Juty 13, 1899] 
NATURE 
263 
takes Indian Ocean, France takes South Pacific, Sweden 
and Norway take North Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic Sea. 
Every nation should extract the information in regard to the 
temperature from ships’ log books, put it in tables of approved 
description, and send it to the corresponding nation; this will 
give means to collect enormous information. The observations 
of every ship in a certain square ought to be placed on a 
separate card, Boxes containing these cards, say for the North 
Pacific, would not occupy more space than can be found in a 
good-sized book-case. 
When a new journal of a ship is received, temperatures of 
sea water observed on board that ship should be placed on the 
cards, and the cards put in their corresponding place. In this 
way we should, each year, become richer in the knowledge 
of the temperature of the surface water, and no observ- 
ation would be lost. Every observation would increase our 
knowledge of the temperature of sea water. It would be a real 
pleasure to see that progress of knowledge, and if ever this 
system or any other system be accepted, it will help us to study 
many details which, up to the present time, are unknown. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Mr. R. L. JAcK, Government Geologist, Queensland, now 
on a visit to this country, is to receive the honorary degree of 
LL.D. of Glasgow University on July 20, 
Mr. E. A. MINCHIN, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, 
has been elected to the Jodrell Professorship of Zoology in 
University College, London, in succession to Prof. W. F. R. 
Weldon. 
THE Bill for establishing a Department of Agriculture and 
Technical Instruction in Ireland was read for a second time 
in the House of Commons on Thursday last, and referred to the 
Standing Committee on Trade. 
For the purpose of encouraging the study of botany, the 
London Technical Education Board have had the botanical 
gardens in Battersea, Ravenscourt and Victoria Parks laid out 
upon an organised plan. Good collections of plants, represent- 
ing various natural orders, have been obtained, and suitable 
arrangements have been made for the convenience of teachers 
and students. The more important trees and shrubs in the 
parks have been labelled, and lists have been supplied for 
insertion in the botanical guide which the Board proposes to 
issue shortly for the convenience of students. Teachers of 
botany can obtain tickets for themselves and pupils for admission 
to the botanical gardens at the Battersea, Ravenscourt and 
Victoria Parks by application to the Secretary of the Board. 
By the recent gifts of Mrs. Stanford (Sczence states), Leland 
Stanford Jr. University becomes the richest university in the 
world, far surpassing in its resources Harvard, Columbia, or any 
other university. The resources of the University consist of 
three great farms, aggregating 95,000 acres of land, deeded by 
Act of Legislature. On one of these farms, which constitutes 
the University Campus, buildings to the value of one million 
dollars were erected before Senator Stanford’s death. By his 
will the University received 2,500,000 dollars in cash, invested 
in interest-bearing bonds. During the litigation following his 
death, Mrs. Stanford gave to the University (by deed) her own 
private fortune, amounting to about a million dollars, By her 
recent gift she transferred the residue of the estate to the Uni- 
versity, it being necessary to do this by deed of gift under the 
laws of the State. The property just transferred has a com- 
mercial value—judging from the revenue stamps put upon the 
deeds—of 35,000,000 dollars. What its actual value may be 
only the future]can determine, The income arising from this 
final gift is at present relatively small, as by agreement among 
the railroads, in bonds and stock of which it largely consists, the 
earnings are fora time to be used in freeing the property from 
debt and in making improvements. 
Ar the annual dinner of the Old Students’ Association of the 
Central Technical College, held on Thursday last, Prof. W. E. 
Ayrton, in proposing the toast of the Association, referred to 
the progress of the College and the insufficiency of accommo- 
dation due to the continued increase in the number of students. 
He announced that the electrical department would soon be 
NO. 1550, VOL. 60] 
greatly extended by the erection of a large new dynamo room 
nearly six times the size of that at present in use, and occupy- 
ing a considerable part of the ground floor of the new building 
of the Royal School of Art Needlework adjoining the College. 
The accommodation for this department would be further 
Increased by the completion of a new drawing office and a 
new lecture theatre. Sir Philip Magnus, in proposing the 
toast of the College and its professors, remarked that the 
College was that day entering on a new period in its career, 
for it was likely to become an integral part of the new 
University of London, which had decided the day before to 
move into new quarters at the Imperial Institute next door 
to the College. The needs of the College were recognised 
in the new University by the decision to appoint a faculty of 
engineering for the first time in the history of University 
education, and by the variation of the University matricula- 
tion examination to suit the requirements of different classes 
of students. Prof. Armstrong, in replying to the toast of 
the Chairman, alluded to the research work done at the 
College, especially in relation to its value as a means of 
mental training. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
Bulletin of the Amerian Mathematical Society, June.—Prof. 
F. N. Cole reports the April meeting of the Society held in 
New York City, and summarises the thirteen papers which were 
contributed. He also indicates where the papers themselves 
may be or will be found.—Surfaces of revolution in the theory of 
Lamé’s products is a paper which was read by Dr. Safford at 
the February meeting. It is a review of an article by Haentz- 
schel (reduction der Potentialgleichung), in which that writer 
criticises results obtained by Wangerin in the Berliner Monats- 
berichte (February 1878). Dr. Safford agrees with Wangerin in 
the results he gets, and so, in his opinion, invalidates Haentz- 
schel’s criticisms. —The next article is an enthusiastic review by 
Mr. Arthur Berry of Picard’s ‘‘ Théorie des Fonctions Algé- 
briques de deux Variables indépendantes,””—Another review is 
one of Jules Tannery’s ‘‘Lecons d’Arithmétique théorique et 
pratique,” by Prof. J. Pierpont. This latter is pronounced to 
be the first work on arithmetic which the reviewer has seen 
which, while intended entirely for secondary instruction, is 
written in accordance with the new ideas regarding the number 
concept and the need of rigour. Thus it is a pioneer ofa 
revolution in secondary instruction.—Dr. L. E. Dickson con- 
tributes a note on Page’s ordinary differential equations (cf a 
review of this by Prof. Lovett in the Bz//etin, April 1898).— 
The usual notes and new publications close the number. 
In the Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society for June, 
besides the usual summary of current researches in zoology, 
botany, and microscopy, is a further instalment of Mr, F. W. 
Millett’s report of the recent Foraminifera of the Malay 
Archipelago; and an article by the president, Mr. E. M. Nelson, 
on the rackwork coarse adjustment, in which he traces the 
history of the application of rackwork to the focussing of the 
microscope from the time of Bonannus in 1691 down to the 
most recent improvements. 
THE Journal of Botany for July contains an article, with 
illustrations, on a new British fresh-water alga, by Dr. A. B. 
Rendle and Mr, W. West, jun. The alga is a new species of 
the interesting genus Pithophora, first found by Wittrock ina 
tank in Kew Gardens. Like Wittrock’s species, however, it 
has no claim to the title of ‘‘ British’ beyond the fact that it 
was found in a canal near Manchester, where it had unquestion- 
ably been introduced with cotton-bales. The remaining papers 
in both the June and the July numbers appeal to those interested 
in descriptive and geographical botany. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES, 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, July 3.—M. van Tieghem in the 
chair.—Considerations on the physical constitution of the moon, 
by MM, Loewy and Puiseux. A summary of conclusions ar- 
rived at from recent photographic study of the moon. Certain 
