May 12, 1 88 1 J 



NA TURE 



45 



ON AN ACqjL/STIC PHENOMENON NOTICED 

 IN A CROOKES TUBE ' 



A SHORT time since, while experimenting with a Ciookes 

 ■^ tube, I noticed a phenomenon which was quite striking, 

 and so evident that it hardly seems pos;-ible that it has not fre- 

 qnently been observed before ; but as no allusion to the eftect 

 in question has come to ray notice, I venture to call attention 

 to it. 



In working with the tube in which a piece of sheet platinum 

 is rendered incandeicent by the concentration upon it of electri- 

 fied particle-;, repelled frjm a concave mirror, I noticed that 

 when the mirror was made the negative electrode, so that this 

 concentration took place, a clear and quite musical note issued 

 from the tube. I thought at fir.-t that the pitch of the note 

 would coincide with that produced by the circuit-breaker used 

 with the coil (which made about loo breaks per second), but this 

 did not prove to be the case. In fact very great changes in the 

 rate of the circuit-breaker did n>t affect the note given by the 

 tube. The effect seemed to be produced by tlie vibration of 

 the sheet-pl.atinum in its own period, under the influence of the 

 molecular impact, which vibration was communicated to the 

 glass walls of the tube by the enamel rod to which the platinum 

 was attached, giving rise to a sound somewhat resembling the 

 pattering of rain against a window-pane, but higlier in pitch and 

 more musical. This sound changed its character very greatly 

 when the direction of the current was reversed, a feeble murmur 

 only being heard. I obtained a similar musical note, though far 

 less loud, with the " mean free-path tube," best when the middle 

 plate was positive. With a tube Ciintaining phosphorescent 

 sulphide of calcium, tite note was very dull in its quality and 

 low in pitch, but still quite perceptible. With this tube a 

 change in the direction of tlie current, as might be expected, did 

 not affect the sound produced. I did not obtain this musical 

 note from any tube that I have in which the current enters and 

 leaves by a straight wire, except in the case of a single Geissler's 

 tube exhausted si as to give stratifications, in which it was very 

 feebly heard. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



A LARGE number of ladies and gentlemen assembled on 

 Tuesday in Cowper Street to witness the laying of the founda- 

 tion-stone of the Finsbury Technical College which it has lately 

 been resolved to establish by the City and Guilds of London 

 Institute, by His Royal Highness Prince Leopold. According 

 to the report of the Council of the Institute to the Governors, 

 the projected building is estimated to cost 20,382/., exclusive of 

 the professional charges, fittings, and other incidental expenses, 

 which will amount to some 5000/. In the plani ample accom- 

 modation is provided for instruction in the application of physics, 

 chemistry, and mechanics to the various industries. Tlie build- 

 ing will contain thirty-two rooms, including a large laboratory, 

 two lecture theatres, class, drawing, jirivate, and engine rooms, 

 Vforkshops, and clerks' offices. Lord Selborne, in welcoming 

 the Prince, after noting the progress of science as applied to arts 

 and manufactures in this and other countries, said that in the 

 race of competition the prize mu~t in the end belong to those 

 who best knew how to build the superstructure of arts and manu- 

 facture on their handicrafts with a sound foundation of scientific 

 knowledge. The ceremony of laying the stone was gone through 

 by Prince Leopold, who in the course of his remarks said that 

 the institution has proclaimed its determination to enter into 

 generous rivalry \vith other countries in those branches of trade 

 and commerce in which, one must needs confess, our native in- 

 dustries have of late years not taken that position which we as 

 Englishmen would wish them to occupy. We are beginning to 

 realise that a thorough and liberal system of education must be 

 placed within the reach of the British artisan in order to enable 

 him to hold his own agaitist foreign competition. Mr. Mundella 

 said that by instituting this college they were taking the same 

 step in applying science to industries which had been taken in 

 applying arts to manufactures at South Kensington. Among the 

 articles deposited in the cavity of the foundation-stone was a 

 copy of Nature. 



' Read by C. R. Cross at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts 

 and Sciences, November 10. 1880. 



