Fira Sec sa 
March 23, 1882] 
NATORE 
499 
There has been an erroneous impression existing lately, that 
the Faure accumulator could not produce a constant current of 
more than 17 Ampéres; but, that this is a mistake, is clearly 
seen from the fact that, at the present moment, each of the cells 
in this room is producing a current of about 75 Ampéres. 
Electric storage of energy, therefore, makes us nearly indepen- 
dent of accidents to the engine or dynamo machine, or irregulari- 
ties in their working, enables us to receive our supply of electric 
energy from the central supply station in our proper turn, and 
independently of the particular time we require to utilise it, and 
lastly it enables large amounts of power to be transmitted over 
very long distances with but little waste. 
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE 
Oxrorpd.— The following notices have been issued with regard 
to lectures and classes in Natural Science for the summer term, 
beginning April 11 :-— : 
Prof, Clifton will give a course of demonstrations on instra- 
ments and methods of observation employed in optical measure- 
ments, The course is intended as an introduction to the study 
of practical physics in the Clarendon Laboratory. Mr. Stocker 
will deliver a course of lectures on Elementary Hydro-mechanics, 
and Mr. Heaton will form a class for the study of problems in 
Elementary Statics and Hydrostatics, these two courses being 
designed to meet the requirements of candidates for the Prelimi- 
nary Honour examination in Natural Science. 
Prof. Moseley, the new Linacre Professor of Physiology, pro- 
poses to commence a course of Comparative Anatomy, to extend 
over one year, The Professor’s course is open to all students 
who have attended a course on Practical Biology, or Mr. 
Robertson’s course on Histology. The Professor will attend 
after his lecture each day until I p.m. to superintend the practical 
work, which will be continued in the afternoon of that day and 
on the following day, by all students able to attend. Mr, 
Charles Robertson will give a course on the use of the Micro- 
scope and Histology to a junior class. The Professor will give 
an inaugural lecture on ‘‘The Zoological Results of the 
Challenger Expedition,” in the large lecture-room at the Uni- 
versity Museum, at 8.30 p.m. on Thursday, April 20. The 
lecture will be illustrated by means of photographs exhibited 
with the lime-light. 
In the Department of Geology Prof. Prestwich proposes to 
have excursions to visit the several geological sections in the 
neighbourhood of Oxford on several Saturdays during the Term ; 
and will lecture or give informal instruction on the subject of the 
excursion on each preceding Friday. Notice will be given from 
time to time in the Gazette and in the Museum of the places to 
be visited, hours of meeting, &c. 
The Biological Fellowship at University College has been 
awarded, after examination, to Mr. J. T. Cunningham, B.A., 
late Brakenbury Natural Science Scholar at Balliol College. 
Mr. Cuaoningham obtained a Ist Class in Mathematical 
Moderations, and a Ist Class in the Final Honour School of 
Natural Science, 
The Delegates for licensing lodging-houses have appointed 
Mr. E. F. G. Griffith, C.E., to be Sanitary officer of the 
Delegacy for a period of two years. 
Examinations for the Degree of Batchelor of Medicine, both 
First and Second, will be held in Trinity Term, on days to be 
hereafter notified. 
Candidates for either of these examinations are requested to 
send their names, on or before May 1, to the Regius Professor 
of Medicine, Medical Department, Museum. 
CAMBRIDGE. —Under the action of the new Statute A, which 
comes into force from the end of the present term, the entire 
Cambridge year is compulsorily lengthened a fortnight, and may 
be further lengthened at the pleasure of the Senate. Three 
terms are to be kept between October 1 aud June 24 of the suc- 
ceeding year, to include 227 days. Residence must be for not 
less than three-fourths of each term, instead of two-thirds as 
heretofore. 
