NoOveMBER 15, 1905| 
Numerous songs are given, many being songs of cannibals. 
The volume concludes with a précis of each tale. The 
authors are to be congratulated on the termination of what 
must have been a laborious piece of work. 
The study of the religion and myths of the Koryak’ 
is of particular interest, since these people are very little 
known, and they seem to have been successful in resisting 
the efforts of the Russians to convert them to Christianity, 
and to have preserved their primitive religion to a con- 
siderable extent. 
The Supreme Being occupies an important position in 
tthe religious life of the Koryak, but the conception of him 
is vague. Nothing is known of his world-creating activity, 
except that he sent down Big Raven to our earth to 
establish order, and Big Raven is the founder of the world. 
The One-on-High plays no active part in the myths which 
occupy more than one-half of the volume; these deal 
almost exclusively with the life, travels, adventures, and 
tricks of Big Raven, his children, and other relatives. 
The value of this record is greatly increased by a compari- 
son of the Koryak myths with Kamchadal, Chukchee, 
Yukaghir, Mongol-Turk, and American mythologies. 
Descriptions are given of the festivals and sacrifices, and 
‘customs at birth, death, and funerals; many of the charms 
and sacred implements, and some of the ceremonies, are 
illustrated from photographs and drawings. 
A. C. Happon. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
CampBripGe.—The electors to the Isaac Newton student- 
ships give notice that in accordance with the regulations 
an election to a studentship will be held in the Lent term, 
1907. These studentships are for the encouragement of 
study and research in astronomy (especially gravitational 
astronomy, but including other branches of astronomy and 
astronomical physics) and physical optics. The student- 
ship will be tenable for the term of three years from 
April 15, 1907. The emolument of the student will be 
2001. per annum, provided that the income of the fund is 
capable of bearing such charge. Candidates for the 
studentship are invited to send in their applications to the 
Vice-Chancellor between January 16 and 26, 1907, together 
with testimonials and such other evidence as to their 
qualifications and their proposed course of study or research 
as they may think fit. 
The State medicine syndicate reports that it has held 
two examinations in tropical medicine and hygiene during 
the past year. At the January examination six candidates 
presented themselves, three of whom passed and received 
diplomas. At the August examination eleven candidates 
presented themselves, of whom ten passed and received 
diplomas. The syndicate proposes to contribute out of the 
funds in its hands the sum of r5o0l. annually as part of 
the stipend of the reader in hygiene. 
Mr. Ernest Gardner, M.P., has been appointed a member 
of the board of electors to the professorship of agriculture, 
and Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., an additional member of 
the board of agricultural studies. 
The following have been appointed examiners for the 
matural sciences tripos :—physics, Mr. C. T. R. Wilson 
and Mr. J. A. McClelland; chemistry, Dr. Fenton and 
Mr. H. B. Baker (Oxford); mineralogy, Mr. A. Hutchin- 
sson and Mr. H. L. Bowman (Oxford); geology, Mr. P. 
Lake and Mr. E. J. Garwood; botany, Mr. F. F. Black- 
man and Mr. A. G. Tansley; zoology, Prof. E. W. 
MacBride and Mr. R. C. Punnett; physiology, Mr. F. G. 
‘Hopkins and Dr. T. G. Brodie (London); and human 
anatomy, Mr. T. Manners-Smith and Dr. A. Robinson 
(Victoria). 
The Mark Quested exhibition of 60/1. a year for three 
years ending Christmas, 1909, has been awarded to F. A. 
Potts, of Trinity Hall, assistant to the superintendent of 
‘tthe museum of zoology. 
Tue honorary degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon 
Sir W. H. Perkin, F-R.S., by the Johns Hopkins 
University, Baltimore. 
1 “The Koryak, Religion and Myths.” By Waldemar Jochelson. 
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, vol. vi. part i., 1905. 
NO. 1933, VOL. 75] 
NATURE 
69 
A NEw building for the engineering department of the 
University of Pennsylvania was formally dedicated on 
October 19, and is said to be the largest and best equipped 
structure devoted to engineering education in the United 
States. The cost, including equipment, was 200,000l. 
THE council of University College, London, has received 
from the committee and subscribers of the Carey Foster 
Testimonial Fund the sum of 143l. to be applied in the 
award of an annual prize in physics, to be known as the 
Carey Foster research prize. This fund is the balance of 
that raised for the portrait of Dr. Carey Foster which 
was presented to the council in July last. ~ 
WE learn from Science that the Georgia Legislature has 
appropriated 20,0001. to erect and equip a building for 
the Agricultural College, and that the New York State 
College of Agriculture at Cornell University has received 
a gift of 60001. for the foundation of six agricultural 
scholarships. Our contemporary also states that the Uni- 
versity of Florida has been removed during the summer 
from its former position at Lake City to new grounds 
and new buildings at Gainsville, Fla. The new grounds 
comprise a tract of five hundred acres just outside the 
city limits of Gainsville. 
In his report for 1906 on secondary education in Scot- 
land, Dr. J. Struthers, the secretary to the Scotch 
Education Department, devotes a section to the teaching 
of science. After directing attention to the satisfactory 
progress made in the secondary schools of Scotland in 
developing a sound and well-considered course of experi- 
mental science, the secretary remarks on a common mis- 
take in the practice of science teachers in allowing in- 
adequate time for the discussion of experimental exercises. 
As one of the inspectors reported to the Department, 
“unless frequent occasions are afforded for conference on 
class results, divergences, and conclusions, the work is 
apt to degenerate into a series of more or less isolated 
operations in which the pupils are found, not only lack- 
ing in their grasp of the subjects of study, but deficient 
in their knowledge of the units they are using and in their 
understanding of the constants they have determined.’’ 
This failing is mot confined to Scottish schools, and 
teachers would do well to take every precaution that the 
experiments do not degenerate into mere recipes unintelli- 
gently worked through by the pupils. Unless the pupils 
acquire a comprehensive idea of the meaning of series of 
connected experiments, they are obtaining little help in 
learning how to employ scientific methods. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, June 21.—‘‘ Experimental Evidence of 
Ionic Migration in the Natural Diffusion of Acids and of 
Salts.—Phenomena in the Diffusion of Electrolytes.’’ By 
R. G. Durrant. Communicated by W. A. Shenstone, 
FIR:S. ; 
Conclusions.—The results as given in the present paper 
appear to afford a considerable body of data tending to 
support the theory of Nernst and Planck. 
So far as the author is aware, the method of studying 
band boundaries has been almost entirely confined to ex- 
periments in which batteries have been employed, as in the 
work of Orme Masson and of Steele. 
The earlier experiments in jellies and the later experi- 
ments with silver nitrate and calcium chloride show that 
very fairly sharp bands are obtainable without batteries. 
The evidence goes to show that hydrogen ions move in 
advance of the diffusion front, whereas other ions produce 
their various “‘ effects ’’ in the rear of the diffusion front. 
Entomological Society. October 3.—Mr. F. Merrifield, 
president, in the chair.—Exhtbitions—Commander J. J. 
Walker: A specimen of Calosoma sycophanta taken in 
Denny Wood, New Forest, June 16; Lygaeus equestris, 
L., found in the Isle of Sheppey on September 22; Sitaris 
muralis, taken near Oxford in August by Mr. A. H. 
Hamm; varieties of Vanessa urticae, Argynnis adippe, 
Lycaena icarus, 3, and of an almost black form of Strenia 
clathrata occurring at Streatley, Berks, in August—all 
