516 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 21, 1899 
ENGINEERING EDUCATION. 
The address of Prof. Storm Bull, before the Section of 
Mechanical Science and Engineering, was on engineering 
education as a preliminary training for scientific research work, 
The proposition put forward was that engineering education as 
furnished in the best technical schools of the world, together 
with the training obtained later in life as a practising engineer, 
provides the best preliminary preparation for the successful 
prosecution of scientific research work. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 
Mr. A. G. ASHCROFT has been appointed Assistant Professor 
of Engineering at the Central College of the City and Guilds of 
London Institute. 
DuRING the winter session 1899-1900 at the University of 
Edinburgh, courses on practical experimental physiology, prac- 
tical chemical physiology, and practical histology, will be given 
every week day, in addition to the usual five months’ course on 
physiology. 
AmoncG the addresses to be delivered at the opening of the 
Medical Schools in the beginning of October are the following : 
—At the Middlesex Hospital the introductory address will be 
delivered by Mr. John Murray. At St. George’s Hospital the 
introductory address will be given by Dr. Howship Dickinson. 
At University College the session will be opened by Dr. G. F. 
Blacker. At St. Mary’s Hospital the address will be given by 
Mr. H. G. Plimmer. At Charing Cross Hospital the address will 
be delivered by Dr. Mitchell Bruce. At Guy’s the term begins 
on October 2, when the first meeting of the session of the 
Physical Society will be held at 8, in the new physiological 
theatre. Sir Samuel Wilks will preside. At the London School 
of Medicine for Women the introductory address will be given 
by the dean, Mrs. Garrett Anderson, after which the prizes for 
the past year will be distributed. The winter session of the 
London School of Tropical Medicine will open on October 2, 
when the new school will be formally opened to students. At 
St. Thomas’s Hospital the session will open on October 3, 
when the prizes will be distributed by Prof. Clifford Allbutt. 
The winter session at Mason College, Birmingham, will begin 
on October 2, when Sir William Gairdner will deliver the 
introductory address. At University College of South Wales 
and Monmouthshire, Cardiff, the address will be given on 
October 6 by Prof. A. W. Hughes. At Yorkshire College, 
Leeds, the address will be given on October 2, and the prizes 
distributed by Dr. Byrom Bramwell. The session at University 
College, Liverpool, will begin on October 3 with an address by 
the Rev. S. A. Thompson-Yates, who will afterwards distribute 
the prizes. The introductory lecture at Queen’s College, Man- 
chester, will be given on October 2 by Sir J. Crichton Browne. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 
American Journal of Science, September.—On the gas 
thermometer at high temperatures, by L. Holborn and A. L, 
Day. The authors seek fora type of gas pyrometer yielding the 
most trustworthy results, and eventually decide in favour of 
the iridio-platinum bulb as against porcelain. They fill the 
bulb with nitrogen, and use a saltpetre bath up to 750°, a zinc 
bath up to 900", and electric heating for still higher temperatures, 
since flame gases pass bodily through the metal.—On the flicker 
photometer, by O. N. Rood. The general idea of the photo- 
meter, which is independent of colour, is that the differently 
coloured beams of light traversing ils axis should illuminate the 
two surfaces of a rectangular prism, facing the eye, and that by 
the oscillations of a cylindrical concave lens its illuminated 
surfaces should alternately and in rapid succession be presented 
to the eye. The resulting flicker vanishes when the two surfaces 
have the same luminosity.—A quantitative investigation of the 
coherer, by A. Trowbridge. The greater the charging potential 
of the coherer, the more rapid is the rise of the conductivity per 
unit increase in quantity of electricity discharged. Probably 
every coherer has a critical value of the difference of potential 
below which it will not act. In the ball coherer used this was 
8 volts. —Double ammonium phosphates of beryllium, zinc, and 
cadmium in analysis, by Martha Austin. The preparation of 
NO. 1560, VOL. 60] 
these double ammonium phosphates is described in detail, and 
their utility in analytical processes is indicated.—An Albertite- 
like asphalt in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, by J. A. 
Taff. The mineral, in both its physical and chemical properties, 
is shown to be an asphalt, and only differs.from albertite in its 
solubility in turpentine. It occurs in veins from 4 to 25 feet 
thick.—A new meteorite from Murphy, Cherokee County, N.C., 
by H. L. Ward. The siderite described has a square fracture 
unusual in iron meteorites.—On the separation of alumina from 
molten magmas, and the formation of corundum, by J. H. 
Pratt. The separation of alumina is well illustrated in nature in 
the occurrence of corundum, spinel, and chromite in the rocks 
of the peridotite group. Experiments in the laboratory show that 
the separation of alumina as corundum from molten magmas is 
dependent upon the composition of the chemical compounds that 
are the basis of the magma, upon the oxides that are dissolved 
with the alumina, and upon the amount of the alumina itself. 
When the magma is composed of a magnesium silicate without 
excess of magnesia, all the alumina held by such a magma will 
separate out as corundum. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, September 11.—M. Maurice Lévy 
in the chair.—On a new form of the equations of dynamics, by 
M. P. Appell. Some remarks on the new form of equation 
indicated in the Comptes rendus of August 7 and 28. The 
results obtained can be expressed in one theorem, with which is 
connected the principle of least constraint of Gauss. —The 
Perseids of 1899, by M. G. Flammarion. The paper gives the 
results of the observations of MM. Antoniadi and Mathieu at 
the observatory of Juvisy on August 11, 12 and 13. The 
results are given in tabular form, and the directions of the 
meteors observed are shown upon a map.—Remarks by M. 
Bouquet de la Grye on the above paper. It would be 
possible to utilise shooting stars as a means of determining 
differences of longitude between places unprovided with the 
telegraph.—On some geometrical relations between two systems 
of points defined by algebraic equations, by M. S. Mangeot. 
CONTENTS. PAGE 
Eclipses’ . & lap ee © «0 -c) JO 
A French Writer on Classification. By F. A. D. . 489 
Our Book Shelf :— 
Reinke : ‘‘ Die Welt als That."-—E. A.M... . . 490 
Cauro: ‘La Liquéfaction des Gaz: Methodes 
nouvelles—Applications ” ae - . 490 
Letters to the Editor :— 
Movement of Sea-Gulls with a Coming Change of 
Weather. — Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Godwin- 
Austen, F.R.S..  . .- cyt kel COM nitccaeed e4 ON 
Thermometric Scales for Meteorological Use.—H. 
Helm Clayton fg Py fo : kite : 491 
The New Lunar Photographic Atlas . : 491 
The Dover Meeting of the British Association. By 
W.H. Pendlebury .... . 2 i . 494 
Section C.—Geology.—Opening Address by Sir 
Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., President of the 
Section “2 <) Gh gamers 5 Bie ee 496 
Section D.—Zoology.—Opening Address by Adam 
Sedgwick, F.R.S., President of the Section 502 
Notes he Ua re ok me 510 
Our Astronomical Column :— 
Holmes’ Comet 1899 d (1892 III.) 513 
New Spectroscopic Multiple Star . . .-. . . . «= 513 
Southern Variable Stars . . ety <es ; 513 
The Bulletin de la Société Astr. de France 513 
Solid Hydrogen. (Jd/ustrated.) By Prof. James 
Dewar, F..R.S ieee 5 « Sateene : 514 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science = ic] oecegeeee . ie) «ears 5) 
University and Educational Intelligence 516 
Scientific Serial Fated Re (6 fe 516 
Societies and Academies ......+.-+ ees 516 
