563 



could be dispensed with without injury to the rest. They 

 may he laid aside in course of time, one by one as me- 

 chanical ingenuity devises new and better plans to take the lr 

 nhce and to meet the new and larger wants of other genera- 

 tions But as the present age looks back with respect and vene- 

 ration to the creation of those monuments of engineering science 

 of which little more than ruins or even historic records remain, 

 c will the generations which succeed us look on these, our 

 works as worthy, and as having contributed in no small degree 

 to the greater and more general civilisation to which we hope 

 those w^ho follow us may attain. 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 4, 1883 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — The following courses of lectures and practical 

 work have been announced for the present term by the Special 

 Board for Physics and Chemistry :— 



Chemistry. — Prof. Liveing, General Principles ; Prof. Dewar, 

 Physical Chemistry, advanced ; Mr. Main (St. John's), Organic, 

 elementary ; Mr. Pattison Muir (Cains), Organic, advanced ; 

 Metals, elementary j ; Mr. Scott (Univ. Lab.), Physical, ele- 

 mentary ; Mr. Lewis (Downing), catechetical. 



Practical Chemistry.— Prof. Liveing, Spectroscopic Analysis ; 

 Mr. Sell and Mr. Fenton, Quantitative Analysis ; Mr. Robinson, 

 Analysis of Water and Food. The University, St. John's, 

 Caius, and Sidney College Laboratories will be open for prac- 

 tical work. 



Physics. — Lord Rayleigh, Current Electricity and its Practical 

 Applications ; Mr. Trotter (Trinity), Electricity and Magnetism, 

 elementary ; Mr. Atkinson (Trinity Hall), Heat and Hydrosta- 

 tics, elementary ; Mr. Shaw (Emmanuel), Physics, elementary 

 and advanced. Practical work at the Cavendish Laboratory, 

 with advanced demonstrations. \ 



Mineralogy and Crystallography. — Prof. Lewis, with practical 

 demonstrations. 



Mechanism.— Prof. Stuart, with practical work at the mechan- 

 ical workshop. 



The Special Board for Biology and Geology have published 

 the following list of lectures for this term : — 



Physiology. — Prof. Foster, elementary ; Mr. Lea (Caius), 

 Chemical Physiology, advanced; Mr. Langley, Physiology, 

 advanced ; Mr. Hill (Downing), second M.B. class. 



Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, and Animal Morphology. 

 — Prof. Newton will lecture on Evolution in the Animal King- 

 dom ; Mr. Sedgwick, Practical Morphology, elementary and 

 advanced ; Dr. Hans Gadow, Morphology of Ichthyopsida, 

 advanced. 



Botany.— Dr. Vines (Christ's College), General Elementary 

 Course, and Advanced Physiology. 



Geology.— Prof. Hughes, Geology of France, Switzerland, 

 and Italy ; and Pleistocene Geology, with special reference to 

 Prehistoric Archaeology ; Dr. R. D. Roberts (Clare College), 

 Physiography and Class Work ; Palaeontology and Petrology by 

 a Demonstrator ; and Field Lectures, by special notice. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Sydney 

 Royal Society of New South Wales, June 6. — Charles 

 Moore, F.L. S., vice-president, in the chair. — Two new members 

 were elected, and 156 donations received. The following paper 

 by Mr. Peter Beveridge was read : — On the aborigines in- 

 habiting the great lacustrine and riverine depression of the Lower 

 Murray, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower Lachlan, and Lower 

 Darling. 



Paris 



Academy of Sciences, September 24. — M. Blanchard, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The death was announced of M. Joseph 

 A. F. Plateau, Correspondent of the Section of Physics, who 

 died at Ghent on September 15. A summary of the scientific 

 work of the illustrious savant was given by M. Faye. — The death 

 was also reported of M. Thuillier, a member of the Egyptian 

 Cholera Commission, who fell a victim to the disease at Alexan- 

 dria on September 19. — Note on solar spectra, with the results 

 obtained with the mineral salt refringent apparatus described in 

 the Compies Rendus of September 4, 1882. — Remarks by M. 

