March 29, 1906] 



NA TURE 



525 



who may desire to avail themselves of the advantages of 

 the institution," and the Field fund of too/., the income 

 of which is " to provide for the minor needs of a scholar 

 or fellow." These fellowships are intended for young men 

 and women of promise who desire to pursue post-graduate 

 studies in order to fit themselves for intellectual careers. 

 In general, those intending to devote themselves to some 

 special branch of learning are preferred to those directly 

 fitting themselves for one of the " three learned pro- 

 fessions." 



At the Convocation of the Calcutta University on 

 March 3, the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Alexander Pedler, dealt 

 with the work of the University during the period 1873- 

 1905. He said that the number of schools sending up 

 candidates to the matriculation examination of the Uni- 

 versity was three times greater at the end than at the 

 beginning of the period. In the same interval the number 

 of colleges in connection with the University increased 

 from fifty-two to eighty-one, and the number of professors 

 and ieeturers in these colleges from 27S to 717. Sir 

 Alexander Pedler went on to ask, Has the University in 

 any way troubled itself to secure that this expansion has 

 been accompanied by the provision of three or four times 

 the number of equally well trained and experienced pro- 

 fessors and teachers? Has the University ascertained that 

 the new schools and colleges are equal in quality to those 

 of older and more mature growth? Are three or four 

 times as many well trained or well paid teachers at work 

 in the colleges and schools as thirty years ago? Are there 

 three times as many professors or teachers for the colleges, 

 trained in all the modern developments of western learn- 

 ing and acquainted with all the most recent discoveries in 

 science as there were thirty years ago? To all these ques- 

 tions he said a direct negative must be given. The Govern- 

 ment, which in its colleges ought to take the lead in such 

 matters, has allowed a reverse policy to go on, and while 

 in 1873 in Bengal the number of European professors or 

 Indian professors with European training in Government 

 colleges was thirty-one, in 1905 the number had fallen to 

 twenty-seven, while the number of Indian or Indian trained 

 professors had increased from nineteen to sixty. In 

 university work in European countries and in England, 

 when the number of students under instruction in colleges 

 is compared with the number of professors and lecturers 

 in various subjects engaged in teaching them, it is found, 

 Sir Alexander Pedler said, to be about ten students to each 

 professor. In the case of American technical colleges, fre- 

 quently the ratio works out at one professor to seven or 

 eight students. At the Michigan University one professor 

 for every six students is found, and also at the Toronto 

 University. Turning to the case of India, in the arts 

 sections of certain colleges affiliated to the Calcutta Uni- 

 versity, for every professor there are such numbers of 

 students as fifty-three or forty-six, and other similar 

 numbers, or from five to nine times as many students as 

 in other countries. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Royal Society, January iS.— " A Study of the Mechanism 



of Carbon Assimilation in Green Plants." By Francis L. 



Usher and J. H. Priestley. Communicated by Prof. 



W. M. Travers, F.R.S. 



(1) The photolysis of carbon dioxide may take place out- 

 side the plant in absence of chlorophyll, provided one of 

 the products is removed. 



(2) The normal products of the photolysis are hydrogen 

 peroxide and formaldehyde, though under certain con- 

 ditions formic acid may be formed. 



(3) In the plant the decomposition of the hydrogen 

 peroxide is provided for by a catalysing enzyme of general 

 occurrence. 



(4) The condensation of the formaldehyde is dependent 

 on the healthy condition of the protoplasm. 



There are therefore three factors essential to photo- 

 synthesis from carbon dioxide and water in the plant ; they 

 are (1) vitality of the protoplasm, (2) presence of a cata- 



NO. IQOO, VOL. 73] 



lysing enzyme, and (3) presence of chlorophyll. If any 

 one of these factors be interfered with, the process of 

 photosynthesis ultimately comes to an end, through the 

 destruction of the optical sensitiser, chlorophyll. 



The relations between the various factors in this process, 

 may be diagrammatically expressed thus : — 



Carbon dioxide 4- Water. 



[1/ not removed, di strays]-^- Chlorophyll, 



Hydrogen perox 



[If not removed, 



/ 



Formaldehyde 



Enzyme 

 Oxygen 



Living protoplasm 



Carbohydrates 



Society of Chemical Industry, March 5. — Mr. A. G. 

 Salamon in the chair. — The ignition of nitro-compound 

 explosives in small arm cartridges : W. D. Borland. 

 The action of the igniter, i.e. the percussion cap, is to 

 eject through the fire holes of the case a mixture of solid 

 and gaseous products at temperatures between 2400° C. 

 and 3200 C. in such quantity, volume, and time that the 

 initial resistance of the bullet or shot is overcome before 

 the bulk of the charge of powder develops its full energy, 

 but without any hesitation which may upset alignment or 

 perceptible "hang-fire." The rapidity with which these 

 gaseous and solid matters are applied to the powder is 

 determined by exploding the percussion cap in a hollow 

 steel cylinder provided with a hardened steel plunger and 

 resting upon a crusher lead. The proportion which the 

 crushing pressure bears to total energy is found in prac- 

 tice to be a trustworthy guide to the rapidity with which 

 the heat of the igniter is applied to the explosive, and 

 consequently to the ratio which chamber pressures in the 

 small arm bear to observed velocity of projectile. The 

 volume of the gaseous matters in relation to the surface 

 of the explosive can be readily determined. These must be 

 large enough to ensure sufficiently high chamber pressures 

 being set up for the most efficient combustion of the 

 powder. The temperature of ignition was determined by 

 radiation methods of observation, the cap being exploded 

 into a glass tube and the radiation intensity of the solids 

 observed by comparison with a radiant of known intensity, 

 the portion of the spectrum chosen being in the neighbour- 

 hood of 6563 wave-length. The paper includes tables 

 illustrating the action of different igniters on different 

 explosives, both sporting and military, and tracing the 

 effect of total heat energy and temperature of igniter upon 

 velocity, pressure, and rapidity of ignition observed in 

 ballistic trials. 



Zoological Society, March 6. — Mr. C S. Tomes, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — A specimen of Rana 

 goliath, obtained by Mr. G. L. Bates at Efulen, in South 

 Cameroon : G. A. Boulenger, This frog measured 10 

 inches from snout to vent, and was much larger than any 

 frog hitherto known. — " Flying " snakes : R. Shelford. 

 The power of " flying " has been recorded by natives to 

 be possessed by three species of snakes in Borneo, viz. 

 Chrysopelea ornata, C. chrysochlora (Opisthoglypha), and 

 Dendropliis pictus (Aglypha). All three species have the 

 ventral scales with a suture or hinge-line on each side ; by 

 means of a muscular contraction these scales can be drawn 

 inwards, so that the whole ventral surface of the snake 

 becomes quite concave, and the snake itself may be com- 

 pared to a rod of bamboo bisected longitudinally. By 

 experiments on C. ornata it was seen that the snake when 

 falling from a height descended, not in writhing coils, but 

 with the body held stiff and rigid, and that the line of the 

 fall was at an angle to a straight line from the point of 

 departure to the ground. It is highly probable that the 

 concave ventral surface of the snake helps to buoy it up 

 in its fall ; it can readily be shown that a longitudinally 

 bisected rod of bamboo falls more slowly than an undivided 

 rod of equal weight. — A series of reports on the zoological 



