January 18, 1906] 



NA TURE 



287 



40/. ; H. C. Bathurst, Dulwich College, 40/. ; E. T. 

 Lancaster, Exeter School, 30/. ; G. D. Roechling, Win- 

 chester College, 302. 



The death is announced, at the age of forty-nine, of 

 Dr. W. R. Harper, president of Chicago University. 



The council of the University of Sheffield has appointed 

 Dr. Louis Cobbett professor of pathology, and Mr. L. T. 

 O'Shea professor of applied chemistry in the University. 



Sir Michael Foster, K.C.B., F.R.S., will preside at 

 the meeting of the Public Schools Science Masters' Associ- 

 ation at Westminster School on Saturday, January 20, in 

 place of the president, Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., who is 

 prevented from being present. 



We learn from Science that at the recent special session 

 of the State legislature the University of Wisconsin was 

 again authorised to draw its income from the general fund 

 of the State treasury, as according to the new method of 

 appropriating funds for the university by setting aside two- 

 sevenths of a mill on all taxes, the university income fund 

 does not become available until February each year, 

 whereas the university budget has always been estimated 

 on the basis of the fiscal year, which extends from July 1 

 to June 30 of each year. 



I >N Saturday, January 13, the first annual dinner was 

 held of the past chemical students of the Technical College, 

 Finsbury. Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., took the chair, and 

 there were present, in addition to the lecturers and 

 demonstrators of the chemical department, seventy past 

 students of the college. Prof. Meldola referred with pride 

 to the number of past students, who had won distinction 

 in the chemical world, and were gathered around him. 

 Finsbury was one of the earliest technical colleges, and 

 had a record of a quarter of a century's usefulness to the 

 technical industries of the country. Dr. Moody, who pro- 

 posed "The College," said that this year was a very 

 appropriate one for the first annual dinner, as their head, 

 Prof. Meldola, now held the highest distinction the 

 Chemical Society had to offer, the office of president. 



A discussion has been opened in L'Enseignement 

 mathimatigue on the reforms to be accomplished in the 

 teaching of mathematics, and numerous mathematicians 

 have been asked to state their opinions on the conditions 

 that should be satisfied by a complete course of mathe- 

 matics, theoretical and practical, in institutions of higher 

 grade. The questions are as follows : — What improvements 

 should be effected in the teaching of pure mathematics? 

 What part should be played by higher educational institu- 

 tions in preparing teachers for secondary schools? And 

 how should mathematical teaching be organised in order 

 that it may respond better than hitherto to the require- 

 ments of other branches of pure and applied science? Of 

 those who have already taken part in this referendum, we 

 note the names of Prof. Gino Loria (Genoa), Prof. Emile 

 Borel (Paris), Prof. Jules Andrade (Besancon), Prof. D. E. 

 Smith (Columbia University), Prof. F. Mariotte (Paris). 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 

 Royal Microscopical Society, December 20, 1905. — Dr. 

 Dukinfield H. Scott, F.R.S., president, in the chair. — 

 An exhibit consisting of about twenty photographs of 

 diatoms taken by the Zeiss apparatus, designed by Dr. 

 August Kbhler, of Jena, for photomicrography with ultra- 

 violet light : Mr. Rheinberg. The objective and other 

 lenses used in taking the photographs were made wholly 

 of fused quartz, which rendered possible the utilisation of 

 ultra-violet light having a wave-length of 275 fi.fi. 

 ( = 275 millionths of a millimetre). The photographs were 

 taken with a 1-7 mm. monochromatic objective of 

 1-25 N.A., using light from the cadmium spark. The 

 resolving power was therefore as great as would be that 

 of an objective used with ordinary light if it were possible 

 to give it an N.A. of 2-5. There were photographs of 

 Surirellq gemma and Amphipleura pcUucida ; one of the 

 1. liter taken with oblique illumination showed the diatom 

 clearly resolved into dots. There were also comparison 

 photographs, of the same diatoms, taken with a 2 mm. 



NO 1890, VOL. J 3] 



apochromatic objective of 1-4 N.A. using light from the 

 magnesium spark (a = 383 fi.fi.) giving about the same 

 amplification, viz. about 1800 diameters. The difference in 

 the appearance of the images was very apparent. — A fern 

 fructification from the lower Coal-measures of Shore, 

 Lancashire : D. M. S. Watson. 



