August 22, 1901] 



NA TURE 



415 



dyed their own. It is interesting to notice that, if a skein of 

 wool be suspended in a small experimental vat in good working 

 order, it is the upper part of the skein nearest the surface 

 which takes the deepest colour, and next to it, as one would 

 have imagined, the lower part nearest the sediment at the 

 bottom. This blue scum was the probable source, not only of 

 the woad blue which Pliny speaks of as being used in his time 

 to stain chalk with for the adulteration of indigo, but also of 

 the "ancient Briton" pigment, of which we hear so much and 

 know so little. Cxsar and Pomponious Mela speak of our 

 ancestors staining their bodies blue ; it is difficult to understand 

 how they could dye theii skin blue, but it is easy to see how they 

 could have smeared themselves with woad-blue mixed with oil 

 or grease. Herodian, however, throws a little more light on 

 the subject when he tells us that " they mark their bodies with 

 various figures of all kinds of animals, which is the reason they 

 wear no clothes, for fear of hiding these figures." The use of 

 indigo for tattooing is still common among our soldiers and 

 sailors. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Dr. J. T. Jenkins has been appointed lecturer in biology 

 and geology at the Hartley College, Southampton, and ^Ir. 

 J. D. Coates assistant lecturer in physics and electrical en- 

 gineering. 



Miss Eleanor Ormerod, the well-known authority on 

 agricultural entomology, lately deceased, bequeathed the sum 

 of 5000/. to the University of Edinburgh. Miss Ormerod was 

 an examiner in entomology for the University, and received from 

 them last year the degree of LL. D. 



The councils of English Counties and County Boroughs ex- 

 pend upon scholarships a large amount of the money available 

 for technical education. A report upon the scholarship schemes 

 adopted by local authorities appears in the Record of Technical 

 and Secondary Education, and it shows what is being done to 

 provide continuous and systematic courses of training for promis- 

 ing students. It appears from this report that, taking County 

 and County Borough Councils together, there are now 93 out of 

 no such local authorities who provide scholarships in one form 

 or another. The total numUtr and value of the scholarships and 

 exhibitions in force (i.e. those awarded and those continued 

 and renewed from previous years) under the schemes of 90 of 

 those 93 authorities during the year 1S99-1900 were 19,971 and 

 156,793/. respectively. The scholarships are tenable at institu- 

 tions of various ranks, and the number and value of those 

 awarded annually in each class are as follows : — (i) At evening 

 classes, 6766(7862/.); (2) at technical and science and art schools, 

 3426 (17,064/.); (3) at secondary schools, 5593 (77,349/-); 

 (4) at higher institutions and Universities, 679 (27,097/.) ; (5) at 

 agricultural and horticultural schools, &c., 532 (9866/.); (6) at 

 domestic science schools, &c., 1349 (12,199/.) ; (7) for elementary 

 teachers, 1626 (5356/.). A comparison of these figures with 

 similar returns obtained five years ago shows that a considerable 

 increase-has taken place in the number of scholarships tenable at 

 permanent technical schools. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 



vesuvianite from New Mexico, chrysoberyl from New York 

 City, and a pyroxene crystal from the copper mines of Duck- 

 town, Tenn. — On the motion of compressible fluids, by J. W. 

 Davis. — The action of sodium thiosulphate on solutions of 

 metallic salts at high temperatures and pressures, by J. T. 

