Jone 4, 1914] 
dent of Denison University, Ohio. From 1991 to 1908 
Dr. Chamberlain occupied the chair of physics in that 
institution. Since the latter date he has held the 
professorship of that subject in Vassar College. 
Dr. B. T. GaLtoway has resigned his position as 
assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture in order to accept the post of dean of the 
Agricultural College of Cornell University. 
Tue London County Council Education Committee 
has had under review the scheme for the reorganisa- 
tion of the council’s evening school system which was 
adopted last winter. The object of the reorganisation 
was to remedy certain serious defects of enrolment, 
attendance, and organisation, and to infuse freshness 
and attractiveness into the system. Among other 
arrangements made was a relief from fees as an award 
for good attendance, important changes in the per- 
sonnel and duties of the inspectorate, and changes of 
a far-reaching character in the staffing, so as ulti- 
mately to obtain a separate staff for evening schools. 
Public attention was at the beginning of the session 
directed to the classes in many ways. Though a de- 
crease of 30,000 pupils was anticipated in the total 
attendance, happily this was not realised. The com- 
mittee is of opinion that in the main no change in the 
fundamental principles of the organisation appears to 
be advisable. Extension of the main features of the 
organisation are recommended, and some modifica- 
tions of detail are suggested. It is proposed in a few 
instances to convert free schools into fee-paying under 
the ordinary conditions. The most important pro- 
posal, however, is to charge a registration fee of six- 
pence at all ‘‘free’’ institutes. It is. felt that. the 
immediate outlay of sixpence on joining an institute 
will be some guarantee that the student is serious, 
while it will not really interfere with the ‘‘free”’ 
character of the schools. The committee proposes to 
make provision for 120,000 students in these classes 
next year. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Zoological Society, May 19.—Mr. R. H. Burne, vice- 
president, in the chair—Dr. C. H. O’Donoghue : 
The venous system of the dogfish. The general dis- 
position of the main trunks in Scyllium is similar to 
that described in other Elasmobranchs, but the details 
differ considerably.—B. F, Cummings: Scent-organs 
in Trichoptera. An account of the remarkable 
development of the palpi of the first maxilla in a 
male caddis-fly, Sericostoma personatum. Instead of 
being 5-segmented, the palpus consists of a single 
swollen segment carrying an enormous tuft of long, 
silky hairs, at the bases of which unicellular scent- 
glands are situated.—H. A. Baylis: A new species of 
Cestode collected from an _ albatross (Diomedea 
irrorata) by Dr. H. O. Forbes in Peru.—D.~M. S. 
Watson: The Deinocephalia, an order of mammal- 
like reptiles. The skull of a Tapinocephaloid is 
almost completely described. The fact that whilst in 
the skull Deinocephalia agree with the American 
Pelycosaurs, but in the post-cranial skeleton they 
resemble South African Therapsids, shows that the 
American forms must be included in the same great 
group, super-order, as the South African mammal-like 
reptiles.—Dr. R. C. L. Perkins: Species of the genus 
Paralastor and some other Hymenoptera of the family 
Eumenidz. All the described species are enumerated 
therein, together with the descriptions of many new 
forms.—G. Jennison: Notes on colour-development in 
NO. 2327, VOL. 93| 
NATURE 
367 
the Indian wood-stork (Pseudotantalus leucocephalus). 
—Dr. Ph. Lehrs: A new lizard from the Canary 
Islands, recently discovered by Dr. Caesar Boettger on 
Hierro. 
Physical Society, May 22.—Dr. A. Russell, vice- 
president, in the chair.—T. Barratt and A. B. Wood : 
Volatility of thorium active deposit. On heating 
thorium active deposit to accurately measured _tem- 
peratures up to about 1250° C. it is found that B and 
C each commence to volatilise at 750° C., but the 
volatilisation is not complete until 1200° C. is reached. 
The C curve is peculiar, being similar to two of the 
B curves placed end to end, the inflexion occurring 
between 750° C. and goo® C., where about 35 per cent. 
of the a activity is removed. When measured by 
B radiation, C is not volatile until a temperature of 
goo® C. is reached. D commences to volatilise at 500° 
C.. It is assumed that the part of C which produces 
B rays, viz., Cg, is a separate product, which is not so 
readily volatile as Ca.—H. P. Walmsley and Dr. W. 
Makower : The passage of a particles through photo- 
graphic films. Kinoshita has shown that when an 
a particle strikes a grain of silver halide, that grain 
is subsequently capable of photographic development. 
It seemed probable that the path of an a particle pro- 
| jected tangentially to a photographic film should, after 
development, be visible under a microscope. This was 
shown to be the case, and photomicrographs showing 
the tracks of a particles through a photographic plate 
have been obtained.—S. Butterworth : A null method of 
testing vibration galvanometers. By extending the 
theory of the vibration galvanometer it is shown how 
the constants may be determined by methods which 
involve only the measurements of one deflection. The 
remaining measurements are carried out on an alter- 
nating-current bridge. The principle of the method 
depends on the fact that a vibration galvanometer 
behaves as a parallel combination of a conductance, a 
capacity and an inductance, in_ series with a resist- 
ance._C. W. S. Crawley and Dr. S. W. J. . Smith: 
Experiments with an incandescent lamp. The first 
experiment was due to Mr. Addenbrooke who, using 
a too-volt lamp filled with paraffin oil as a high 
resistance in a 200-volt circuit, noticed that some 
of the bubbles forming on the filament behaved in 
a curious way. Instead of rising.at once to the 
surface they ran down the legs of the filament, against 
gravity, and escaped at the leading-in wires. Dr. 
Smith, repeating the experiment, discovered another 
striking phenomenon. Placing the 1oo-volt lamp in a 
roo-volt circuit in series with a variable resistance it 
was found possible to obtain a single bubble upon the 
wire. Instead of escaping at either terminal, the 
bubble travels backwards and forwards between the 
two, ‘looping the loops”’ of the filament during every 
journey. A rapid fall of temperature from the wire 
through the liquid, in the region through which the 
bubble moves, is an essential condition of the pheno- 
menon. 
DUBLIN. 
Royal Dublin Society, May 26.—Prof. W. Brown in 
the chair.—Prof. G. H. Carpenter: Injurious insects 
and other animals observed in Ireland during the year 
1913. The more noteworthy records are larve of 
Bibionidz feeding in potato tubers, and the presence 
of all three species of apple Aphis—A. pomi, A. sorbi, 
and A. fitchi—in Ireland. Observations and experi- 
| ments by T. R. Hewitt on the infestation of narcissus 
bulbs by eelworms (Tylenchus) and their migration 
through the soil are described. Copper sulphate in 
weak solution (5-73 per cent.) is safe and effective for 
soaking the bulbs. A mature larva of Hypoderma 
extracted from the back of a mare may be confidently 
