NOVEMBER 5, 1903] 
NATURE 
23 
ments of university scholarship examinations, while pre- 
-paratory schoolmasters must adapt their teaching to the 
competition for entrance scholarships at the secondary 
schools. Our whole system of higher education has got 
into a vicious groove of incessant competition. If the Com- 
mission succeeds in its mission, which is to stir up English- 
men to greater educational endeavour, it will have performed 
a great national service. 
LecTuRING on “‘ The Work and Aims of the London 
University ’’ on Monday evening at the London Institution, 
Sir Arthur Ricker remarked that a modern university had 
to concern itself with teaching, with research, and with 
technology. The London University was bound by its 
statutes to organise, improve, and extend higher education 
within a radius of thirty miles of the university buildings, 
but it started on this great task very sparsely equipped with 
funds. The Government gave a dignified centre in the 
Imperial Institute buildings and 80001. a year, which was 
calculated to supply the actual needs of the university for 
the central staff and for carrying on the examinations, 
leaving the sum of 15001. yearly with which to improve, 
organise, and extend higher education in London and thirty 
miles around. However, the London County Council put 
aside an annual grant of 10,0001. for the university, and 
that had enabled it to start from the first as a teaching 
university. It was essential, in carrying on the work, that 
the efforts of the university should at particular times be 
concentrated on particular objects, and at present three 
schemes had been proposed. The first of these was the 
incorporation of University College, which has offered to 
_ place its whole property at the disposal of the university and 
under its control. In order to carry out this scheme 
200,000l. was needed to make the college ready for incorpor- 
ation. The Drapers’ Company had given 30,o00l. for this 
object, and altogether about 100,000l. had been raised. 
But the scheme was delayed for the want of another like 
amount. The second scheme was connected with the great 
medical schools of London. They were at present hampered 
by the necessity of providing education in subjects such as 
physics and chemistry, which could be equally well taught 
at a distance from a hospital, and they were anxious that 
the university should undertake the whole of that work. 
This proposal would coordinate teaching in London, and a 
beginning could be made if 100,000l. were provided. The 
third scheme was that of a new college of technology pro- 
posed by Lord Rosebery. Large sums had been promised 
by private donors for this purpose, and the County Council 
had promised 20,0001. a year as an endowment if certain 
reasonable conditions were ‘fulfilled. It was understood 
that about 100,000l. more was needed to carry out this plan 
also. Upon the carrying out of these schemes depended, 
among other things, whether the university was to be in 
reality a great teaching body or not. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Physical Society, October 23.—Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 
_F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The bending of magneto- 
meter deflection-bars, by Dr. C. Chree. <A theoretical 
paper contributed to the Society by the present author in 
May, 1901, proved, amongst other results, that the bending 
of the deflection-bar of an ordinary magnetometer, under 
the combined weight of the bar and its load, must increase 
the distance between the deflecting and deflected magnets, 
during a determination of horizontal force, to an extent 
which is not negligible. This conclusion has been borne 
out by direct observations made at the National Physical 
Laboratory on a number of magnetometer-bars, including 
| specimens from the leading makers. The mean results 
thus obtained are recorded in the present paper. In many 
magnetometers the increase in distance due to the bending 
is roughly proportional to the distance itself. In the case 
of bars by the Cambridge Instrument Company, the bend- 
ing increased the distance by almost exactly 1 part in 
10,006 at all distances. It is hoped that the method em- 
ployed will prove useful to magnetic observers who have 
fot ready access to a physical laboratory.—On the mag- 
NO. 1775, VOL. 69] 
netism of basalt and the magnetic behaviour of basaltic 
bars when heated in air, by Dr. G. E. Allan. Bars cut 
from basalt obtained from Rowley Regis and from Linz, 
Germany, were tested by means of a magnetometric method 
to determine their magnetic properties at temperatures 
from 15° to 800° C. Hysteresis curves are given, and the 
temperature-permeability curves show that whilst the 
English basalt has, in general, a maximum permeability 
near 500° C., followed by a minimum about 550° C., the 
temperature of maximum permeability in the case of the 
German basalt lay in the neighbourhood of 50° C., there 
being a subsequent gradual loss of strength with rise of 
temperature. Sections of heated and unheated rocks are 
given, showing evidence of chemical change in some of the 
rock constituents, and a table of values of susceptibility of 
the specimens is appended. 
Royal Microscopical Society, October 21.—Dr. Hy. 
Woodward, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. J. W. 
Gordon exhibited some photomicrographs of Pleurosigma 
angulatum, taken with a 1/14th inch oil immersion objec- 
tive, the magnified image being received on an oscillation 
screen; the image so obtained was further magnified 150 
times by a second microscope placed above the first, the 
arrangement being similar to that exhibited and described 
by Mr. Gordon when he read his paper on the Helmholtz 
theory of the microscope. The photograph was then en- 
larged by the usual process. The source of illumination 
was a pin-hole lighted by a Welsbach burner, but Mr. 
Gordon thought it would be better to use a lime-light for 
the purpose, as the threads of the mantle produced a some- 
what striped effect, which rather impaired the appearance 
of the photograph.—Mr. C. D. Soar exhibited on the 
screen by means of the epidiascope a large number of draw- 
ings of British water mites, one or more species of each 
genus being included in the series. He gave a brief ex- 
planation of the special characters of each species shown. 
—A paper by Mr. F. W. Millett, being part xv. of his re- 
port on the Foraminifera of the Malay Archipelago, was 
taken as read. 
Challenger Society, October 28.—Sir John Murray, 
F.R.S., in the chair—Dr. R. N. Wolfenden read a paper 
on the distribution of the Copepoda as illustrated by his 
cruises from Valentia to the Ferée Banks and in the ‘‘ cold 
area’’ of the Farée Channel. Two species proved to be 
purely epiplanktonic, both in the warm and cold areas, 
twelve were eurythermic and eurybathic, ranging from the 
surface to 700 fathoms in both areas. Forty-seven out of 
sixty-four in the warm Atlantic, and twenty-three out of 
forty-seven species in the cold area, were mesoplanktonic, 
and not met with in the adult condition at less than 200 
fathoms, although some few were epiplanktonic when 
young. No less than thirteen species were captured at 
1000 fathoms. There is evidence that certain forms are 
confined to the bottom, and form part of a true hypo- 
plankton (in the sense in which that word was originally 
introduced) ; mesoplanktonic forms are found among these 
latter.—Dr. E. J. Allen contributed notes on the changes 
observed in the water temperatures and plankton south- 
west of the Eddystone.—Mr. L. A. Borradaile exhibited 
and made remarks on symbiotic crabs from the Maldive 
Islands.—Mr. Bidder showed and explained a new meter 
for bottom currents. 
Paris 
Academy of Sciences, October 27.—M. Albert Gaudry 
in the chair.—On the scintillating phosphorescence pre- 
sented by certain substances under the action of the radium 
rays, by M. Henri Becquerel. By working with the 
radium emanation in a strong magnetic field it was clearly 
proved that it is the @ rays which cause the scintillation, 
this result being in agreement with the suggestion of Sir 
W. Crookes: the phosphorescence excited by the B rays, 
when it is appreciable, masks the effect of the a rays. The 
double sulphate of uranium and potassium is rendered 
phosphorescent by the 8 rays, the platinocyanide of barium 
by both a and B rays, whilst hexagonal blende and diamond 
are especially affected by the a rays, the phenomenon being 
very brilliant with the diamond. The facts observed are 
all in accordance with the hypothesis that the scintillation 
is due to cleavages irregularly provoked on the crystalline 
