454 
INCA ISLE, 
[Marcu 7, 1907 
shows that the institute now has 1016 fellows and 177 
associates. The president, in his address, said the most 
important feature of the year’s work has been the 
inauguration of examinations in chemical technology. The 
council believes that the institution of these examinations 
will materially help fellows and associates to obtain 
employment in chemical industries. Another piece of work 
accomplished has been the publication of a list of official 
chemical appointments. Commenting on the value of the 
qualifications of the associateship and fellowship of the 
institute, the president showed how the examinations of 
the institute differ from those of the universities. The 
latter, he said, are contrived to test the amount of know- 
ledge which a candidate has succeeded in bringing to a 
focus at a particular moment, while the main object of 
the institute’s examinations is to test what the candidate 
can actually perform when he is placed as nearly as 
possible under the same conditions as he would be if work- 
ing in his own laboratory and within reach of a good 
chemical library. The candidate who shines in the one 
will not necessarily shine in the other examination. The 
university graduate is more qualified to tall and to teach, 
but the overcrowding of his curriculum leaves him little 
time in which to practise and acquire technical skill, with- 
out which the institute’s qualification cannot be attained. 
It is, Prof. Frankland said in conclusion, this. practical 
character which must be preserved in the institute’s ex- 
aminations, so that fellows and associates may be known 
for the soundness of their judgment and for their capacity 
to perform chemical work upon which the public can place 
implicit reliance. 
SOCIETIES AND 
LONDON. 
Faraday Society, February 19.—Dr. T. Martin Lowry 
in the chair.—The present position and future prospects 
of the electrolytic alkali and bleach industry: J. B. C. 
Kershaw. The paper opens with a brief historical review. 
The second part of the paper contains a list of the works 
now operating in Europe and America, summarising, so 
far as information is available, power used, type of cell 
and process employed, and products made. The totals 
show that about 55,000 h.p. are now being devoted to the 
production of alkalies and bleach by the electrolytic 
method, and that plant representing about 13,000 h.p. is 
lying in reserve. Assuming that all the plants are being 
worked to the best advantage, the production of 70 per 
cent. caustic soda at present would be about 110,000 tons 
per annum, with an equivalent of 231,000 tons of 35 per 
cent. bleaching powder (2 tons of caustic and 4-2 tons of 
bleach per E.H.P. year). In conclusion, the future of the 
industry is discussed. 
Royal Meteorological Society, February 20.— Dr. H. R. 
Mill, president, in the chair.—Report on the phenological 
observations made during 1906 by observers in various 
parts of the British Isles: E. Mawley. The most note- 
worthy features of the weather of the phenological year 
ending November, 1906, as affecting vegetation, were the 
dry period lasting from the beginning of June until the 
end of September, and the great heat and dryness of the 
air during the last few days in August and the first few 
days in September. Wild plants came into flower in 
advance of their usual dates until about the middle of 
April, after which time they were, as a rule, to about the 
same extent late. Such early spring immigrants as the 
swallow, cuckoo, and nightingale reached these islands 
somewhat behind their average dates. The only deficient 
farm crop, taking the country as a whole, was that of 
hay, all the others being more or less above average. The 
yield of apples was about average in all but the north of 
England and in Scotland, where there was a very scanty 
crop. Pears and plums were everywhere very deficient, 
whereas all the small fruits yielded moderately well. As 
regards the farm crops, the past year proved even a more 
bountiful one than that of 1905.—The metric system in 
meteorology: R. inwards. Attention was directed to the 
advisability of adopting some uniform system by all the 
meteorological observers upon the globe. 
NO. 1949, VOL. 75] 
ACADEMIES. 
CAMBRIDGE. 
Philosophical Society, January 28.—Dr. Hobson, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Kanalstrahlen in helium: Prof. 
