NOVEMBER 12, 1903] 
NATURE 
47 
done more than Lord Derby to further the movement for 
the establishment of the university. Lord Derby, on 
accepting the charter, said they could now hope that the 
new university would become the centre of learning of a 
great, active, industrious, and well-employed population. 
Sir Oliver Lodge, who took part in the proceedings, re- 
marked in the course of a speech that something substantial 
must be done for higher education. Hitherto the country 
had been content to leave this to private munificence, and 
private munificence had done well, but unaided it was un- 
equal to the burden. He trusted it was not impolitic for 
him to say, without regard to party questions, that he 
regretted that a registration duty which was doing no 
harm, and was hardly a subject of controversy, should have 
been flippantly thrown away when no longer needed for the 
Exchequer, instead of being ear-marked for higher educa- 
tion. That amount would have been sufficient to put the 
education of the country on a sound, thorough, and, indeed, 
magnificent basis, and would have enabled them to hold up 
their heads once more amongst the educated nations of the 
world. Referring to local support, Sir Oliver Lodge ex- 
pressed the hope that whatever aid was given by the munici- 
pality, they would not abolish fees. It was only just, right, 
and natural that those who specially utilised the institution 
should make special contributions to it, but by all means 
they ought to provide scholarships for unmoneyed ability. 
His advice was that the scholarships should be provided 
as little as possible on the basis of competitive examination 
and as much as possible on the basis of nomination from 
schools and institutions to which the scholarships were 
assigned. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Lonpon. 
Royal Society, June 18.—‘‘ On the Magnetic Expansion of 
the Less Magnetic Metals.”” By P. E. Shaw, B.A., D.Sc. 
Communicated by Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S. 
Research has been made by various observers, notably 
Nagaoka and S. Bidwell, on the relation between field (H) | 
and expansion per unit length (6//l) resulting from that 
field of the metals iron, nickel and cobalt. Bismuth also 
has been tested, but the consensus of opinion is that at 
shows no expansion under any field so far applied to it. 
Outside the ferromagnetic group bismuth has the largest 
susceptibility (k) of any substance, and the tacit assump- 
tion seems to have been made that if bismuth shows no 
expansion, it is vain to look for it in less susceptible 
metals. But there is no direct relation between k and 
61/1; iron has maximum k six times as much as nickel, and 
yet expands far less than it for any known field, and so on. 
It seems possible, therefore, that there may be appreciable 
movement for large fields in the case of metals other than 
the ferromagnetics. This paper gives an account of tests 
‘applied to specimens of bismuth, silver, aluminium, copper, 
zinc, brass, bronze, lead and tin. It is very difficult in 
working with large fields to avoid movements due to in- 
duction and attraction of iron (if any) in the apparatus, or 
to solenoidal suction or to a straining of the magnetising 
coil to set itself in the earth’s field. These movements are 
small, but the apparatus is very sensitive, as it measures 
any movement more than 4X10-° of the length of the 
specimen (19 cm.). The measuring instrument was the 
electric micrometer. By great care and repeated change 
in the arrangement these sources of error were eliminated, 
and it was found that no movement (more than the amount 
stated), positive or negative, occurs for any field up to the 
large one of 1900 C.G.S. No previous tests have been 
applied to any of these metals except bismuth. Bidwell has 
tested this metal with a field of 1500 C.G.S., and with a 
measuring apparatus which would show a movement of 
I-4X10—* of the length of the specimen, yet no movement 
‘was found. No other test has been so searching as the 
above. This definite negative conclusion involves two 
corollaries. (a) It is generally supposed that the small 
impurity of iron occurring in commercial pure metals would 
produce expansion on its own account which would mask 
any small expansion of the metal, but these experiments 
show no. such expansion, and do not confirm the simple | 
P  aNG. 1770, VOLS 66] 
superposition theory. (b) The Maxwell strain B?/8%M 
cannot exist in the material rods tried, or it would have 
been easily detected, so we have fresh evidence that there 
is no mechanical connection, unless an extremely weak one, 
between matter and ether. 
