NATURE 



[May 5, 1904 



possible, based on the opinions of the manufacturers. As 

 Mr. Howard said, it is gratifying to know that in this 

 investigation the institute can rely on the cooperation of 

 so many leaders of industry, among whom are ironmasters, 

 alkali, acid and general chemical manufacturers, brewers, 

 cement makers, and representatives of dyeing, calico print- 

 ing, and other important industries. A technical chemist 

 possessing all the qualifications suggested by the manu- 

 facturers would be at once a competent mechanical 

 engineer, electrical engineer, architect and surveyor, 

 accountant and book-keeper, draughtsman, patent agent, 

 and lawyer, in addition to being a capable chemist, and 

 he would possess also special personal qualities, including 

 the power of organisation, tact and general business 

 capacity. The committee is strongly inclined to think that 

 it is possible so to direct the post-graduate studies of the 

 young chemist that he may adapt himself to technical 

 jjractice, and thus not only improve his own position, but 

 be better qualified to bear his part in the prevailing struggle 

 of industry. 



The King on April 28 laid the first stone of the new 

 buildings for the Royal College of Science, Ireland, which 

 are situated at Leinster Lawn, Dublin. The ceremony was 

 commenced by the reading of an address by Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, vice-president of the Department of Agriculture 

 and Technical Instruction for Ireland, reviewing the work 

 of the department as a whole, and especially that part of 

 it entrusted to the Royal College of Science for Ireland. 

 Referring to the latter, the address comments on the assist- 

 ance received by the department from local authorities in 

 the work of developing a system of technical instruction 

 throughout Ireland, and points out the national value of 

 a complete system of education. The King, in reply to 

 the address, expressed his pleasure at performing the 

 ceremony, and continued : — " In these days scientific train- 

 ing is an indispensable condition of success in commercial 

 and industrial life. To be thoroughly effective it requires 

 all the help which research and modern appliances can 

 give. You are therefore wise in providing the improved 

 equipment and the widened opportunity for instruction 

 which this college will henceforth supply. You have told 

 me that the efforts of your department to extend scientific 

 education among the people have been supported by popular 

 sympathy, and by the cooperation of representative public 

 bodies. I am glad to receive this assurance ; for without 

 such sympathy and cooperation any scheme of technical 

 instruction, however well devised, must fail to come into 

 dose touch with the life of the people, and must fall short 

 of complete success. I agree with you in thinking that a 

 complete system of education is necessary for the full 

 realisation of your aims ; and my best wishes go with your 

 efforts to improve the intellectual and material conditions 

 of the country." During his Irish visit the King also took 

 another opportunity of emphasising the value of education in 

 assisting the development of a country. At Kilkenny, in 

 reply to addresses from a number of bodies, including the 

 Kilkenny Agricultural Society, His Majesty said : — " I 

 notice with pleasure the earnest efforts which are now being 

 made for the industrial development of Ireland, and 

 especially for the promotion of the agricultural industry, in 

 which I take great practical interest. Agricultural 

 prosperity, in my judgment, depends largely upon improved 

 educational methods, cooperation, and better facilities for 

 distributing produce. I am glad to know that, along these 

 lines, progress is now being made in Ireland." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Linnean Society, April 21. — Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S., 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. Clement Reid exhibited draw- 

 ings by Mrs. Reid of fruits and seeds of British pre-Glacial, 

 inter-Glacial, and Roman plants : 2nd series — Calyciflorae. 

 The most interesting addition to the inter-Glacial flora is 

 the south European Cofoneaster Pyracantha, which occurs 

 abundantly on the Sussex coast in deposits which yield also 

 Acer monspessulanum, Najas minor, and N. graininea. The 

 pre-Glacial Calyciflor;e include Trapa naians, but the rest 

 of the species vet determined are still living in Britain ; 



NO. I 80 1, VOL. 70] 



many, however, need further examination. The plants from 

 Roman Silchester include the vine, buUace, damson, and 

 coriander. — Dr. O. Stapf, on behalf of Mr. W. B. Hemsley, 

 exhibited some specimens of Primula vulgaris, Huds., which 

 displayed the phenomenon of phyllody of the calyx in an 

 unusual degree. 