Thomson.—An experiment with a pair of Robison pall- 
ended magnets: G. F. C. Searle. A Robison ball-ended 
magnet AB is supported on a pivot O close to a drawing 
board, and a second Robison magnet CD, resting on the 
board, deflects AB. If facdenote the perpendicular from 
O upon AC, the turning moment experienced by AB is 
the resultant of the four moments mm’ pac/AC*, 
mm'pav/AD?, —mmnt'pec/BC*, and = mm'fup/BD?, where 
m is the pole-strength of CD and m’ that of AB. If 
ha, hyn be the perpendiculars from A, B upon the line 
A,B,, where A,, B, are the undeflected positions of A and 
B, the moment due to the earth’s magnetic force, H, is 
m'H(ha+/p). Equating these results, the value of m 
is found in terms of H and of the four distances AC... 
and the six perpendiculars Aa. hp, pac.... These ten 
lengths are measured on the drawing board.—A method 
of determining the thermal conductivity of india-rubber : 
G. F. C. Searle. Steam from a boiler passes through an 
india-rubber tube, part of the tube being immersed in 
water contained in a calorimeter. Since the conductivity 
of india-rubber (0-00042) is small compared with that of 
water (0-0013), the temperatures of the inner and outer 
walls of the tube may be taken as equal to @, and 6,, the 
temperatures of the steam and of the well-stirred water in 
the calorimeter. The conductivity K is found from the 
rate of rise of temperature of the calorimeter by the 
equation 
tes M Wy | ) 
a = : . log, ; 
2n1(9,—0,) at Gy 
where M is the water equivalent of the calorimeter and 
its contents, a and b are the external and internal radii 
of the tube, and 1 is the length immersed.—A curvature 
method for measuring surface tension: C. T. R. Wilson. 
To measure the surface tension of mercury, a circular 
hole of about 1 mm. in diameter is made through a glass 
plate closing the upper end of a vertical tube. The tube 
is filled with mercury, and sufficient pressure is applied 
to give a suitable curvature to the meniscus projecting 
into the aperture. The curvature is measured by making 
the meniscus serve as a convex mirror. A microscope is 
focussed (1) on the centre of curvature (when a reflected 
image of the eye-piece cross-wires will be seen in focus) ; 
(2) on a fibre stretched just above the meniscus; (3) on 
the virtual image of the fibre formed by the meniscus. 
From the vertical displacements of the microscope between 
these three positions the radius of curvature is obtained. 
If the pressure be changed by a known amount between 
two such measurements of curvature the surface tension 
can be deduced.—The application of integral equations to 
the determination of expansions in series of oscillating 
functions: H. Bateman, 
February 11.—Mr. D. Sharp, vice-president, in the 
chair.—The mode of formation of the initial cell-wall, 
the genesis and neogenesis of the connecting threads, 
and the method of connection of living tissue cells: 
Dr. W. Gardiner. Having summarised the _ exist- 
ing theories as to the structure of the “ initial-wall ”’ 
of plant cells, and the current view expressed by Stras- 
burger as to the development of connecting threads, the 
author stated that his own observations appear to prove 
that the above views are inadmissible.-—The ethnology of 
modern Egypt: Dr. C. S. Myers. The measurements, 
notes, and photographs taken in this investigation lead to 
the conclusion (1) that, compared with the ‘‘ prehistoric ”’ 
people of 5000 B.c., the modern inhabitants show no 
sensible difference in head measurements or in the degree 
of scatter of individual measurements about their average ; 
(2) that the modern Copts throughout Egypt are less 
negroid than the modern Moslem population; (3) that 
both the Copts and the Moslems in Upper Egypt are 
more negroid than those in Lower Egypt; (4) that from 
the anthropometric standpoint there is no evidence of 
plurality of race in modern Egypt.—Notes on the struc- 
ture and behaviour of the larva of Anopheles macultpennis : 
A. D. Imms. The paper dealt briefly with the occurrence 
of the larva of Anopheles maculipennis in the neighbour- 
} hood of Cambridge, together with notes on its bionomics. 
