214 



NA TURE 



[January i, 1903 



Museum. A large extension of the system of readerships and 

 lectureships is asked for in natural science, archaeology and 

 bther subjects. The necessity of instituting and maintaining a 

 laboratory for experimental research in the field of psychology 

 is urged by several professors. The urgent needs of the Uni- 

 versity Museum, the Botanic Garden, the University Observa- 

 tory and other departments of science at the present time in- 

 volve a capital expenditure of about 30,000/. and an annual 

 expenditure of 30^0/. 



Oambridge. — Mr. L. Doncaster and Mr. V. J. Woolley, of 

 King's College, have been awarded Walsingham medals for 

 their researches in biology. Mr. Doncaster wrote on hybridis- 

 ation, Mr. Woollev on the effect upon a nerve of strong 

 interrupted induced currents. 



Twenty-three entrance scholarships and exhibitions in natural 

 science have been awarded at the recent examinations held by 

 ten colleges. For classics fifty-one awards were made, for 

 mathematics thirty-seven, and for modern languages six. 



Dr. Charles Porter, of the Public Health Hospital, 

 Leith, has been appointed demonstrator in bacteriology at 

 University College, Sheffield. 



Dr. G. S. Parkin summarises in the Times the results of 

 inquiry made at Oxford on behalf of the trustees of the Rhodes 

 scholarship scheme to ascertain the conditions on which 

 scholars will be admitted to the University and also the willing- 

 ness of the individual colleges to receive the men selected. 

 Almost all the colleges have already expressed their willingness 

 to receive a certain number of the scholars annually. The 

 minimum standard of admission to be kept in view by the 

 trustees in making their selections is the ability to pass Respon- 

 sions. Dr. Parkin adds: — "As much weighty evidence has 

 been placed before the trustees to show that in parts of the 

 United States, and in many of the colonies, it was felt that the 

 bequest would be made more useful and effective if scholars 

 were accepted for post-graduate and research work, as well as 

 for merely undergraduate standing, the colleges were asked to 

 state their preference in this particular. The replies were 

 varied — some colleges inclining distinctly towards men pre- 

 pared for advanced study, if within moderate age limits — 

 while some are ready to take in scholars of both classes." 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



Journal of Botany, December. — The article on a new 

 Senecio hybrid, by Mr. Burbidge and Mr. Colgan, refers to a 

 form found at Sorrento, Ireland, which is intermediate in 

 character between the common ragwort, Senecio Jacobaea, and an 

 introduced species, Senecio cineraria. Besides the illustrations, 

 which do not furnish very definite proof, the authors bring for- 

 ward more convincing evidence in favour of their view. — The 

 notes published by Mr. Spencer Moore refer to Salvia Russellii, 

 two species of Barleria and a recently founded species of Am- 

 phoranthus. — Mr. C. E. Salmon records the finding of Althaea 

 hirsuta near Reigate and discusses the possibility of the plant 

 being a native or an alien. — Mr. Wheldon and Mr. A. Wilson 

 give the localities of some mosses and hepatics which have been 

 discovered in west Lancashire since their previous list, published 

 in 1901. — A list of Shropshire Sphagna is compiled by Mr. W. P. 

 Hamilton. — The revised catalogue of British Marine Alga:, 

 with localities, compiled by Mr. Batters, is concluded in this 

 number. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, December II, 1902.— Abnormal Changes in 

 some Lines in the Spectrum of Lithium. By Hugh Ramage, 

 B.A., St. John's College, Cambridge. Communicated by Prof. 

 G. D. Liveing, F.R.S. 



The author has found that the wave-lengths of the lines 

 belonging to the principal and the second subordinate series in 

 the oxyhydrogen flame spectrum of lithium agree closely with 



no. 1 73 1, VOL. 67] 



