2^,8 



NA TURE 



[January 5, 1905 



The remainder of the volume is occupied with reports of 

 scientific investigations carried out in the board's vaccine 

 laboratories by Dr. Blaxall, Mr. Fremlin, and Dr. Green, 

 and a number of excellent plates illustrating the various 

 researches. R. T. Hewlett. 



UNU'EKSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — During the first fcrtnight of last month 

 some four hundred candidates were being examined at 

 Cambridge for entrance scholarships. The majority of the 

 larger colleges are now combined into two groups, the 

 larger of which includes Pembroke, Gonville and Caius, 

 Jesus, St. John's, Christ's, King's, and Emmanuel, whilst 

 the smaller comprises Peterhouse, Clare, Trinity Hall, 

 Trinity, and Sidney Sussex. Queens' examined alone, and 

 a weel< later than the two large groups, .•is a result of 

 Ihe e.xamination of these thirteen colleges a sum amounting 

 10 a little more than (jooo/. was awarded in scholarships 

 to 108 successful candidates. This total does not include 

 the sum, which amounted to some hundreds of pounds, 

 given in exhibitions, sizarships, and subsiEarships, and in 

 certain extra scholarships offered by some of the colleges 

 after the result of the first selection had been published. 

 It is interesting to note the number of scholars and the 

 value of the scholarships given in the different subjects. 

 Out of a little more than 6000/. awarded to loS candidates, 

 classics gained 2850/., divided amongst 49 scholars, mathe- 

 matics, with 34 scholars, earned 1045'-, ^"^ '^^ natural 

 sciences divided ggo/. amongst 20 successful competitors, 

 whilst candidates in history and criental and modern 

 languages were successful in only five instances, and these 

 5 divided amongst them 220/. 



.\mon'g the papers down for reading at a conference of 

 the National Federation of Head Teachers' -Associations, 

 arranged to be held at Cambridge yesterday and to-day, is 

 one by Sir Lauder Brunton, F. R.S., on " The Proposed 

 National League for Physical Education and Improvement." 



Science announces that Mr. E. D. Adams has given 

 io,oooi. to Columbia University for the foundation of a 

 research fellowship in physical science. The gift is accom- 

 panied by a valuable collection of scientific apparatus to 

 be allotted to the electrical, physical, and psychological 

 laboratories of the university. 



The prospectus for 1904-5 of the Colorado School of 

 Mines shows that much importance is attached in the metal- 

 lurgical courses to visits arranged for the students to works 

 where typical processes in metallurgy can be seen in oper- 

 ation under commercial conditions. Immediately after 

 taking up the study of metallurgy, trips extending through- 

 out the junior and senior years are begun. These 

 excursions, intended to illustrate the lectures, are taken while 

 the particular topics are under discussion, and tend to aid 

 greatlv in an appreciation of approved machinery and 

 practice. By means of outlines with which the student is 

 provided, which he is required to fill out, care is taken 

 that all the important points in connection with each plant 

 visited are studied and reported upon. 



The following recent educational appointments are 

 announced : — Dr. Foster P. Boswell assistant in psychology 

 and Mr. Edwin Lee Norton instructor in philosophy at 

 Wisconsin. Miss Florence F'itch associate professor of 

 philosophy in Oberlin College. Prof. F. S. Luther, who 

 occupies the chair of Trinity College, Hertford, Conn., has 

 been elected president of the college. Dr. J. Stebbins has 

 been appointed assistant professor of astronomy, and .Mr. 

 A. H. Wilson instructor in mathematics, at Illinois; Dr. 

 H. B. Evans assistant professor of mathematics at 

 Pennsylvania ; Mr. C. P. Weston assistant professor of 

 mechanics, Mr. H. R. Willard instructor in mathematics, 

 and .Mr. R. K. Morley tutor in mathematics, at Maine; Mr. 

 W. D. Cairns associate professor of mathematics, and Mr. 

 J. R. Luckey assistant in mathematics and physics, at 

 Oberlin ; Mr. E. D. Grant associate professor of mathe- 

 matics at the Michigan College of Mines ; Dr. K. Schmidt 

 professor of mathematics and astronomy at Lake City, 

 Florida. 



