July i i, 1901] 



NA TURE 



the ordinary pass or in the highest honours. Then the third 

 feature to which I should call attention, and which I am inclined 

 to say is the most important of all, is that a University should be 

 a place where knowledge is increased and where the limits of 

 learningare extended. Original research, the addition of something 

 to the total sum of human knowledge, must always be an 

 essential part of our proposals. We want to secure that those 

 who teach in this University shall never cease to learn, and 

 that those who are students shall unite with them in the work 

 of fresh and new investigation. And, lastly, a University is 

 a place where the application of knowledge must be indicated 

 and directed. That perhaps brings us nearer to what may yet be 

 thedistinctivefeatureof our University. At all events we start 

 with the belief that here we are going to combine theory with 

 practice, and to see that in our University we shall combine 

 both in one course of instruction, with due regard to the needs 

 of our own time and of our own district. And now, if I may 

 summarise in one sentence what I have been saying, it is that a 

 University should be a place where knowledge is taught, tested, 

 increased and applied." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Meteorological Society, June ig. — Mr. W. H. 

 Dines, president, in the chair. — A paper by Mr. H. Helm 

 Clayton, of the Blue Hill Observatory, U.S.A., on the eclipse 

 cyclone, the diurnal cyclones and the cyclones and anti-cyclones 

 of temperate latitudes, was read by the secretary. The author 

 has discussed the meteorological observations made along the 

 path of the total solar eclipse in the United States on May 28, 

 1900, 'and also those made during three previous eclipses. He 

 finds that a cyclone follows in the wake of the eclipse— though 

 the changes are very minute and feeble — the fall of temperature 

 developing a cold-air cyclone in an astonishingly short time, 

 with all the peculiar circulation of winds and distribution of 

 pressure which constitute such a cyclone. — A paper, by Mr. F. 

 Napier Denison, of Victoria, British Columbia, on the seis- 

 mograph as a sensitive barometer, was also read by the secre- 

 tary. A Milne seismograph was installed in 1S9S at the 

 Meteorological Office, Victoria, B.C., and the author has since 

 that time compared its movements with the changes of atmo- 

 spheric pressure recorded by his " aerograph. "' He finds that when 

 the barometric pressure is high over the Pacific slope from 

 British Columbia southward to California, while off the Pacific 

 coast the barometer is comparatively low, the horizontal pen- 

 dulum of the seismograph tends to move towards the eastward. 

 This movement appears to be due to a distortion of the earth's 

 surface, caused by the heavier air over the Pacific slope depress- 

 ing the underlying land surface below its normal position, 

 while, on the other hand, the comparatively light air over the 

 adjacent ocean tends to allow the sea and earth beneath to rise 

 above its normal level. It has been found that when an exten- 

 sive storm area is approaching from the westward, and often 

 eighteen to twenty-four hours before the local barometer begins 

 to fall, the pendulum of the seismograph swings steadily to the 

 eastward, completely masking any diurnal fluctuations that might 

 have existed, as the storm area approaches, and in the event of 

 it being followed by an important high area, the pendulum will 

 begin to swing towards the westward before it is possible to 

 ascertain this area's position on the current weather charts. 



Anthropological Institute, June 19.— Extraordinary joint 

 meeting with the Folklore Society. Prof. A. C. Haddon, 

 F.R.S., in the chair. — Prof. Haddon vacated the chair in favour 

 of Mr. E. W. Brabrook, president of the Folklore Society. — 

 Mr. E. S. Hartland exhibited the collection of Musquakie bead- 

 work and other objects presented by the late Miss Florence Grove 

 to the Folklore Society, and to be deposited in the Museum of 

 Ethnology at Cambridge. — Mr. R. Shelford exhibited two 

 charms against stomach ache from Borneo. — Mr. H. Balfour 

 read a paper, by Mr. W. G. Aston, C.M.G., on Japanese 

 Gohei and Ainu 'Tirao. — Mr. N. W. Thomas read a paper, by 

 Mr. E. Tregear, on the spirit of vegetation. 

 Dublin. 



