596 



NA TURE 



[October io, 1901 



A NEW science building in connection with Colorado College, 



and which will cost 300,000 dollars, is in course of construction. 

 Towards the amount required Dr. D. H. Pearsons has contributed 

 50,000 dollars, and an anonymous donor 100,000 dollars. 



The Calendar of the Royal Technical Institute, Salford, for 

 the sixth session, 1901-2, has reached us, and contains full 

 information respecting the various courses of instruction given at 

 this well-equipped institution. 



Science announces that the expenses of a department of 

 anthropology in the University of California will be entirely 

 borne by Mrs. P. Hearst. The department will pay especial 

 attention to the study of the Indians of the Pacific coast. 



A.MONG recent professorial changes in American universities 

 we notice the following : — Prof. E. M. Wood is to succeed 

 Prof. H. Benner in the chair of mathematics and astronomy of 

 Albion College, Mich., Prof. T. C. Esty will take the place of 

 Prof. Baker as professor of mathematics in the University of 

 Rochester, and Prof. P. Arnold will fill the chair of mathematics 

 in the University of Southern California. 



The annual report of the Glasgow and West of Scotland 

 Technical College has just been issued, and tells of much good 

 work done and progress made during the period under review. 

 The number of students has increased to the utmost capacity of 

 the buildings, and the curriculum has been extended in several 

 directions. After a close inquiry into the standard of instruc- 

 tion, the composition of its staff and the plan of its future 

 operations, the Scotch Education Department and the Treasury 

 have granted to the College a fi.xed annual subsidy on practically 

 the same conditions as the annual grants to the P2nglish 

 University Colleges. The authorities are much embarrassed by 

 the poor class-room and laboratory accommodation, and it is to 

 be hoped, therefore, that the sum required for the proposed 

 building operations will be speedily forthcoming. So crowded 

 is the College that the Governors have been obliged to announce 

 that they are unable to consider any additional applications for 

 admission to quite a number of evening classes. 



The Ahimni Weekly of the University of Minnesota for 

 September 23 contains an account of the new botanical station 

 which has been built on Vancouver Island for students of 

 botany in Minnesota and the nqrth-west. The seaside station, 

 as it e.xists, is but a beginning, and many things are required for 

 its suitable equipment, such as a small steam-launch, a steam- 

 pump, a system of waler-pipes for fresh- and salt-water, an 

 additional laboratory building and other conveniences ; but the 

 start made is an encouraging one. The party of students and 

 others which visited the station during the recent season numbered 

 twenty-nine, and a very successful gathering seems to have been 

 held. The days were spent in studying the products of the shore 

 and forest, and in the evenings brief botanical lectures were 

 delivered by the teachers. The buildings are, it may be men- 

 tioned, at present planned to accommodate eighty workers. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, September 30. — M. Bouquet de la 

 Grye in the chair. — The problem of the dissipation of heat in a 

 thick wall with radiating surface, by M. J. Boussinesq. — Re- 

 marks on the formation of acids in plants, by MM. Berthelot 

 and Andre. It has been found that there is no relation between 

 the total amount of vegetable acids contained in a plant, in the 

 free or combined state, and the amount of acid in the juice 

 extracted from the various p.irts.— On the engraved and painted 

 figures of the Pakeolithic period found on the walls of the cave 

 of La Mouthe (Dordogne), by M. Emile Riviere. A minute 

 description of prehistoric drawings, the existence of which was 

 first indicated in 1S95. The cave is nearly filled up with debris 

 of prehistoric man, who inhabited the cave at two distinct 

 epochs, which are clearly distinguished by a stalagmitic layer 

 which separates them. The drawings are of three kinds, simple 

 line engravings, others filled with a brownish-red ochre, and a 

 third a kind of striation of the rock. All, with one e.xception, 

 represent animals, the most perfect being complete figures of a 

 bison and of a kind of antelope. The wild goat and reindeer 



NO. 1667, VOL. 64] 



are also recognisable. — On diflerential equations of the second 

 order with algebraical coefficients, by M. Paul J. Suchar. — On 

 the variable state of currents, by M. A. Petot. — The calculation 

 of the heat of volatilisation and heat of fusion of some elements, 

 by M. de Forcrand. The relation (L -I- S)/T = (l + s)IT = 30 

 between the molecular weight M, the heat of fusion S, the 

 heats of volatilisation and fusion L, i, and the temperature, is 

 applied to the cases of phosphorus, arsenic and selenium. — 

 Nitromannite and nitrocellulose, by MM. Leo Vignon and 

 F. Gerin. It has been previously shown by one of the authors 

 that the various nitro-derivatives of cellulose energetically reduce 

 an alkaline copper solution. It is now shown th.at penta- and 

 hexa-nitromannite behave similarly. This reducing power is not 

 altogether due to the formation of mannose. Nitromannite, re- 

 duced by ferrous chloride, gives a mannite devoid of reducing 

 power. From this point of view it behaves differently from the 

 nitro-celluloses. — The formation of an isatin derivative of al- 

 bumen, by M. Julius Gnezda. A substance giving the reactions of 

 chlorisatin has been obtained from the products of the reaction 

 between hypochlorous acid and peptone. — On the reproduction 

 and development of Peripatopsii B/aiiivillei, by M. E. L. 

 Bouvier. — On stolonisation in the hydroides, by M. Armand 

 Billard. — The fibrovascular elements of the stem and frond of 

 some FilicineaCDe, by MM. C. Eg. Bertrand and F. Cornaille. — 

 On the localisation and dissemination of antimony in the 

 organism, by M. G. Pouchet. The toxic action of antimony 

 and ils localisation require doses of antimony much larger than 

 with arsenic, the localisation of antimony being different from 

 that of arsenic. The toxic action of arsenic is not diminished 

 by the presence of antimony, but, on the contrary, appears to be 

 somewhat increased. 



CONTENTS. PAGE 



Rational Geometry. By Prof. George M. Minchin, 



FRS 573 



Native Life in Southern India 574 



Theoretical Explanations of Geological Facts . . 575 

 Our Book Shelf:— 



Guede : "La Geologic" . 575 



Watson ; " Farm Poultry."— R. W 575 



" The Collected Scientific Papers of John Couch 



Adams " 576 



Letters to the Editor : — 



The Rolling Angle of a Ship found by Photography. 



(/Nush-a/e<i.)—Rev. F. J. Jervis-Smith, F.R.S. 576 

 British Instruments at the Paris Exhibition. — C. V. 



Boys, F.R.S 576 



Notes on Minerals from the Lengenbach Binnenthal. 



— R. H. Solly 577 



Gog and Magog. — D. P 577 



Fireball of September 14. — C. E. Stromeyer . . . 577 

 A New Name fqr an Ungulate. — Dr. Chas. W. 



Andrews 577 



On the Magnetic Rotation of Light and the Second 

 Law of Thermodynamics. By Lord Rayleigh, 



F.R.S 577 



Martin F. Woodward. By G. B. H 57S 



Notes 579 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



Ephemeris of Encke's Comet (1901 /') 5S3 



New Algol-type Variable, 78 (1901), Cygni . . . 5S3 



Photography of the Spectrum of Lightning 583 



The Royal College of Science and the University 



of London. By Prof. W. A. Tilden, F.R.S. . 5S3 

 Mathematics and Physics at the British Associa- 

 tion. By Dr. C. H. Lees . . 5S6 



Zoology at the British Association 5S7 



Geography at the British Association 589 



Educational Science at the British Association . . 591 



Forthcoming Books of Science 593 



University and Educational Intelligence 595 



Societies and Academies 596 