 Norton, jun. Solutions of various salts which are incompletely 

 precipitated by sodium thiosulphate at the ordinary temperature 

 were heated under pressure in sealed tubes at 120°- 140° C. In 

 many cases the reaction became complete, the whole of the 

 metal being precipitated as sulphide or hydroxide. In a few 

 cases the reaction was indeterminate. — Secondary undulations 

 shown by recording tide gauges, by A. W. Duff. ^Mathematical 

 notes to rival theories of cosmogony, by O. Fisher. — Studies of 

 Eocene Mammalia in the Marsh collection, Peabody Museum, 

 by J. K. Wortman. — The electromagnetic effects of moving 

 charged spheres, by E. P. Adams. The deflection of a mag- 

 netic needle caused by the rotation of two electrically charged 

 spheres was measured, and in opposition to the views recently 

 published by Cremieu, the deflections observed agreed with 

 those calculated theoretically within the limits of experimental 

 error. — The nadir of temperature and allied problems, by 

 J. Dewar. 



American Journal of Siieiice, August. — Experiments on high 

 electrical resistances, lay O. N. Rood. The units of resistance 

 employed were prepared by painting peroxide of manganese on 

 strips of blue cobalt glass, then drying and immersing in a rosin 

 wax bath at 150° C. It was found that the surface conduction of 

 units prepared in this way in ordinary weather was practically 

 zero. The aluminium leaf electrometer used in the measure- 

 ments is also described. It was found possible to build up a set 

 of high resistances with values from 32,000 to 14,000,000 

 megohms. — Mineralogical notes, by A. J. Moses. A description 

 of mercuric iodide from New South Wales, some new forms on 

 Bergen Hill pectolite and on atacamite crystals from Chili, 

 realgar crystals from Snohomish County, Washington, 



NO. 1660, VOL. 64] 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, June 20. — On the Behaviour of Oxy-h;emo- 

 globin, Carbonic-oxide-haemoglobin, Metha;moglobin and certain 

 of their Derivatives, in the Magnetic Field, with a Preliminary 

 Note on the Electrolysis of the Hcemoglobin Compounds, by 

 Arthur Gamgee, M.D., F.R.S., Emeritus Professor of Physi- 

 ology in the Owens College, Victoria University. 



The following are the conclusions to which the author has 

 been led by his experiments : — 



(i) The blood-colouring matter, oxy-hEemoglobin, as well as 

 carbonic-oxide haemoglobin and methaemoglobin, are decidedly 

 diamagnetic bodies. 



(2) The iron-containing derivatives hsematin and aceth^min 

 are powerfully magnetic bodies. The differences in magnetic 

 behaviour between the blood-colouring matter and acethicmin 

 and haematin point to the profound transformation which occurs 

 in the haemoglobin molecule when it is decomposed in the 

 presence of oxygen. 



(3) The preliminary study of the electrolysis of oxy-ha;mo- 

 globin and CO-hxmoglobin renders it probable that, in the 

 blood-colouring matter, the iron-containing group, on which its 

 physiological properties depend, is (or is contained in) an 

 electro-negative radical ; according to analogy, the iron in such 

 a compound would possess diamagnetic and not magnetic 

 properties. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, August 12^ ^M. Fouque in the 

 chair. — A criterion for the recognition of singular points of the 

 uniform branch of any monogenous function, by M. G. Mittag- 

 Leffler. — On the infinitely small deformation of an elastic 

 ellipsoid submitted to known forces on its boundaries, by MM. 

 Eugene and Fran9ois Cosserat. — Verification of the relation- 

 which exists between the characteristic angle of deformation of 

 metals and the coefficient of restitution of their elasticity, by 

 M. G. Gravaris. — On the colour of the ions, by M. G. Vaillant. 

 The theory of ions applied to the coloration of solutions leads 

 to the following consequences : in completely dissociated solu- 

 tions containing only one coloured ion, the coloration is inde- 

 pendent of the nature of the other ion ; if the ionisation is 

 incomplete, the coloration should vary with the concentration 

 and nature of the non-coloured ion ; and, finally, the coloration 

 of a solution of any concentration ought to be related to its 

 degree of dissociation by a formula with two moduli, and two 

 only. All these conclusions were confirmed experimentally by 

 a study of solutions of the permanganates of potassium, 

 barium and zinc. — On the value of the molecular heats at the 

 boiling point, by M. de Forcrand. — The action of benzoyl 

 chloride upon trioxymethylene in presence of zinc chloride, by 

 M. Marcel-Descude. — A method for the prevention of hail, by 