 Gaudry on some specimens of extinct Siberian mammoths ob- 



tained by him during a recent visit to Russia, and now sub 

 milted to the Academy. The specimens consisted of some 

 hair mixed with wool and a piece of skin taken from the 

 mammoth brought to St. Petersburg by M. de Maydell in 1871. 

 —On a new and more general case of the problem of the resist- 

 ance of an elastic rod, and one of its applications, byM. Maurice 

 L ev y —On the action of the turbine used to set in motion the 

 electric generator at Vozille-Gare, by M. Marcel Deprez.— Ad- 

 ditional note on the probable epochs of earthquakes, by M. J. 

 Delauney. The author replies to the objections recently urged 

 against his theory by M. Faye, and formulates the following 

 l™ Most cosmic and terrestrial meteorological pheno- 

 mena and especially the great seismic disturbances, seem 

 to occur when the great planets pass through certain 

 longitudes, notably those of 135° ^nd 26 5°> or thereabouts. 

 —Observations on the small planets 159, 199, 218, and on the 

 Pons-Brooks Comet, made at the Paris Observatory (equa- 

 torial of the West Tower), by M. G. Bigourdan— Observations on 

 the planet 113 Amalthsa, by M. Perigaud.— On the induction 

 due to the variation in intensity of the electric current in a plane 

 circuit and in a cylindrical solenoid. Two laws analogous to 

 those of Biot and Savart, by M. Quet. - Researches on the dis- 

 persion of light, by M. C. E. de Klercker.-On the distribution 

 of the potential in liqaid masses of determined form, by M. A. 

 Chervet Two cases are dealt with : {a) that of a rectangular 

 plate of indefinite length ; (6) that of a liquid mass hunted by 

 two vertical parallel planes.— Terrestrial magnetic ; solution ot 

 the problem of the determination of the magnetic meridian by the 

 compass itself on board iron ships, by M. E. Bisson.— On the 

 composition of the substance known as gelatino-peptone, which 

 is obtained by the action of the gastric juice on gelatine, by M. 

 P Tatarinoff.— Fresh observations on ihe tubercules and roots 

 of Phylloglossiim Drnmmoiidii{,)s.\mze),\iy M. C. Eg. Bert rand. 

 —On the influence of external pressure on the absorption of 

 water by roots, memoir by M. J. Vesque. 



CONTENTS Page 



Physiological Cruelty. By George J. Romanes, 



F.R.S 537 



Our Book Shelf:— 



" The Transactions of the New Zealand Institute " . 538 



Munro's " Electricity and its Uses" 53 8 



Letters to the Editor :— 



Professor Henrici's Address at Southport.— Prof. O. 



Henrici, F.R.S 539 



The New Comet.— J. Rand Capron . . . . . 539 

 The Genus " Simotes " of Snakes.— Henry O. 



Forbes 539 



Floating Pumice.— Henry O. Forbes 539 



"Elevation and Subsidence."— Charles Ricketts ; 



Jas. Durham 539 



Photography and Still Life.— Arthur R. Hunt . . 540 



Animal Intelligence.— Dr. Henry MacCormac . . 541 



Meteor.— C. Fortescue 54« 



A Remarkable Rainbow. — L. C 54 1 



Professor Cayley. — R. T 54 1 



The Nordenskjbld Greenland Expedition .... 541 

 The Present Condition of Fish Culture. By R. 



Edward Earll 542 



Notes 544 



Our Astronomical Column : — 



The Reappearance of Pons' Comet of 181 2 . ... 546 



A New Comet 54<> 



M. Trouvelot's Red Star 54° 



Geographical Notes 54^ 



The British Association : — 



Reports 547 



Section B— Chemical Science . 550 



Section E— Geography— Opening Address by Lieut. - 



Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.S., 



F.G.S., F.R.G.S , &c, President of the Section 552 



Section G — Mechanical Science — Opening Address by 



James Brunlees, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Pres. 



Inst.C.E., President of the Section 55 8 



University and Educational Intelligence .... 560 



Societies and Academies 5 6 ° 



