i iS 



NA TURE 



[May 31, 1883 



tion, and can be made more or less sensitive. It is impossible 

 from a mere description to form any conception of the efficiency 

 of the apparatus, nor has it been tried by any earthquake, but 

 the instrument before you having been erected on the gable of a 

 dwelling house during the past year, repeatedly registered the 

 shaking of the gable to the amount of l-i6th of an inch. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — The Museums and Lecture Rooms Syndicate 

 have just issued their annual report, in whic'i they mention the 

 high value of the present of the late Prof. Balfour's scientific 

 instruments and library to the University by his family, and 

 again emphasise the necessity existing for a new chemical labora- 

 tory. Mr. Clark records the mounting of the fine male Indian 

 elephant's skeleton in the Zoological Museum, received in an 

 exceedingly complete state last year in consequence of its careful 

 preparation by Mr. A. Haly of the Colombo Museum. The 

 animal w as shot by Mr. Le Mesurier of the Ceylon Civil Ser- 

 vice ; its height was nine feet. A spec : ally interesting skeleton 

 of the adult Gangetic Dolphin has been presented by Sir J. 

 Fayrer. Mr. A. P. Maudslay, M.A., of Trinity Hall, has 

 deposited in Mr. Clark's care a large portion of his ethnological 

 collection made in Fiji and adjacent islands ; these are almost 

 certain to be presented to the University at no distant date. The 

 Curator in Zo >logy (Mr. A. II. Cooke) has catalogued and 

 arranged the British species in the MacAndrew collection. Its 

 completeness may be judged by the facts that of 6 recorded 

 species of Brachiopnda this contains 5 ; of 159 marine Con- 

 ehifera this contains 146 ; of 248 marine Gasteropoda this con- 

 tains 208; of 125 land and freshwater shells this contains 114 

 A recent appeal to add missing species has already resulted in 

 the presentation of fourteen species by Mr. J. T. Marshall. 



Dr. Michael Foster reports an average class of about ico in 

 Elementary Physiology, and of over 20 in advanced Physiology, 

 in the three terms of the past year. Additional lecture room 

 accommodation is much needed for these larLje classes. 



The morphological work begun by the late Prof. Balfour has 

 been continued on the same lines by Mr. Adam Sedgwick, Mr. 

 W. H. Caldwell and Dr. Hans Uadow as lecturers, and Mr. 

 Walter Heape and Mr. W. V. K. Weldon a~ demonstrators. 

 In the Lent Term of this year 63 students attended the elemen- 

 tary class, and 26 ihe advanced clashes. Five students have 

 been engaged in original work. Mr. A. J. Balfour, M.P., has 

 offered to give annually a sum sufficient to defray the cost of the 

 complete series of scientific journals taken in by his late brother. 



Dr. Vines has carried on practical instruction in Vegetable 

 Anatomy and Physiology under considerable difficulties owing to 

 the small space available; he has had to repeat all the work 

 four times. The numbers attending his practical classes in the 

 Michaelmas Term, 1882, were 19; in the Lent Term, 1883, 37 ; 

 in the present Easier Term, 35. 



Prof. Hughes reports that the whole of the geological library, 

 consisting of 800 volumes and 1000 pamphlets, of the late Mr. 

 E. B. Tawney, have been liberally presented to the Wood- 

 wardian Museum by his brother, Mr. C. H. Tawney, late 

 Fellow of Trinity College. Opportunity has been taken in the 

 past year to largely improve the foreign Tertiary collections in 

 the museum. 



Prof. Stuart reports the addition of a number of machines 

 and a large development of his classes ; a foundry begun as an 

 experiment has proved one of the most successful parts of his 

 undertaking. 



The Philosophical Library in the new Museums has been 

 largely increased by the valuable presents made by the family of 

 the late Prof. Balfour, by Mr. J. W. Clark, by Prof. Darwin, 

 Prof. Humphry, Prof. Newton, and others. 



It has been recommended by the Special Board for History 

 and Archaeology that a separate Board be created for Archaeology, 

 distinct from that of History. This has been concurred in by 

 the General Board of Studies. 



The Botanic Garden Syndicate have reported many improve- 

 ments in the collections of trees, of rock vegetation, and in the 

 Plant Houses. The largest specimens in the Palm House have 

 been safely lowered to about 24 feet below the ground level. All 

 the genera of carnivorous plants in cultivation and most of the 

 species are now in the collection. Vitis gongylodes has been 

 flowered for the first time in this country. The Curator, Mr. 

 Lynch, was deputed to visit the Botanic Gardens at Dublin, 



Manchester, and Liverpool, and has also visited Cbatsworth with 

 the result that much valuable information has been obtained in 

 all departments of management and cultivation, and many im- 

 portant exchanges have been made. 



