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NA TURE 



[J my 26, 18S3 



must be forwarded to the permanent secretary as early as 

 possible, accompanied by an abstract of their contents and a 

 statement of the time which they will occupy in delivery. By 

 the kindness of a member, provision will be made for the illus- 

 tration of papers by means of a lantern if the authors bring their 

 slides to the meeting. Altogether the arrangements are very 

 complete, and a cordial welcome will, we doubt not, be given 

 to any foreign members or visitors who are making arrangements 

 to attend this meeting of the American Association. 



The Council of the Yorkshire College announce that the 

 Cavendish Professorship of Physics has been established as a 

 memorial to the first President of the College, the late Lord 

 Frederick Charles Cavendish, M.P. The fund required to 

 endow this chair was 7500/., and 7560/. 13*. has been contri- 

 buted. Prof. Riicker retains the position he has occupied with 

 much distinction from the foundation of the Yorkshire College, 

 as Professor of Physics, but bis title will in future be "Cavendish 

 Professor of Physics." 



Dr. Cargill G. Knott, F.R.S.E., Secretary of the Edin- 

 burgh Mathematical Society, has been recently appointed Pro- 

 fessor of Physics in the Imperial University of Tokio, Japan. 



English chemists may be interested to learn that an election 

 to fill the Chair of Chemistry, including General and Industrial 

 Chemistry, in the University of Virginia, vacint by the resigna- 

 tion of the present incumbent (J. W. Mallet, Ph.D., F.R.S.), 

 will be held by the Board of Visitors of the University of 

 Virginia, on September II, 1883. The salary of the profe sor 

 is 3000 dollars, with a commodious house, rent free. Applica- 

 tions, with testimonials, must be addressed to "The Rector and 

 Visitors," P.O. University of Virginia, Albemarle County, Va. 

 We understand the Chair is open to English competitors. 



We regret to announce the death, at the early age of 

 thirty-seven years, of Mr-. Chaplin Ayrton, the wife of Prof. 

 W. E. Ayrton. Mrs. Ayrton was in many ways a remarkable 

 woman. As Miss Chaplin she was one of the first to take up 

 the practical question of women's professional education, and it 

 is in part due to her exertions that the medical career is now 

 opened to women. Her long struggle, from 1869 to 1873, to 

 obtain the necessary permission to present herself for examina- 

 tion told seriously on her health. In addition to attending all 

 the medical classes open to women in Edinburgh, and gaining 

 honours at all the examinations held in connection with them, 

 Mrs. Chaplin Ayrton studied at the hospitals and the Medical 

 School of Paris, and there took her degree of M. D. in 1S79. Her 

 graduation theses, " Researches on the General Dimensions and 

 on the Development of the Body among the Japanese," is full of 

 valuable scientific experiments. 



The Queen has been pleased to confer Baronetcies upon Dr. 

 Andrew Clark and Mr. Prescott Hewett. 



A Blue-Book just issued contains reports o 1 the miner.; 1 

 wealth of Corea. The explorers found numerous veins of iron, 

 copper, lead, and also some gold. These were worked in the 

 rough native fashion, and it is noticeable that no indications of 

 coal were found. In twenty days' journey ten mines were seen, 

 and many of them, especially those of iron and copper, are said 

 to be of great richness. 



In Nature, vol. xxvi. p. 15, will be found an illustrated 

 description of Negretti and Zambia's patent deep-sea thermo- 

 meter. This firm have now adapted their inverting thermometer 

 for recording variations of atmospheric temperature at any 

 desired interval of time. Twelve of such thermometers are 

 arranged on a suitable frame in connection with a clock, a gal- 

 vanic battery, and a series of small electromagnets in such 

 manner that at every hour the galvanic circuit is completed by 

 the clock, this releasing a detent and allowing one of the ther- 



mometers to reverse and record the temperature at that moment. 

 In the present form of the apparatus twelve thermometers have 

 been mounted to record hourly temperatures ; this period can be 

 easily altered to half hours orles=, or on the other hand to longer 

 intervals, say, of two hours or more. This apparatus differs, it is 

 claimed, from all other registering or rec lrding thermometers in the 

 following important particulars : — I. The thermometers contain 

 only mercury, without any admixture of alcohol or other fluid. 

 2. They have neither indices or springs, the registrations being 

 by the column of mercury itself. 3. These thermometers may 

 be carried in any position, and cannot be disarranged except by 

 actual breakage. 4. They will record exact temperature at any 

 given hour of the day or night. 



The Berlin Academy of Sciences has granted the following 

 amounts from its Humboldt Fund : 5000 marks (250/.) to Dr. 

 Otto Finch, for working at the collection he made during his 

 journey in Polynesia ; 6odo marks (300/.) to Dr. Ed. Arning 

 (Breslau) for researches on th'* leprosy epidemic in the Sandwich 

 Islands ; the same amount to Dr. Paul Giissfeldt to enable him 

 to continue and extend his exploring tour in the Andes of Chili. 



The Anthropological Museum of Leipzig has been presented 

 with an annual grant of 6000 marks (300'.) from the Gras-e Fund 

 by the town authorities. 



The sixty-sixth meeting of the Swiss Natural History Society 

 will take place at Zurich on August 6 to 9 next. 



The German Society of Analytical Chemists met at Berlin on 

 June 16-18 last ; the most important transaction at the meeting 

 was the adoption of certain uniform methods in the analysis of 

 wines. 



The 27th of June la-t seems to have been remarkable for 

 earthquakes in various parts of Europe. At Corfu a violent 

 shock was felt at 11.25 a.m. on that day, and at Darmstad' a 

 moderate shock was observed at II. 18 a.m. At the last locality 

 three other shocks occurred in the night following, and a number 

 of oscillations on June 28 at 11.38 p.m. On July 6 at 3.20 a. 111. 

 Constantinople and its environs were visited by an earthquake. 



In Sardinia phylloxera is ravaging the vineyards to such an 

 extent that the inhabitants are beginning to despair of being able 

 to overcome the plague. 



The half-yearly general meeting of the Scottish Meteorologi- 

 cal Society is to be held i 1 Edinburgh to-day. The business will 

 be — (1) Report from the Council of the Society ; (2) The Meteo- 

 rology of Ben Nevis, by Mr. Alexander Buchan, Secretary. 



W. H. Edwards announces according to Stience, that he 

 will not, at present, complete the synopsis of species commenced 

 in the tenth part of his "Butterflies of Nor;h Americn," but 

 substitute for it a mere list of species, which will be issued with 

 the next (concluding) part of the second series. 



The municipality of Algiers has established a chemical office, 

 on the pattern of the similar Parisian institute, for analysing 

 alimentary substances and discovering adulterations. 



At the last sitting of the French Societe d'Hygiene M. Marie 

 Davy, who was in the chair, gave an account of the results of 

 his analysis of the water of the Seine ; he found that the im- 

 purity is five hundred times greater below Asnieres than at Paris. 



The April number of the Chrysanthemum magazine of Yoko- 

 hama contains a continuation of Capt. Blakiston's notes on 

 Japanese ornithology ; also an article by Mr. Eastlake on the 

 ornithology of Hong Kong, and the continuation of a history of 

 Japanese kerami.s liy Capt. Brinkley. The numerous possessors 

 of pieces of "real old Satsuuia" in England will hear with 

 annoyance from this skilled authority that large quantities of 