Linnean Society, December 21, 1905. — Mr. C. B. Clarke, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — (1) An aposporous 

 seedling of Polypodium vulgare, with a frond bearing a 

 well defined prothallus at the tip. (2) A new case of 

 apospory in Cystopteris montana : C. T. Druery. — The 

 International Botanical Congress at Vienna in June last : 

 Dr. A. B. Rendle. A report was given on the work of 

 the congress, and in particular on the proposals of the 

 conference on botanical nomenclature (see Nature, vol. 

 lxxii., p. 272, 1905). — Cyrtandreae Malaya; insularis novae : 

 Dr. F. Kranzlin. — On Characeae from the Cape of Good 

 Hope collected by Major A. H. Wolley-Dod, R.A. : 

 H. and J. Groves. 



Mathematical Society, Januaiy 11.— Prof. Forsyth, 

 president, in the chair. — On the monogeneity of an 

 algebraic function : Dr. H. F. Baker. — On the diffraction 

 of sound by large cylinders : J. W. Nicholson. — On the 

 expression of the so-called biquaternions and triquaternions 

 by quaternary matrices: J. Brill. — Dr. E. W. Hobson 

 made an informal communication On the representation 

 of functions of real variables. 



Paris. 

 /Academy of Sciences, January S. — M. Poincare in 

 the chair. — On a method allowing of the determination 

 of the constant of an absolute electrodynamometer with 

 the aid of an induction phenomenon : G. Lippmann, In 

 the determination of the constant of an absolute electro- 

 dynamometer, the conditions imposed by the calculation 

 if accuracy of measurement is aimed at are the opposite 

 of the conditions for sensitiveness. In the method pro- 

 posed in the present paper, the experimental measurement 

 is reduced to finding the equilibrium position of a galvano- 

 meter, and measuring either an angle or a length.— On 

 comets, and the curvature of their solar trajectory : Emile 

 Belot. — On plane transformations : M. Hadamard. — On 

 the non-stationary motion of a fluid ellipsoid of revolution 

 which does not change its figure during the motion : W. 

 Stekloff. — On the stability of aeroplanes and the rational 

 construction of supporting planes : Edmond Seux. — On the 

 variation of the emission spectra of some electric lamps 

 with temperature : P. Vaillant. The lamps studied were 

 the Cooper-Hewitt mercury lamp, the tantalum filament, 

 the Nernst, and the ordinary carbon filament lamps. 

 Figures are given showing the variations in the composition 

 and intensity of the light with the number of watts con- 

 sumed by each lamp. — On a new type of compound in the 

 group of rare metals : C. Matigrnon and E. Cazes. At 

 a high temperature samarium chloride, SmCI,, is slowly 

 reduced in a current of hydrogen to a lower chloride, the 

 analyses agreeing with the formula SmCl 2 . This lower 

 chloride was obtained by other methods, the complete 

 absence of moisture being the one condition essential. The 

 chlorides of praseodymium and neodymium do not undergo 

 a similar reduction by hydrogen. — The electrolytic prepar- 

 ation of spongy tin : D. Tommasi. The electrolytic solu- 

 tion is made up of stannous chloride (10), hydrochloric 

 acid (1), and water (50), and the tin is deposited on a 

 rotating kathode. — On cuprous-silicide : Em. Vigouroux. 

 The author has repeated and confirmed his earlier experi- 

 ments on this subject, and shows that in pure silicides of 

 copper the amount of combined silicon is about 10 per cent. ; 

 the crystallised cuprous silicide, Cu,Si, has been isolated 

 and its principal properties determined. — The reduction of 

 the chlorides of silver and copper by calcium : L. Hack- 

 spill. The reduction of silver chloride by calcium gives 

 rise to a series of alloys of calcium and silver varying 

 according to the proportion of calcium used. The reduction 

 of cuprous chloride gave similarly a copper-calcium alloy. 

 — Asymmetrical derivatives of 1 : 6-hexanediol ; the diethyl 

 ether and di-iodide of 1 : 7-heptanediol : R. Dionneau. — 

 On the conditions of hydrogenation of some halogen deri- 

 vatives of fatty hydrocarbons by the metal ammoniums. 

 The preparation of ethylenic and acetylenic hydrocarbons : 

 K. Chablay. Sodium, dissolved in liquid ammonia, acts 