NO 1836, VOL. 71] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, Novtml er 17, 1904. — " Tlieoiy of A npho- 

 teric Electrolvtes. " Part ii. Bv Prof. James Walker, 

 F.R.S. 



In a previous paper (see Nature, ."^pril 7, 1904, vol. Ixix. 

 p. 545) it was shown that it is possible to express the con- 

 centrations of the ions present in the aqueous solution of 

 an amphoteric electrolyte in terms of the concentration of 

 the un-ionised substance, the dissociation constants of the 

 substance acting as acid and as base respectively, and the 

 ionisation constant of water. In the present paper the 

 values for the aminobenzoic acids have been recalculated, 

 and a closer concordance obtained between theory and 

 experiment than was apparent in the former calculations. 

 As a knowledge of the concentration of the un-ionised pro- 

 portion of an amphoteric electrolyte in solution is of funda- 

 mental importance in the application of the theory, a table 

 is given of the values of this magnitude with varying con- 

 stants and total concentration. From this table it appears 

 that when the acidic and basic constants approximate in 

 value, dilution has little effect on the total ionisation of an 

 amphoteric electrolyte, although the proportions of the two 

 positive ions, and consequently the molecular conductivity, 

 may vary greatly. 



For a series of amphoteric electrolytes with a constant 

 product i„ii,. where i„ is ihe acidic and i;, the basic c n- 

 stant, it may be shown that the simultaneous alteration of 

 ]//!',„ /■>, and v in the same ratio has no effect on the totaj 

 ionisation. From this and the preceding result it may be 

 deduced that in such a series, beginning with an infinitely 

 small value of fej, the total ionisation falls off as /;„ 

 diminishes and A-j, increases, the fall being at first rapid, 

 thereafter becoming slower until, through a comparatively 

 long range, it is practically constant at the minimum value, 

 which is actually reached when ka = h- At this point the 

 substance is absolutely neutral. As /„ still further 

 diminishes, and fej correspondingly increases, the ionisa- 

 tion begins to increase, very slowly at first, and the sub- 

 stances considered become more and more basic in character. 

 Finally, the ionisation increases rapidly, and we deal at 

 last with a practically simple base for which fc„ is infinitely 

 small. 



The theory has been applied to caeodylic acid and to 

 asparagine with satisfactory accordance with the experi- 

 mental results. 



December i, 1904. — " On Chemical Combination and 

 Toxic .\ction as exemplified in H.TemoIytic Sera.'^ By Prof. 

 Robert Muir and Carl H. Browning. 



This paper deals with the mode of action of complements 

 — those comparatively labile bodies which are present in the 

 serum of normal animals, and which are the active sub- 

 stances in haemolysis and bacteriolysis. Towards red cor- 

 puscles treated with the suitable immune-body (the anti- 

 substance developed by the injection of such corpuscles into, 

 an animal of other species) a complement may be regarded 

 as a toxin, and already many points of similarity in the 

 constitution of toxins and complements have been brought 

 forward. The haemolytic dose of a particular complement 

 varies greatly in the case of different corpuscles, when each 

 variety is treated with the corresponding immune-body, 

 and the question dealt with in this communication is whether 

 such variations in dosage are due to variations in the com- 

 bining affinities of complements or to variations in their 

 toxic action. For example, the hemolytic dose of guinea- 

 pig's complement is ten times greater in the case of its own 

 corpuscles than it is in the case of the ox's corpuscles, and 

 Ihe writers show by quantitative methods that in the former 

 case the whole of this large dose of complement enters 

 into combination with the guinea-pig's corpuscles (through 

 the medium of the immune-body) ; there is no want of com- 

 bining affinity of complement, but its toxic action is slight. 

 .\ similar result was obtained with each of three sera in- 

 vestigated — a relative non-sensitiveness of the corpuscles of 

 an animal to its own complement ; in one case there was 

 also a deficiency in the combining power of the complement. 

 .Ml the results go to emphasise the importance of dis- 

 tinguishing these two factors in the action of a complement, 

 which correspond with the two chief atom groups desig- 

 nated bv Khrlich " hapluphorc, " cr combining, and 



