OcToBER 26, 1899 | 
The degree of M.A. honoris causa is to be conferred on Dr. 
Somerville, the recently-elected Professor of Agriculture. 
' Mr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., is reappointed Assistant-Director 
of the Cavendish Laboratory. 
Prof. D. J. Cunningham, F.R.S., of Dublin, is appointed an 
Elector to the chair of Anatomy, and Prof. W. F. R. Weldon, 
F.R.S., of Oxford, an Elector to the chair of Zoology, in 
succession to the late Sir W. H. Flower. 
Dr. D. MacAlister, of St. John’s College, has been re-elected 
a representative of the University on the General Medical 
Council for five years. 
Fifteen candidates have passed the recent examination in 
sanitary science, and have thus qualified for the Diploma in 
Public Health. 
THE destruction of the Technical Institute at West Ham by 
a fire which occurred on Monday night, and was first discovered 
in the chemical laboratory, is a disaster to technical education 
in London. The Institute commenced a short time ago an 
admirable programme of work in science and technology, and 
as it was the only municipal technical institute in the metro- 
politan area, its career has been closely followed. The damage 
done is estimated at over 80,000/., only part of which is covered 
by insurance. 
THE systematic study of geography is so much neglected in 
this country that it is to be hoped the School of Geography 
recently established at Oxford will be successful. During the 
present term Mr. H. J. Mackinder, the University Reader in 
Geography, will lecture on the historical geography of the 
British Isles. The lecturer in physical geography (Mr. Dick- 
son) will lecture on the climate of the British Isles. The 
assistant to the Reader (Dr. Herbertson) will lecture on the 
geomorphology of Europe; and the lecturer in ancient 
geography (Mr. Grundy) will lecture on the general historical 
topography of Greece. Dr. Herbertson will give instruction in 
cartography and practical geography, with field work ; and 
during the term special attention will be given to the study of 
map projections, and of physical maps of all kinds. 
ANOTHER addition to the laboratory equipment of our public 
schools has recently been made at Felsted, where new buildings 
for the teaching of science were opened last week. The 
laboratory consists of a lecture room with raised seating and a 
gallery, the lecture table being provided with down draught and 
electricity for experimental purposes, and behind it a faced wall 
surface for the lantern. The chemical laboratory is a room 
about thirty feet square to accommodate twenty-six boys, 
and has an adjoining balance room. In addition there is a 
general physical laboratory for a like number of boys, a 
special laboratory for senior physics, an optical room, store 
room and workshop. The building is in a large measure 
a gift of one of the governors of the school, and has been erected 
under the direction of Mr. A. E. Munby. It was opened by 
Dr. Garnett, of the London County Council, who gave an 
address on science as a means of general education. Sir John 
Gorst recently visited the building and expressed his warm 
approbation of the arrangements. 
PRACTICAL science in rural districts, as a means of benefiting 
British agriculture, has, we are glad to observe, received much 
support lately. The meeting of the Agricultural Education 
Committee, held at the Society of Arts on Friday last, showed 
the existence of a strong feeling that active efforts should be 
made to secure systematic and efficient instruction, both 
theoretical and practical, in agricultural subjects suitable to 
every class engaged in agriculture ; and to diffuse among the 
agricultural classes a more thorough appreciation of the ad- 
vantages of instruction bearing directly or indirectly on their 
industry. The chairman, Sir William Hart Dyke, explained 
that the province of the committee, as a united body, was to 
bring pressure upon Parliament and upon public opinion to 
establish in rural schools rational courses of instruction bearing 
upon agricultural pursuits. The following resolutions were 
subsequently adopted :—(1) That, in the proposed organisation 
of the new Board of Education, due regard should be had to the 
interests of agricultural instruction. (2) That proper provision 
should at once be made at certain of the Teachers’ Training 
Colleges for giving to those who desire it both theoretical and 
practical instruction in subjects bearing on agriculture and horti- 
culture. (3) That, after a certain date to be named in next 
year’s code, instruction in the elementary branches of natural 
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NATURE 
635 
science bearing on agriculture should be made compulsory in 
rural elementary schools, and that such instruction should be 
accompanied and illustrated by experiments, and (where 
possible) by practical work in plots of ground attached to the 
schools. (4) That county authorities be encouraged to provide 
experimental and school farms, and to contribute, by scholar- 
ships and otherwise, to some agricultural college or department 
of the first rank. The realisation of the conditions expressed 
in these resolutions should be desired by every one interested in 
national progress. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIAL. 
