i6: 



NA Tl T RIi 



[Dec. iS, 1884 



But the chief aim of the science-art classes will be to encourage 

 a pursuit of scientific truth for its own sake, not for the sake of 

 displaying talent in making beautiful drawings to be praised for 

 them, nor for the money to be got for them when drawn, but, 

 simply and only, for the sake of the truth, which will yield us 

 pure and incessant pleasure all our lives, and engender a sincere 

 reverence for the Creator who has clothed his truths in wrappages 

 of beautiful blossoms, and pure crystals, and opalescent clouds ; in 

 wrappages, too, which appear mean and even ugly, but they are 

 wrappages only ; even sin — that, too, is a wrappage, and looks 

 very ugly, and is very revolting, but it covers some good, some 

 truth which lies hid in every human heart, if we will only seek 

 to find it. 



There is a vast amount of real art-power unutilised, and so 

 wasted, in our public schools, through narrowness of purpose in 

 the teaching. It has been so amongst ourselves, though what 

 we have done we have done thoroughly. We have laid a sound 

 foundation in close observation of beautiful form and acquisition 

 of technical power in representing it. In adding to it these 

 nature-drawing classes, we have nothing to unteach. The field 

 of work is simply widened that the power may be the more 

 effectually utilised with more pleasure and with greater profit to 

 the student, not only while at school, but as a pursuit in after 

 life, and possibly drawing many from pleasures which are ugly, 

 coarse, bad, and Heeling. This is a view of nature-drawing which 

 parents might think about not without profit to their children. 

 The pursuit of scientific truth, whether in the shape of landscape- 

 art or of science-art, is a very noble pursuit, a very lasting 

 pleasure ; besides which science and art cannot fail to be 

 mutually benefited, mutually advanced, in the long run, by such 

 a conjunction as this, for indeed art loses her right hand when 

 divorced from science, and science loses her right hand when 

 divorced from art. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — The following have been elected to the General 

 Board of Studies : — Mr. II. M. Taylor, by the Special Board 

 for Mathematics ; Prof. Liveing, by the Special Board for 

 Physics and Chemistry ; Dr. Vines, by the Special Board for 

 Biology and Geology. 



The election to the Cavendish Professorship of Experimental 

 Physics will take place on December 22. The endowment of 

 the professorship is 850/. a year. 



The provision of 100 additional microscopes for the Biology 

 Schools has been sanctioned, and a small charge will be made 

 to students for their use. 



Mr. C. T. Heycock, of King's College, has been approved 

 as a Teacher of Chemistry, under the regulations for medical 

 study. 



The Syndicate for obtaining plans for a Geological Museum 

 and Chemical Laboratory has been re-appointed. 



Clare College offers to give scholarships of from 40/. to 60/. 

 for Natural Science by examination, beginning March 19 next. 

 The subjects will be'Chemistry and Chemical Physics, Botany 

 and Geology. A fortnight's notice will be required. Candi- 

 dates, who must be under nineteen on the day of examination, 

 nm t .1! - pass in Elementary Latin, Greek, and Mathematics. 



It is announced that in the next Fellowship election at St. 

 John's College (November 2, 1885) regard will be paid to 

 candidates' original dissertations or other writings, the candidates 

 to be prepared to be examined in the subject-matter of the same. 

 Candidates may also be examined in special subjects chosen by 

 themselves, provided they give full and precise information re- 

 garding such subjects not later than June 1. The performance 

 of the candidates in the University and other examinations will 

 be regarded. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Journal d; Physique, October 1SS4. — The constitution and 

 origin of group B in the solar spectrum, by M. L. Thollon (one 

 plate).— On the colour of water, by M. J. L. Soret. — The effect 

 of the electrical state of the surface of a liquid on the maximum 

 vapour-tension of the liquid in contact with the surface, by M. 

 R. Blondlot (one figure). — On the measurement of the maxima 

 and minima electromotive forces in cells with a single electro- 

 lyte, by M. Emile Reynier (two figures). — Standard cell for the 



measurement of electromotive forces, by M. Emile Reynier. — 

 On the chemical theory of accumulators, by M. Emile Reynier. 

 — On the electrolysis of solid glass, by E. Warburg. 



Journal of the Russian Pays ico- Chemical Society (Physical 

 Section), vol. xv., 1SS3. — On an air-calorimeter, by N. Hesehus. 

