February 19, 1903] 



NA TURE 



381 



The Duke of Devonshire will lay the foundation stone of 

 the new technical institute and public library for East- 

 bourne on Saturday, April 25. The Duke has presented a 

 site valued at 10,000!. 



Dr. Arthur Dendy has resigned the chair of biology in 

 the Canterbury College (Christchurch, New Zealand), in 

 order to go to the Cape of Good Hope as professor of zoo- 

 logy in the South African College, Cape Town, Cape Colony. 

 As an instance of the thorough manner in which educa- 

 tional problems are taken up in America, an announcement 

 made by the Lahore correspondent of the Pioneer Mail is 

 interesting. It appears that the University of Chicago has 

 commissioned Mr. Alleyne Ireland to make a tour of the 

 European dependencies in the East with a view to deliver a 

 series of lectures on " Management of Tropical Colonies." 

 He has already visited Hong Kong, Borneo, Singapore, and 

 is now in India, though only as a tourist. He is devoting 

 his attention for the present to European dependencies in 

 Asia other than India. 



At the last monthly meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society 

 of Ireland, the following resolution was adopted : — That, in 

 connection with the appointment of teachers of chemistry 

 under the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion, the council take steps to ascertain the requirements 

 of the Department, with the view of having their certificates 

 accepted as qualifying their licentiates for the appointments. 

 This resolution may lead to a modification of the course of 

 instruction in the Irish Pharmaceutical Society's School of 

 Chemistry which will make it possible for the licentiates 

 of the school to qualify as teachers of chemistry in the Irish 

 intermediate schools. 



Reference to the Education Bill for London was made 

 in the King's speech delivered by His Majesty at the open- 

 ing of the new Session of Parliament on Tuesday. The 

 words used in the speech to the Commons were : — " Propo- 

 sals will be submitted to you for completing the scheme of 

 educational reform passed last Session by extending and 

 adapting it to the metropolitan area." It is believed that 

 the central authority for education in this area will be the 

 County Council, but administrative details will be left in 

 the hands of the borough councils to a greater extent than 

 is the case with the local authorities under the extra-metro- 

 politan Act of last year. 



The current number of the Library summarises, in a con- 

 venient tabular form, Mr. Carnegie's gifts to libraries and 

 other educational institutions down to November 30 of last 

 year. From these tables it is seen that England and Wales 

 have benefited to the extent of 376,100!., this amount in- 

 cluding a donation of 50,000!. to the University of Birming- 

 ham and one of 13,000!. to the Iron and Steel Institute. 

 Ireland has received 100,600!. and Scotland 2,479,250!. The 

 princely gift to Scotland includes the endowment fund of 

 2,000,000!. for Scottish universities, a sum of 100,000!. given 

 to the Technical School at Galashiels, 38,000!. to the Dun- 

 fermline Technical School, and 50,000!. to Aberdeen Uni- 

 versity. Canada has received 954,000 dollars, which re- 

 presents the total sum given for the foundation of thirty-one 

 public libraries. Libraries and other educational institu- 

 tions in the United States have reaped the advantage of Mr. 

 Carnegie's munificence to the enormous extent of 212,882,173 

 dollars. The Fayette Upper University, Iowa, has received 

 225,000 dollars ; the Louisville Polytechnic Institute 125,000 

 dollars ; the Carnegie Laboratory of New York City 600,000 

 dollars ; the Pennsylvania State College 100,000 dollars ; 

 the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg 7,250,000 dollars ; the 

 Polytechnic School of the same place, as an endowment, 

 two million dollars ; and the National University of Wash- 

 ington ten million dollars. Cuba, too, has shared in the 

 same lavish generosity, for Havana has received 250,000 

 dollars and Matanzas 2000 dollars. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, January 22. — "Solar Eclipse of 1900 

 Mav 2S. General Discussion of Spectroscopic Results." 

 By J. Evershed, F.R.A.S. 



The spectra discussed in this paper were obtained near 

 the southern limit of total eclipse, and include, therefore, 



NO. I738, VOL. 67] 



the chromospheric spectrum of the south polar region of 

 the sun, as well as the same spectrum in mid-latitudes. 