Royal Dublin Society, May 22.— Sir Howard Grubb, 

 F.R.S., in the chair.— Prof. Hartley, F.R.S., and Mr. Hugh 

 Ramage communicated a paper upon the banded flame-spectra of 

 metals. This was a continuation of some former work on flame 

 spectra at high temperatures by Prof Hartley, published in the 



NO. 1654, VOL. 64] 



Phil. Trans., in which it was shown that fluted and banded 

 spectra are characteristic of many metals. The list is now 

 extended, banded .and fluted spectra of copper, gold, palladium, 

 zinc, cadmium, aluminium, beryllium, lanthanium, indium and 

 thallium have been photographed and the principal bands in 

 their spectra measured. A banded spectrum has also been 

 obtained from iridium. In well-defined groups, such as magne- 

 sium, zinc, cadmium, aluminium, indium and thallium, the 

 spectra appear to be homologous. — Prof. Hartley communicated 

 a paper on a theory of the molecular constitution of supersaturated 

 solutions. The chemical constitution of these solutions, which 

 exhibit the well-known phenomenon of sudden crystallisation 

 when either a crystal of the same salt or one of the same con- 

 stitution and isomorphous with it gains access to the liquid, has 

 been thus explained by the author. When a supersaturated 

 solution is formed the salt in solution is a definite hydrate, but 

 it is not the same hydrated salt as that which crystallises out. 

 The cause of the supersaturation is the greater solubility of the 

 one hydrate over the other at a given temperature ; and its con- 

 version into the other by combination with some of the water, 

 acting as a solvent, causes its sudden solidification. In cases 

 where the supersaturated solution is prepared by digesting a 

 dehydrated salt in cold water, the course of change is first 

 hydration, secondly solution, and thirdly crystallisation. 

 Reference is made to the work of H. Le Chatelier, Wyrouboff, 

 and others. — Sir Howard Grubb communicated a note on a case 

 of true stereoscopic effect obtained from a single picture, which 

 he demonstrated by means of a model. — Mr. F. W. Moore 

 exhibited and described a living specimen from the Botanic 

 Garden, Glasnevin, Dublin, showing the germination of the 

 double cocoa-nut (Lodokea secheUanim). 

 Edinburgh. 



Royal Society, June 17. — Prof. Sir William Turner, K.C.B., 

 in the chair. — Prof Cossar Ewart, in a paper on in breeding, 

 gave the results of a number of experiments he had tried on 

 pigeons, rabbits, mares and goats, and examined in the light of 

 these the views as to the injurious effects of in-breeding which 

 were held by certain naturalists. Thus Darwin had concluded 

 that in-breeding was injurious ; other biologists, including 

 Weissmann, that it was not. Similarly, Huth and Westermark 

 differed as to the harmfulness of consanguineous marriages. 

 The general result of his own experiments led Prof. Ewart to 

 the conclusion that in-breeding led to loss of constitutional 

 vigour and sometimes of size, but not to loss of fertility ; and 

 the diversity of view held by naturalists he regarded as being due 

 to the fact that members of one family often differed in consti- 

 tution to a marked degree, brothers and sisters, for example, 

 differing more than their parents, and there being occasionally 

 greater similarity between second cousins than between first 

 cousins. It was also pointed out that, in certain circum- 

 stances, in-breeding by arresting reversion (which w.as favoured 

 by crossing) tended to favour the appearance of new varieties. — 

 Mr. F. H. A. Marshall read a paper on hair in the Equid*. 

 It was found that the hairs of the three principal types of zebra 

 were fairly distinct, while the Somali zebra stood quite by itself, 

 a conclusion agreeing with that of Nathusias. The hairs of 

 horses showed considerable variability dependent largely on the 

 breed, while those of zebra-horse hybrids, so far as the observa- 

 tions went, were fairly constant in character. The hairs of the 

 mane, as well as those from the sides of the body, were also 

 dealt with. The paper concluded with a reference to a sugges- 

 tion by Nathusias that, if the telegony hypothesis were true, we 

 might expect to find evidence of it in the hair characters of the 

 "subsequent foals." Such evidence w'as, however, utterly 

 lacking. 



P.ARI3. 



Academy of Sciences, July i. — M. Fouque in the chair. — 

 Chemical equilibria ; phosphoric acid and the chlorides of the 

 alkaline earths, by M. Berthelot. The author's recent experi- 

 ments on the subject are continued, the reactions dealt with in 

 this paper being those occurring between phosphoric acid, mono- 

 sodium phosphate or disodium phosphate, and calcium, barium 

 or magnesium chloride. It is found that the number of equiva- 

 lents of the alkaline earth entering into combination with a 

 molecule of precipitated phosphoric acid varies from 2 to 4, 

 according to the nature of the substances and the time which 

 has elapsed since the commencement of the reaction. — New- 

 treatment of niobite ; preparation and properties of fused 

 niobium, by M. Henri Moissan. The native mineral, consisting 

 chiefly of niobic and tantalic acids together with iron, man- 