 — On a differential air-calorimeter, by \V. Preobragenski. — On 

 the critical temperature of isomerides and bodies belonging to 

 the same homologous series, by A. Nadejdine. — New applica- 

 tion of Carnot's theorem, by B. Sresnewsky. — On an algebraic 

 transformation and its applications to mathematical physics, by 

 by N. Slouguinoff. — On the focal properties of diffracted rays, 

 by M. Mertching. — On the peculiar properties of caoutchouc, 

 by N. Hesehus. — Method of determining the mean tint of a 

 multi-coloured surface, by Th. Petronchewsky. — On the cause 

 and the law of the change of electrical resistance of selenium by 

 the action of light, by N. Hesehu-. — On the relation between 

 the magnetic moment of a bundle of iron wire, its mass, and 

 the diameter of the constituent wires, by P. Bakmetieff. — Note 

 on organ-pipes, by P. Bakmetieff. — On some phenomena of 

 permanent magnetism, by P. Bakmetieff. — On the luminous 

 phenomena accompanying electrolysis, by N. Slouguinoff. — On 

 the theory of gratings traced on curved surfaces. 



Royal Academy of Belgium, X. -. 9 and 10, 1SS4. — Among 

 other communications is a paper by Dr. J. MacLeod describing 

 some interesting particulars respecting the structure and homo- 

 logies of the anterior intestine of the Arachnidcs. In the 

 Phalangites he has found a gland of the same nature and 

 function as the coxa] glands recently described by Prof. E. Ray 

 Lankester as belonging to the Limules, the Scorp amides, and the 

 Araneides tctrapneumoncs. In the culs-de-sac, moreover, of the 

 male gland of the Trombidium holosericeum, he has found, in all 

 the individuals examined by him, ovules situated between the 

 mother-cellules of the spermatozoides, though there was no 

 question there of a functional hermaphroditism. — A paper by 

 Emile de Borchgrave gives a graphic sketch of the history of 

 Etienne Douchan, Emperor of Servia, and the Balkan Peninsula 

 in the fourteenth century, and of the events which led up to the 

 battle of Kossovo, the grave of the liberty and greatness of 

 Servia. 



Cincinnati Society of Natural History. — In the October 

 Journal are two papers by U. P. James : one describing four 

 new species of fossils from the Cincinnati group, the other treat- 

 ing of Conodonts and fossil annelid jaws. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 London 

 Mathematical Society, December n. — J. W. L. Glaisher, 

 F. R.S.. President, in the chair. — The Rev. T. C. Simmons, 

 Christ's College, Brecon, and Mr. W. J. Ibbetson, Clare 

 College, were elected members. — Mr. Tucker read a paper on a 

 group of circles connected with the nine-point circle considered 

 as the locus of the intersections of orthogonal Simson lines. 

 If PL, P M, PN are the perpendiculars from any point of the 

 circum-circle on the sides B C, C A. A /? of A B C, then L MN 

 is a Simson line : if POP' be a diameter, then the Simson line 

 /. 'J/'.V, corresponding to P', intersects LMNaX right angles 

 in a point Q, on the nine-point circle, which is also the inscribed 

 circle of the tricusp, enveloped by the Simson lines. These 

 properties were stated in a paper by Steiner ("Crelle," Band 

 liii.). In the present paper points /, in, n are taken on PL, 

 P.M. PN, such that Ll= K.PL, Mm = K. PM, Nn-K.PN. 

 It was shown that the lines I m n, V m u' intersect at right angles 

 on a system of circles whose centres lie on the line con- 

 necting the circum-centre and ortho-centre (LP) of A B C. 

 that the sets of Q points (as above) lie on another straight 

 line through H: that the circles are inscribed in tricusps, the 

 points of contact lying on three straight lines symmetrically 

 situated and passing through H. In the special case of nul- 

 radius, i.e. when the (A") circle becomes the ortho-centre, it was 

 seen that the images of any point on the circum-circle with regard 

 to the three sides lie on a straight line through //. — Mr. Tucker 

 then read parts of a. paper by Mr. R. A. Roberts, entitled 

 "Notes on the Plane Unicursal Quartic." — Two posthumous 

 notes by the late Dr. Spottiswoode, P.R.S., were communicated, 

 viz. on quadratic transformations, and to find whether a (certain) 

 quadratic transformation be possible. — The Treasurer (A. B 