The coincidence in position of the vast majority of the 

 bright lines with the Fraunhofer dark lines is shown to be 

 exact within the limits of the measures. But the relative 

 intensities of the bright lines of any one element, although 

 in general agreement with those of the corresponding dark 

 lines, are not in all cases the same, and those lines which 

 are exceptionally strong in the chromospheric spectrum are 

 mostly lines which are enhanced in the spark spectrum of 

 the element. 



All the more prominent enhanced lines of iron and tita- 

 nium as determined by Sir Norman Lockyer are found to 

 coincide with strong lines in the chromosphere, and these 

 lines are found to be equally prominent in the south polar 

 region and in mid-latitudes. 



The abnormal intensity of the enhanced spark lines in 

 the flash spectrum is explained by assuming a continuous 

 circulation of Ihe solar gases in a radial direction, the 

 highly heated ascending gases, emitting the enhanced lines, 

 giving the predominant features to the chromospheric spec- 

 trum, whilst the cooler, more diffused gases, slowly sub- 

 siding, determine the character of the absorption spectrum. 

 The entire chromosphere is supposed to consist of in- 

 numerable small eruptions or jets, of a similar nature to 

 the so-called metallic prominences, which latter are only 

 the more pronounced manifestations of the same eruptive 

 agencies. 



Evidence for this is found in the characteristic features of 

 the chromosphere, and in the structure of many of the 

 Fraunhofer lines, which show emission lines underlying the 

 narrow absorption lines. These ill-defined bright lines in 

 the normal solar spectrum are displaced towards the violet, 

 indicating a strong uprush of the hotter gases, whilst the 

 narrow dark lines would appear to indicate a slow and 

 uniform descent of the absorbing gases. 



The finai conclusion is that the spectrum of the chromo- 

 sphere represents the emission of both ascending and 

 descending gases, and the Fraunhofer spectrum represents 

 the absorption of the descending gases only. 



" Preliminary Note on the Relationships between Sun- 

 spots and Terrestrial Magnetism." By Dr. C. Chree, 

 F.R.S. 



This deals with results of magnetic declination, inclination, 

 horizontal and vertical force obtained at Kew Observatory 

 (National Physical Laboratory) on magnetically quiet days Irom 

 1890 to 1900. The ranges of the diurnal inequalities are 

 compared with the sun-spot frequencies as calculated by Wolfer. 

 Between the diurnal range R of an element and the sun-spot 

 frequency S, a linear relation R = a 4- iS . . . (1) is as- 

 sumed, a and b being taken as constants for any given month 

 of the year, but as fluctuating from one month to another. The 

 values of a and b have been calculated for each month of the 

 year from the eleven years' data by least squares. The pre- 

 liminary note gives the mean values for " winter," " equinox " 

 and "summer" — including four months in each season — and 

 the mean for the twelve months. The constants a, represent- 

 ing the values of the range for zero sun-spot frequency, are 

 smallest in winter and largest in summer. The constants b are 

 in the case of the declination, inclination and horizontal force — 

 where the sun-spot connection is more clearly marked than 

 in the vertical force — largest at the equinox. The variation of 

 b with the season appears closely the same for the three mag- 

 netic elements specified. On the average of the three, the 

 proportional values obtained for b are, winter S2, equinox 115, 

 summer 103. Whilst <£, considered absolutely, appears largest 

 at the equinoxes, the sun-spot influence (or rather correlation) 

 is relatively much most important in winter. During the eleven 

 years considered, Wolfer's mean sun-spot frequency was 41 7; 

 so that, according to ( 1 ), I + 41 "jb ~- a represents the ratio of 

 the range answering to mean sun-spot frequency to the range 

 answering to absence of sun-spots The average values of 

 41*7^ "=" a f° r 'he declination, inclination and horizontal force 

 in winter, equinox and summer respectively were C57, 038 

 and C27. The means of the twelve-monthly absolute values 

 found for b were, declination o''04i, inclination o'*oi3, hori- 

 zontal force 0^197 and vertical force o '037, where 7 represents 

 I x 10 ~ 5 C.G.S. Reference is made to work by Balfour 

 Stewart, Ellis, Wolfer, Rajna and Angot, and the legilimacy 

 of the use of Wolfer's table of sun-spot frequencies is considered. 



