg. Sup. vol. 2) 

 and by Jordan [Traitd des Substit. pp. 16, 17). The develop- 

 ments used by Serret are lengthy, and the short proof by 

 Jordan assumes with Galois the existence of imaginary roots 

 of an irreducible congruence modulo /. The present proof 

 proceeds by induction. Assuming the existence of the GF[/"], 

 it derives that of the GF[/"*], q being an arbitrary prime num- 

 ber. Since the GF[/i] exists, being the field of integers taken 

 modulo /, it follows that the GF[/''] exists, and by a simple 

 induction that the GF[^''] exists for ;- arbitrary. — Dr. Lovett 

 contributes a lengthy review of the " Le9ons nouvelles sur 

 I'analyse infinitesimale et ses applications geometriques " of Ch. 

 Meray (ist part, 1894; 2nd part, 1895 ; 3rd part, 1897 ; and 

 4th part, 1898). — Varied information of interest to mathema- 

 ticians occupies the "Notes" and " New Publications." 



Annalen der Physik, No. 2. — Solubility of carbonic acid in 

 alcohol between -67° and -f- 45°, by C. Bohr. The absorption 

 of carbonic acid in alcohol increases rapidly at low temperatures. 

 The coefficient is i'97 at 47", 4'46 at zero, and 39-4 at -65°. 

 The coefficient of evasion at zero is o'524, and the coefficient of 

 invasion 2 '375. ^—Specific heats of metals, alloys and graphite at 

 low temperatures, by U. Behn. This paper deals with the 

 specific heats of antimony, tin, cadmium, silver, zinc and mag- 

 nesium, brass, graphite and three tin-lead alloys. Of these, 

 only graphite and magnesium show a very considerable fall of 

 specific heat down towards the temperature of liquid air. Many 

 of the curves are probably parabolic, and concave towards the 

 axis of temperatures. — Heat of sublimation of carbonic acid, and 

 heat of evaporation of air, by U. Behn. The former is 142 '4 

 calories, and the latter 50*8 calories. — A vacuum electroscope, 

 by H. Pflaum.; By exhausting a gold-leaf electroscope to such a 

 degree that no vacuum discharge was able to traverse it, the 

 author proved- that an extreme vacuum is a perfect insulator, and 

 that electrostatic forces act across it with great intensity. — The 

 experimental basis of Exner's theory of atmospheric electricity, 

 by G. Schwalbe. The author has made further experiments to 

 show that a vapour arising from an electrified liquid is incapable 

 of conveying away any of the charge. He explains the contrary 

 results obtained by Pellat, on the ground of loose particles ad- 

 hering to the vessels used. Solid particles are capable of convey- 

 ing away the charge. Exner's theory of atmospheric electricity, 

 as derived from the evaporation of natural bodies of water, is not 

 confirmed. — Discharge of statical electricity from points, by 

 H. Sieveking. —Negative electricity begins to be discharged 

 from a point at a lower potential than positive electricity, and 

 the quantity discharged is also greater. Positive electricity is 

 chiefly discharged along the axis of the point. Gases may be 

 arranged in accordance with their capacity of encouraging the 