Physical Society, April 22. — Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — Calculation of colours for 

 colour sensitometers and the illumination of " three-colour " 

 photographic transparencies by spectrum colours : Sir 

 W. de \V. Abney. In three-colour photography, photo- 

 graphs have to be taken through a red, a green, and a blue 

 screen, the transparencies or prints from which are then 

 viewed. The exact shades and hues of these screens depend 

 on the light which is used for viewing the transparencies 

 or on the colours employed in printing. The present paper 

 confines itself to the former case. — Normal piling as con- 

 nected with Osborne Reynolds's theory of the universe : Prof. 

 J. D. Everett. The paper maintains that, in a struggle for 

 existence between different kinds of closest piling, repre- 

 sented by separate clusters with room to change their 

 arrangements, normal piling possesses great advantages, 

 first, in its six sets of lines of spheres, which serve as batter- 

 ing rams, and secondly, in its four sets of tiers in closest 

 array, which facilitate the coalescence of adjacent clusters. 

 — Note on the diffraction theory of the microscope as applied 

 to the case when the object is in motion : Dr. R. T. 

 Glazebrook. According to the Abbe theory of micro- 

 scopic vision, when a grating is placed on the stage of a 

 microscope and illuminated by plane waves, diffraction 

 images are formed in the focal plane of the object-glass 

 and the images in the view-plane result from these, and 

 this is undoubtedly true. It is proved in this paper that 

 the image in the view-plane may change without an alter- 

 ation in the position of the diffracted images. — An " auto- 

 matic gas-pump " was exhibited by Mr. C. E. S. Phillips. 

 The apparatus is constructed upon a plan which enables 

 the pump, when once set in operation, to continue auto- 

 matically and to produce as perfect a Torricellian vacuum 

 as is possible. 



Edinburgh. 

 Royal Society, March 21. — Prof. Flint in the chair. 

 — Dr. J. Erskine Murray exhibited and explained a 

 differentiating machine, by means of which the first deri- 

 vative of a given curve could be traced mechanically. A 

 rod A is pinned at one end to a rectangular frame so as to 

 be capable of revolution in the plane of the frame. A 

 second rod B is retained by guides on the frame so as to 

 be capable of motion only in the direction of its length. 

 A pin in B engages in a longitudinal slot in A, and thus 

 the distance between B and the pin about which A revolves 

 is constant. The displacement of B relatively to the frame 

 is therefore proportional to the tangent of the angle of 

 inclination of A. If the revolving rod A be guided by hand 

 so as to be always tangential to the given curve, a curve 

 the coordinates of which are proportional to the differentials 

 of the original curve is traced out by any point on B. The 

 frame supporting the rods is free to move in direction X 

 at right angles to the rod B. In order to eliminate the 

 y-coordinate of the original curve, the board on which the 

 derived curve is traced is free to move in OY but not in 

 OX. — Dr. J. Halm gave an account of his spectroscopic 

 observations of the rotation of the sun, which had been 

 carried on at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, since 1901. 

 The method employed was essentially that used by Duner, 

 but some simplification and greater steadiness of the 

 apparatus had been secured by the employment of a 

 siderostat and heliometer. The results so far obtained seem 

 to point to a decisive influence of solar activity upon the 

 surface rotation. By arranging the results in two groups, 

 one comprising the observations of 1901— 2, a time of sun- 

 spot minimum, and the other those of 1903, at a period 

 of vigorously renewed solar activity. Dr. Halm obtained 

 undoubted evidence of the existence of systematic differences 

 between these two groups of quite unexpected magnitude. 

 The decrease of angular velocity from the equator towards 

 the poles, as observed in 1901-2, agreed very well with 

 that found by Duner in 1887-9, ^'^o at a time of sun- 

 spot minimum. But the appearance of spots in 1903 was 

 accompanied by an extraordinary increase of angular 