Section 12 of the Second Chapter of the Statute is important 
in the interests of science and reads thus :—‘‘ Students in science 
who, having already taken a degree in Arts, Law, Medicine, or 
Surgery, have given proofs of -distinction in science by some 
original contribution to the advancement of science, and have 
done all that is required by the statutes and ordinances of the 
University, may be admitted to the title of Doctor Designate in 
Science, and shall afterwards be created doctors at the time 
prescribed by the University.” In this Statute the claims of 
original work are fully recognised, and there is only necessary 
the formulation and promulgation of adequate regulations to 
place science in a sufficient position of honour in the University. 
It is provided in a subsequent chapter that honorary degrees in 
science may be conferred on foreigners or British subjects of 
conspicuous merit, 
Section 19 of the same chapter is important, for it sanctions 
the adoption of affiliated colleges in any part of the British 
dominion, the recognition of their lectures and arrangements, 
and the allowing of periods of study at them not less than two 
years, as counting three terms towards a Cambridge degree, 
The last report of the Board of Examinations (Ordinary 
Degrees) shows that in the year 1881 there were forty-eight can- 
didates in chemistry, of whom nine attained a first class, and 
their papers were very favourably reported on, while fourteen 
failed ; the examiner in geology (in which there were only three 
candidates) recommends that the examination should include one 
paper devoted to practical work, and that the subject should be 
divided into two branches, petrology and paleontology, of which 
one only need be taken. This seems an undesirable separation, 
seeing that the degree is given for geology only. In botany 
there were six candidates, of whom three passed in the first class, 
and three failed. Zoology attracted only two candidates. These 
results do not show that these latter subjects are neglected, but 
that a considerable proportion of the candidates who do not take 
honours, including many medical students, find chemistry the 
most advantageous subject for the B.A. degree. 
The Examiners in Mechanism and Applied Sciences report 
favourally of the work done; there were five candidates in 
mechanism, two in electricity, and none in theory of structures, 
The papers were well done, and showed real interest in the 
subject, as well as a thorough appreciation of the principles. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
Lonpon 
Zoological Society, March 7.—Prof. W. H. Flower, 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—The Secretary exhibited and 
made remarks on some living examples of Helix hemastoma 
from Ceylon, which had been forwarded to the Suciety by Mr, 
J. Wood-Mason, F,Z.S.—Mr. W. A. Forbes read a paper on 
certain points in the anatomy of the Great Anteater (A/yrmeco- 
phaga jubata), as observed in two adult female specimens that 
had lately died in the Society’s Gardens. The arrangement of 
the ducts of the submaxillary glands and their relations to the 
stylo-hyoid muscle, the composition of the anterior cornu of the 
hyoid bone, the presence of clayicles, and the structure of the 
brain and of the \emale reproductive organs, were amongst the 
chief features touched upon.—Capt. G. E. Shelley read an 
account of the birds collected by Mr. Joseph Thomson while 
engaged on an exploration of the river Rovuma, East Africa. 
The collection contained examples of forty-three species of 
birds, among them being two new species, proposed to be cal!ed 
Merops dresseri and Erythrocerus Thomsoni.—A second paper 
by Capt. Shelley gave an account of a series of birds recently 
collected by Sir John Kirk, in Eastern Africa. This collection 
was made chiefly in the neighbourhood of Mambois, on the 
eastern slopes of the mountain-range which separates Ugogo 
from the Zanzibar province, 
Anthropological Institute, March 7,—Major-General Pitt- 
Rivers, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Mr. E. F. Newton, 
¥.G.S., exhibited a Romano-British burial urn containing human 
bones that was found in Cheapside, about 18 feet below the 
footpath, in 1879. Two of the bones have gieen glass melted 
around them.—Mr. E. H. Man read the first part of a mono- 
graph on the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands. 
‘The paper contained an exhaustive description of the natives, 
based upon the lines laid down in the ‘* Anthropological Notes 
and Queries of the British Association,” Many points regarding 
the physical characteristics of these savages, on which misappre- 
heusions have hitherto existed, were noticed. The latter portion 
of the paper was devoted to a description of the tribal communi- 
ties and the peculiarities connected with the sub-division of the 
same among inland and coast-men; and reference was made to 
the system of rule and the power of the chiefs, and various 
details connected with their customs and mode of life were dealt 