The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that a movement 

 is afoot among the Germans in the United States for the creation 

 of a native University on the model of those in the old country, 

 to be called the Kaiser Wilhelm Universitat, in commemora- 

 tion of the "glorious resuscitation of the Fatherland." Mil- 

 waukee is mentioned as the likeliest candidate among all the 

 cities of the West that aspire to the honour of harbouring this 

 plant of pure Teutonic culture, nhich would cost, to begin witli, 

 about two million dollars. It is not at all probable, however, 

 that the scheme will come to anything. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for April, l88i 

 (vol. XV. part 3), contains : — On the bones, articulations, and 

 muscles of the rudimentary hind-limli of the Greenland right 

 whale (Balivnn mysticelus), by Dr. J. Struthers. — On the stridu- 

 lating apparatus of Callomystax gagatn, by Prof. A. C. Haddon 

 (Plate 20). — On the sternum as an index of age and sex, by Dr. 

 Ihomas Dwight (concludes that the breast-bone is no trust- 

 worthy gttide either to the sex or the age). — On the mechanism 

 of costal respiration, by Dr. J. M. Hobson (with figures). — On 

 the meinbrana propria of the mammary gland, by Dr. C. W. M. 

 MouUin (with figures). — On double and treble staining of micro- 

 scopical specimens, by Dr. W. Stirling. — On the comp.arative 

 anatomy of the lymphatics of the mammalian urinary bladder, 

 by Drs. George and F. Elizabeth Hoggan (plate 21). — Notes on 

 a dissection of a case of epispadias, and on the morphology of 

 the muscles of the tongue and pharynx, by Dr. R. J. Anderson. 

 — On the so-called movements of pronation and .supination in 

 the hind-limb of certain marsupials, by Dr. A. H. Young. — A 

 contribution to the pathological anatomj' of pneumonokoniosis 

 (Chaliiosit piilmotnim), by Thos. H.arris (plate 22). — On the 

 histology of soine of the rarer forms of malignant bone tumours, 

 by Robt. Maguire. — Oti the morbid histology of the liver in 

 acute yellow atrophy, by Prof. Dreschfeld. — On the relationship 

 between the muscle and its contraction, by 1 Jr. J. Theodore Cash. 

 — Anatomical notes. 



The Quarterly yournal of Microscopical Science, April, 1881, 

 contains — On the minute anatomy of the branchiate echino- 

 derms, by P. Herbert Carpenter (plates II .and 12). — On young 

 stages of Limnocodium and Geryonia (plate 13), and observa- 

 tions and reflections on the appendages and on the nervous 

 system of Apiis cancriformis, by E. Ray Lankester (plate 20). — 

 On the origin and significance of the metamorphosis of Actino- 

 trocha, by Edmund B. Wilson (plates 14 and 15). — A further con- 

 tribution to the minute anatomy of the organ of Jacobson in the 

 guinea-pig (plates 16 and 17), .and histological notes, by Dr. E. 

 Klein. — On the development of microscopic organisms occurring 

 in the intestinal canal, by Dr. D. Cunningham (pl.ite 18). — Re- 

 searches upon the development of starch-grains, by A. F. W. 

 Schim]3er (plate 19), translated from the Botanische Zeitung. — 

 On the cause of the striation of voluntary muscular tissue, by 

 Dr. J. B. Haycraft. — On the relation of microorganisms to 

 disease, by Prof. Lister ; with notes and memoranda. 



The American Naturalist, April, 1881. — Wm. Trelease, on 

 the fertilisation of Salvia splendens by birds. (The fertilisation 

 is apparently effected by a humming-bird. ) — Prof. E. D. Cope, 

 on the origin of the foot-structures of the Ungulates. — C. A. 

 White, progress of invertebrate palaeontology in the United 

 States for 1880. — Carl F. Gissler, evidences of the effect of 

 chemico-physical influences on the evolution of branchiopod 

 Crustaceans. — Dr. R. W. Schufeldt, notes on a few of the dis- 

 eases and injuries of birds. — A. S. Packard, jun., the brain of 

 the locust (with three plates). 



Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical 

 Survey of the Territories, vol. vi. No. I. — On the vegetation 

 of the Rocky Mountain region and a comparison with that of 

 other parts of the world, by Asa Gray and Joseph D. Hooker 

 (pp. I, 77). — On some new Batrachia and Reptilia from the 

 Permian beds of Texas ; on a wading bird from the Amyzon 

 shales ; on the Nimravidse and Canidae of the Miocene period ; 

 and on the Vertebrata of the Wind River Eocene beds of 

 Wyoming, by E. D. Cope.— The osteology of Speotyio cunicii- 

 laria, var. hypogiTa, and on the osteology of Eremophila alpestris, 

 by Dr. R. W. Schufeldt.— A preliminary list of the North 

 American species of Agrotis, by A. R. Grote. 