those given byKajserand Runge for the lines in the arc spectrum, 

 but, excepting the orange line, there are considerable differences 

 between the lines of the first subordinate series. Beginning with 

 the orange line and proceeding to the others in order, the 

 differences found were 007, 070, 049, 0-39 and o'2S unit, 

 the wave-lengths of the flame lines being the greater. In view 

 of these differences, the author examined the arc spectrum in an 

 arc struck in air and in another enclosed in a magnesia brick ; the 

 spectra of different parts of the outer flame and of the inner core 

 of the arc were studied. He also examined the spark spectra 

 with and without a Leyden jar in the secondary circuit. The 

 conclusions are that the lines in the principal series appear to 

 broaden and reverse normally. The lines in the second 

 subordinate series do not reverse, but they broaden towards the 

 less refrangible end of the spectrum and become diffuse on that 

 side. The first line in the first subordinate series, A 6i03'84, 

 broadens and reverses almost normally. The other lines in that 

 series broaden more rapidly on the more refrangible side than on 

 the other. The inner core of intense arcs, and the parts near 

 the negative poles of weak arcs and sptrks, give a broad reversed 

 line with its centre about A 4602 4, whilst the part near the 

 positive poles in weak arcs, and the flame of the arc, give a 

 sharp bright line, A 460307, coincident with the lines in the 

 spectra of the oxyhydrogen flame and uncondensed spark. The 

 wave-lengths hitherto recorded for these diffuse lines would 

 appear to be those of abnormal lines ; the true lines are the 

 sharp bright ones which occur, without complication, in the 

 spectrum of lithium in the oxyhydrogen flame. 



Entomological Soeiety, December 3, 1902. — Canon Fowler, 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. H. W. Andrews exhibited a 

 male specimen of Therioplectes lucidus, from Chattenden, 

 July, 1902. Colonel Verbury took several females of this 

 specie* at Nethy Bridge, N.B., in 1900, but there appears 

 to be no record of the capture of the male. He also ex- 

 hibited a male Plalychirus sticticus and a female Microdot! 

 deviui from Ellham and Shoreham (Kent) respectively ; and 

 three small dark examples of Syrphus bdlteatus, taken near 

 Brockenhurst, where the form was not uncommon, in October, 

 1902. — Mr. M. Burr exhibited two species of Phyllium from 

 Ceylon, sent by Mr. Green, P. bioculalum, Gray (=erurtfolium 

 Ilann., and scythe Gray), which produces the flanged ova and is 

 the commoner of the two, and /'. athanysus, Westw., a scarce 

 species with the less ornate ovum. — Mr. A. J. Chitty exhibited 

 a box of insects, taken, between September 22 and October 7 

 last, from a decayed fence chiefly constructed of birch. The 

 exhibit comprised about a hundred species, of which seventy- 

 nine or eighty were Coleoptera. Four species of beetles 

 mimicked the surroundings of lichen-covered bark, and one, 

 Acalles tribatus, resembled buds. — Mr. R. Adkin exhibited a 

 hybrid Selenia bilunaria x 5. tetralunaria, together with 

 spring and summer examples of both species for comparison. 

 The hybrid presented some of the markings of each of its 

 parents, the crescentic blotch at the apex of the fore-wings and 

 the band on the hind-wings closely following tetralunaria, but 

 no trace of the dark spot usually so distinct on each of the 

 wings of that species, especially in the summer emergence, was 

 visible, while the "second line" of the fore-wings closely 

 followed bilunaria. In colour it more nearly resembled that of 

 the summer brood of tetralunaria. 



Geological Society, December 3,1902. — Prof. C. Lapworth, 

 F.R.S. , president, in the chair. — On some well-sections in 

 Suffolk, by Mr. William Whitakor, F.R.S. Notes of thirty-one 

 new wells have accumulated since 1S95, some of them giving 

 results which could not have been expected. A trial-boring lor 

 the Woodbridge Waterworks Company gave a depth of 1334 

 feet down to Eocene beds, and a thickness of Crag about double 

 of any before observed in the neighbourhood. The author is 

 not satisfied with any of the explanations which have been sug- 

 gested. Two borings at Lowestoft show that Crag extends to 

 a depth of 240 feet in one case and more than 200 feet in another, 

 confirming estimates of Mr. Harmer and Mr. Clement Reid. 

 In one of these, Chalk was reached at 475 feet. Three other 

 wells in the neighbourhood confirm the great depth of the newer 

 Tertiary strata. Sections are also given from the following 

 places: — Boulge, Hitcham Street, Ipswich (corroborating the 

 evidence for a deep channel filled with Drift given by the section 

 at St. Peter's Quay, New Mill), Shotley, Stansfield and Bretteh- 

 ham Park. The last shows the greatest thickness of Drift recorded 

 in the county, namely, 312 feet. — The cellular magnesian 