Wiedemann’s Annalen der Physik und Chemte, No. 9.— 
Dispersion of gypsum, by W. Konig. The author studies the 
dispersion of gypsum in the visible spectrum by observing the 
influence of wave-length upon the width of interference fringes 
produced by means of wedges made of that material. —Electric 
charge of freshly-prepared electrolytic gases, by W. Kosters. 
Hydrogen and oxygen are positively electrified by passing 
through sulphuric acid, and this may help to explain the posi- 
tive charge of the same gases when produced by electrolysis. 
In other cases, however, the gases passed through a liquid do 
not assume the same electrification as when generated by electro- 
lysis. Further experiments with Becquerel rays, by J. Elster 
and H. Geitel. Thinking that the radiation of uranium and 
thorium compounds might be influenced by the impact of 
kathode rays, the authors exposed a piece of Joachimsthal 
pitchblende to kathode rays, but they could not trace any in- 
fluence of the rays. The authors believe the Becquerel rays to be 
Réntgen rays of small intensity. They support this view by show- 
ing that they are not deflected by a magnet (see p. 623).—Radio- 
active barytaand polonium, by F. Giesel. The author describes 
the preparation of the radio-active bariym salts. He has not 
yet succeeded in isolating the active principle, whether radium 
or polonium,—Canal and kathode rays, by P. Ewers. The 
writer does not share the prevalent opinion that canal rays 
consist of projected anode particles, since the quantity of elec- 
tricity conveyed by them varies with the material of the kathode, 
but not with that of the anodes. He concludes that the canal 
rays consist of positive ions of the material of the kathode, but 
the matter thus conveyed to the wall is so small that it would 
require 288 hours of continuous working to deposit one milli- 
gramme of aluminium.—Law of development of Hittorf’s dark 
space, by H. Ebert. Hittorf’s dark space is the narrow space 
which immediately adjoins the luminous kathode layer. Its 
width increases as exhaustion proceeds, and does so in accord- 
ance with a geometrical series when the pressure diminishes 
in another geometrical series. The indices of the series are, 
however, generally different.—Magnetic susceptibilities of in- 
organic compounds, by S. Meyer. Judging from their com- 
pounds, the rare elements lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium. 
samarium, gadolinium, and especially erbium, must be strongly 
magnetic. Erbium oxide is four times as strongly magnetic as 
Fe,O3, and if the conclusion as to their bases is correct, erbium 
must be, weight for weight, six times as strongly magnetic as 
iron. This would have an important practical signification if 
erbium were to be found in large quantities. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy of Sciences, October 16.—M. van Tieghem in 
the chair.—On the positions of equilibrium of a ship carrying 
liquid cargo, by M. Appell. The author develops a problem of 
M. Guyou, giving a means of finding the positions of equilibrium 
and discussing their stability.—Method of setting a collimator, 
by M. G. Lippmann. The slit is observed with an auxiliary 
telescope, and between this and the collimator a biplate is in- 
serted. In general two images of the slit are observed, but on 
adjusting the collimating lens, at one point the two images co- 
incide ; the rays issuing from the collimator are now parallel. 
The accuracy of the adjustment is limited only by the resolving 
power of the telescope.—Production of ozone by the decom- 
position of water with fluorine, by M. Henri Moissan. _ A rapid 
current of fluorine, prepared in a copper apparatus, is passed 
