258 
matics. The Government of India has made a liberal 
grant for the acquisition of a site, and plans have 
been nearly completed for further extension of the 
University buildings. When the new buildings are 
erected, there will be ample accommodation for the 
purposes of instruction, and, it will be possible to 
accommodate on the premises at least two hundred 
post-graduate students. 
Tue calendar for the session 1913-14 of the North 
of Scotland College of Agriculture has reached us. 
The classes of the college are held in the University 
of Aberdeen, except the class in agricultural engineer- 
ing, which is held in Robert Gordon’s Technical Col- 
lege, Aberdeen. The courses of instruction provided 
are arranged for the benefit of every section of the 
agricultural community. Persons who can attend the 
college only for four consecutive weeks in winter will 
find a short practical course extending over four 
weeks and including lectures on such subjects as 
feeding-stuffs, live-stock, diseases of animals, and so 
on. The full lectures on agriculture and agricultural 
chemistry extend over three years, but the complete 
course is modified in a variety of ways to meet par- 
ticular needs and to enable students to secure the 
college diploma or the national diploma in agriculture. 
There is a special department of forestry, and for 
practical work, through the liberality of several landed 
proprietors, excellent facilities are afforded. The close 
proximity to Aberdeen of large wooded areas places it 
in an advantageous position for the teaching of 
forestry. Farmers residing within the college area 
are entitled to receive advice and assistance from 
members of the college staff free of charge. There 
is, also, a carefully arranged scheme of county exten- 
sion work under the superintendence of a general 
county organiser. 
TuE calendar of the University of Sheffield for the 
session 1913-14, a copy of which has been received, 
provides striking evidence of the successful efforts 
which provincial universities are making to keep in 
close touch with the varied actvities of the districts 
they serve. Not only does the University of Sheffield 
train students who desire to follow the usual academic 
courses which culminate in degrees in arts, pure 
science, medicine, law, and so on, but it provides also 
graduated instruction in such applied sciences as 
engineering, metallurgy, and mining, and awards 
degrees in these branches of technology to students 
who at the end of the training comply with the 
reasonable regulations specified in the calendar. To 
meet the special needs of students whose circum- 
stances make it impossible for them to devote the 
time necessary for complying with the conditions for 
degrees, associateship and diploma courses have been 
arranged. The mining department of the University 
carries out a system of extension lectures in technical 
science in the West Riding of Yorkshire; a works 
pupils’ certificate course has been arranged by the 
University in consultation with the Sheffield Master 
Builders’ Association to meet the requirements of 
students who are working with the object of becom- 
ing master builders; a diploma course in domestic 
science has been inaugurated; and in other ways the 
University is assisting the higher education of Sheffield 
workers. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, October 13.—M. F. Guyon in 
the chair.—Paul Marchal: The acclimatisation of 
Novius cardinalis in France. In 1912 Icerya purchasi 
was accidentally introduced into France, at Cap Fer- 
rat, and caused great damage. This plant pest has 
NO. 2295, VOL. 92] 
NATURE 
[OcToBER 23, 1913 
been successfully fought in California and elsewhere 
by the introduction of its natural enemy, Novius car- 
dinalis, and steps were taken to acclimatise this at 
Cap Ferrat. The results were*completely successful, 
the Icerya being rapidly exterminated.—Charles 
Depéret: The fluvial and glacial history of the Rhéne 
valley in the neighbourhood of Lyons. Evidence is — 
given that there were three glacial invasions of this — 
| region and not two, as currently held, leading to the 
formation of three fluvio-glacial terraces.—Leopold 
Fejér: Trigonometric polynomials.—Michel Fekete; 4 
property of the roots of the arithmetical means of a — 
real integral series ——N. Gunther: The cononical form — 
of algebraical equations.—M. Tomassetti and J. S. 
Zarlatti: The problem of two bodies of variable 
masses.—Thadée Peczalski: Relations between the co- 
efficients of expansion and the thermodynamical 
coefficients.—France Giraud ; Certain reactions depend- 
ing on reply currents.—R. Dongier and C. E. Brazier ; 
The sound effect produced at the contact of a metallic 
point and the surface of a crystal or a metal by the 
passage of an alternating current. A faint musical 
note was first noted in a galena detector at the Eiffel 
Tower. Means have been found to reinforce this note 
so that wireless signals can be heard at a distance 
of 22 metres from the apparatus.—Ch. Gravier; An 
automatic method of developing photographic plates. 
--B. A. Dima: The photo-electric effect of metallic 
compounds. The photo-electric effect of analogous 
compounds of the same metal depends on the valency 
of the metal in those compounds. The four oxides 
of manganese offer a clear example of this.——Yugi 
Shibata and G. Urbain: The spectrochemistry of the 
complex cobalt compounds. A study of the absorption 
bands in the visible and ultra-violet spectra of solu- 
tions of complex cobalt salts——M. Taffanel and Le 
Floch: The combustion of gaseous mixtures. Mix- 
tures of methane and air were heated to various tem- 
peratures between 535° C. and 640° C., and the rates 
of combustion measured. These results are extra- 
polated to evaluate the inflammation temperatures of 
these mixtures.—P. Lemoult: Leucobases and colour- 
ing matters of diphenylethylene. The first stage of 
oxidation of the cyclohexylidenic leucobase, 
E.H,,.=C.[EH,N(CH,)31: 
Tetrahydro-malachite green.—C. Gerber and P. 
Flourens; The trypsin of Calotropis procera and the 
poison which accompanies it. The latex contains a 
proteolytic ferment very resistant to heat, and most 
active in alkaline or neutral media. It coagulates 
milk and digests casein and fibrin. Injected sub- 
cutaneously it is rapidly fatal to some animals (guinea- 
pig, pigeon), whilst in others it produces only local 
troubles (white rat, rabbit). Separation of the trypsin 
and the toxic substance has not been effected.—A. 
Gouvel: The genus Palinurus in Madagascar,—A. 
Brachet : The inhibiting action of the sperm of Sabel- 
laria alveolata on the formation of the membrane of 
fertilisation of the egg of Paracentrotus lividus.—A. 
Paillot: Parasitic coccobacilli of insects.—Sabba 
Stefanescu: The structure of the crown of the 
elephant’s molars.—Michel Longchambon ; The breccia 
of the marmorean complex: conclusions which may 
be drawn concerning the age and the localisation of 
lherzolite.—Francois Picavet: The commemoration of 
Roger Bacon in 1914. It is proposed to publish a 
complete edition of Roger Bacon’s works. 
Care Town. : 
Royal Society of South Africa, September 17.—The 
president in the chair—W. A. Jolly: The interpreta- 
tion of the electrocardiogram. The interpretation of 
the electrocardiogram has remained doubtful, notwith- 
standing the large amount of work that has been 