A note is appended to the paper in which Mr. G. A. 
Schott calculates the correction factor which must be applied 
to the ordinary expression for field H=4zny, when the field 
is taken over the whole length of the coil used. 
Royal Society.—‘‘The Maximum Order of an Irre- 
ducible Covariant of a System of Binary Forms.’’ By 
A. Young. Communicated by Major P. A. MacMahon, 
D.Sc., F.R.S. Received September 26. 
CaMBRIDGE. 
Philosophical Society, October 26.—Dr. Baker, presi- 
dent, in the chair—On nutrition and sex determination in 
man, by Mr. R. C. Punnett. Making use mainly of the 
London census of 1901, the author showed that if the various 
boroughs were divided into three groups of increasing 
poverty, the proportion of male to female births was least 
in the poorest and greatest in the wealthiest of these groups 
—in other words, the better the nutrition the greater the 
proportion of male births. It was. shown, however, that 
there are certain factors, e.g. infant mortality, birth rate, 
and marriage age, which influence the above three groups 
unequally. When allowance is made’ for these factors it is 
likely that the proportion of the sexes produced in each 
group would be nearly identical, from which was inferred 
the improbability of different conditions of. nutrition affect- 
ing sex determination in man.—Note on the action of 
radium rays and light on mercurous sulphate, by Mr. S. 
Skinner.—Note on the pulverisation of nickel grains in 
fuming nitric acid, by Dr. W. A. Hollis.—On the specific 
heat of gaseous carbon dioxide at high pressures under 
constant volume, by Mr, W. A. D. Rudge.—On some 
minerals from the Binnenthal, Switzerland, by Mr. R. H. 
Solly.—(1) The theory of the multiple gamma function; 
(2) the asymptotic expansion of integral functions of 
multiple linear sequence, by. the Rev. E. W. Barnes.—The 
expression of the double zeta function and double gamma 
function in terms of elliptic functions, by Mr. G. H. Hardy. 
—On the kinetic theory of matter, by Mr. H. C. 
Pocklington. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, November 2,—M. Albert Gaudry 
in the chair.—On the non-regeneration of the spheridia in 
the sea-urchin, by M. Yves Delage. The experimental 
results described are in opposition to the hypothesis that 
the spheridia are the organs of equilibrium, since the re- 
moval of them does not permanently affect the powers of 
locomotion. Immediately after the removal of the spheridia 
the sea-urchins turn with more difficulty, but after some 
time it is impossible to distinguish them from others in this 
respect. This is not due to the regeneration of the spheridia, 
as there is no sign of them reappearing, three months after 
the operation.—Remarks on a communication of M. Raphael 
Dubois of October 19 last, by M. Edm. Perrier. Filippi 
was the first to state in 1852 that pearls were due to the 
presence of a parasite in the oyster, but his views were 
strongly contested. The results of the experiments of 
M. R. Dubois support this theory, and further confirmation 
is supplied from the laboratory of Rikitea.—Note by M. 
Appell on the second volume of his ‘‘ Traité de Mécanique 
rationnelle.’-—On new effects produced by the N-rays ; 
generalisation of the phenomena originally observed, by 
M. R. Blondiot. The n-rays are rays given off by various 
sources of light, capable of passing through an aluminium 
screen, and recognisable by their action upon a small 
electric spark or upon a feebly phosphorescent screen. It 
has now been found that these rays cause a slight but 
distinct increase in the luminosity of a feebly illuminated 
paper screen, and this effect is retained by the rays after 
reflection at a polished metallic surface.——On the virtual 
sugar of the blood, by MM. R. Lépine and Boulud. The 
carbohydrate present in the blood, measured by its reducing 
power and expressed as glucose, is frequently more abundant 
in the blood from the right ventricle than in arterial blood, 
and this contains more than blood from the veins.—The 
influence of mineral food upon the production of the sexes 
in diceceous plants, by M. Emile Laurent.—On left-handed 