The Adams Prize, for a general investigation of the action 

 upon each other of two closed vortices in a perfect, incompressible 

 fluid, has been awarded to Mr. J. J. Thomson, M.A., Fellow of 

 Trinity College. 



Messrs. W. H. Besant and E. J. Routh are the first to be 

 notified as " approved by the general Board of Studies for the 

 Degree of Doctor in Science." 



Candidates for the Professorships of Physiology and Anatomy 

 are requested to send their names to the Vice-Chancellor on or 

 before |une 7. 



The Institute of Agriculture, South Kensington, will give an 

 extended series of lectures next winter, beginning on October I. 

 The following courses are arranged for : — Mr. Bernard Dyer, 

 Chemistry in Relation to the Soil ; Mr. F. Cheshire, Practical 

 Course on the Use of the Microscope (these two courses to be 

 delivered in the Lecture Theatre of the Museum of Geology, 

 Jermyn Street). The next series will be given in the Lecture 

 Room of the Natural Hi-tory Museum, South Kensington : Mr. 

 Bettany, Vegetable Physiology ; Mr. Worthington Smith, 

 Diseases of Farm Crops; Prof. J. W. Axe, Animal Physiology 

 in Relation to Farm Stock ; Miss E. A. Ormerod, Farm In ects ; 

 Mr. \V. Topley, Geology and Physical Geography in Relation 

 to Agriculture. The remaining courses will be given in the 

 Lecture Theatre 1 f the South Kensington Museum : Prof. Tuson, 

 the Chemistry of the Food of Farm Stock ; Prof. Buckman, 

 Farm Seeds; Prof. Tanner, Agiiculture; Mr. R. Holland, 

 Management of Grass Land ; Mr. Gilbert Murray, Breeding and 

 Management of Llorses ; Mr. W. Housman, Cattle ; Mr. H. 

 Woods, and Mr. J. A. Clarke, Sheep; Prof. J. W. Axe, 

 Preventable Diseases of Farm Stock; Farm Implements and 

 Machinery, Mr. W. R. Bousfield and Mr. W. W. Beaumont. 

 A distinct course of lectures will be given on Poultry, I 'airy, 

 and Bee Management. The arrangements made enable students 

 to give their undivided attention to one subject at a time, two 

 lectures being given daily till the subject is c nupleted. The fees 

 being at the rate of half a guinea for each week's course of ten 

 lectures, and any student being allowed to attend a single course, 

 the greatest facility exists for persons choosing 1 heir work accord- 

 ing to their needs or convenience. Thus it is believed, after the 

 success of the tentative courses of the past winter, that many 

 sons of tenant farmers will find this a most valuable and available 

 mode of acquiring an agricultural education. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The American Naturalist for March, 1883, contains : — On 

 the extinct dogs of North 'America, by E. D. Cope. — On the 

 plains of Michigan, by V. M. Spalding. — Organic physics, by 

 Charles Morris. — Indian music, by E. A. Barber. — On the 

 occurrence of fossiiiferous strata in the lower Ponent (Catskill) 

 group of Middle Pennsylvania, by E. W. Claypole. — Pitcher 

 plants, by Joseph F. James. 



April, 1833, contains ; — The Naturalist Brazilian Expedition, 

 No. I, from Rio de Janeiro to Porto Alegre, by H. S. Smith. — 

 Unnatural attachments among animals, by J. D. Caton. — But- 

 terfly hunting in the de-ert, by W. G. Wright — The extinct 

 Rodentia of North America, by E. D. Cope. — Hetero enetic 

 development in Diaptomus, by C. L. Herrick. — A study of the 

 immature plumage of the North American shrikes to show their 

 descent from a common progenitor, by Thos. H. Streets. 



May, 1883, contains : — Wampum and its history, by E. Inger- 

 soll. — The Naturalist Brazilian Expedition, No. 2, by H. S. 

 Smiih. — The Polar organisation of animals, by C. Morris. — On 

 the classification of moths, by A. R. Grote. — Heterogenetic 

 development of Diaptomus, by C. L. Herrick. — On the mor- 

 phology of arteries, especially those of the limbs, by F. Baker. 

 — The hairy woodpecker, by A. G. Van Aken. 



Archives Italiennes de Biologic, tome ii. rase. 2, November 30, 

 1S82, contains among the original articles the following : — On 

 the minute anatomy of the muscles which move the v. ings of 

 insects, by G. V. Ciaccio. — On the structure of striated muscular 

 fibre in some vertebrates. — On the development and the morpho- 

 logy of the kidney of osseous fish, by C. Emery. — On the sub- 

 stance preventing the coagulation of the blood and lymph whilst 

 these contain peptone, by Jules Fano. — On the germs and lower 



