August 9, 1877] 



NA TURE 



299 



2,350 matriculated students. Last year the number was 2,065. 

 The classes have consequently been large ; especially is this true 

 of the medical classes. For instance, the class of anatomy had 

 500 students on its roll. Sir Wyville Thomson's lectures were 

 attended by upwards of 400 students ; and Prof. Balfour had 

 close upon 400 students in his class. 



Prof. Lister has given his last lecture. At the close, Dr. 

 J. B. Balfour in name of his fellow-students, expressed their 

 regret at losing Mr. Lister, but at the same time honoured the 

 motives which had led him to make the change, and wished him 

 all success in the new sphere of work. Prof. Lister in replying 

 said he felt very much gratified to find that his motives had not 

 been misconstrued, and that so many of the students showed by 

 their presence that they attributed his leaving them to a sense of 

 duty. He thanked them for being so courteous and attentive, 

 and appreciative of his efforts to teach, and wished them all 

 happiness and prosperity. 



Taunton College School. — Sixteenth and twenty-third 

 in this year's list of successful candidates for Cooper's Hill are 

 Messrs. Salter and WooUcombe, from the Taunton College 

 School. This is an amusing commentary on the facts which we 

 recorded some weeks ago. 



Berlin. — The magnificent new physiological laboratories are 

 now nearly completed, and will be opened to students at the 

 commencement of the winter semester. Prof. Dubois Raymond 

 takes the directorship, and will be assisted by Prof. Kronecker, 

 from Leipzig, and Prof. Baumann, from Strassburg, two of the 

 more promising young physiological chemists of Germany. 

 Prof. Helmholtz, who has been elected rector of the university 

 for the coming year, will also take possession, during the coming 

 autumn, of the spacious new physical laboratories which adjoin 

 the physiological department. 



MiJNSTER. — On July 19, the academic authorities laid the 

 comer-stone of a spacious edifice which shall contain the lec- 

 ture-rooms of the professors. The chemical laboratory of the 

 newly-elected professor of chemistry. Dr. A. Oppenheim, is 

 now nearly equipped, and will be opened to students during the 

 coming autumn. It is reported that the Prussian Ministry of 

 Public Instruction has the intention of supplying the lacking 

 faculties of law and medicine, and of placing Miinster on an 

 equal basis with the other Prussian universities. The number 

 of students at present is 300. 



Heideli;erg. — On July 27 the university authorities and 

 students united in a festal celebration in honour of the twenty- 

 fifth anniversary of the acceptance of a professorship in 

 Heidelberg by Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. During the evening, 

 one of those lengthy, picturesque, torchlight processions, so 

 familiar to the residents of German university towns, led by 

 gaily costumed marshalls, with gleaming swords, moved through 

 the streets, to the residence of the veteran chemist, to extend to 

 him the greeting of the students. Prof. Bunsen, who makes 

 even shorter speeches than Gen. Grant, responded in a few 

 modest words, accepting the honour more as a recognition of 

 the offerings made by the university to the cause of science and 

 especially of chemistry. The evening closed with the charac- 

 teristic Germ.in Commcrs, in which ample tribute was paid to the 

 eminent services of the great chemist in speech, poem, and song. 

 Prof. Bunsen entered as a student at Gijttingen fifty years ago. 

 After six years of study there and at Paris, Vienna, .and Berlin, 

 he became privat-docent at Gottingen, then accepted, in 1S36, 

 a call to the Polytechnic of Cassel, as Wcihler's successor, 

 removed in 1S3S to Marburg, where he became in 1841 an 

 ordinary professor, and from thence in 1S51 to Breslau. In 1852 

 he followed a call to Heidelberg, where a new laboratory was 

 built for him, and where he has remained despite 'many tempt- 

 ing offers from Beriin and other wealthier universities. 1 1 is 

 success as a teacher here has been unbounded, his laboratory 

 and auditorium being full to overflowing, and the contingent of 

 foreign students, from every quarter of the globe, being especially 

 large. With the exception of his classical researches on cacodyl, 

 and discovery of the antidotes for arsenious acid, most of 

 Bunsen's more important discoveries occurred in the Heidelberg 

 laboratory. These embrace researches on the absorption of 

 gases, on diffusion, on the electrolytic preparation of metals, on 

 photo-chemistry, on gasometric analysis, the invention of the 

 magnesium light, the Bunsen lamp and galvanic element, &c. 

 The most brilliant discovery of all still remains, that of spectral 

 analysis, made in 1S60 in company with Kirchhof, and leading 

 to the immediate detection of caesium and rubidium. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The current number of the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology 

 commences with a paper by Drs. Lawes and Gilbert on the 

 formation of fat in the animal body, in which from experiments 

 on pigs it is shown most definitely that the amount of fat pro- 

 duced is not dependent on the amount of nitrogenous food 

 ingested. ^Dr. Ringer and Mr. Bury describe the influence of 

 salacine on the healthy body with special reference to its influence 

 on the temperature, in which it is demonstrated that the drug, 

 like quinine, produces a slight depression for a brief period only, 

 — Mr. T. W. Bridge WTites on the cranial osteology of Aviia 

 cali'a, describing in detail the osseous elements of the skull, with 

 a double plate illustrating it. — Prof. Rutherford and M. Vignal 

 continue their account of experiments on the biliary secretion of 

 the dog ; the action of the sulphates of sodium, magnesium, 

 potassium, phosphate, chloride, and bicarbonate of sodium, 

 bicarbonate of potassium, chloride of ammonium, nitro-hydro- 

 chloric acid, and mercury are discussed. — Prof. Cleland describes 

 a Sulu skull and gives suggestions for conducting craniological 

 researches. — Mr. F. M. Balfour continues his valuable study of 

 the development of elasmobranch fishes, completing the history 

 of the primitive alimentary canal. — Mr. B. T. Lowne writes on 

 the quantitative relation of light to sensation, as a contribution 

 to the physiology of the retina. — Mr. W. H. Gaskell continues 

 his observations on the vasomotor nerves of striated muscle, con- 

 ducted in the laboratory of Trinity College, Cambridge, describing 

 tlie normal circulation in muscle, the effects of section of the 

 nerve, the effects of stimulating their ends, and the nature of 

 vascular dilatation. 



Reichert und Da Bots Reymond's Archiv, 1876, Part 4 (issued 

 January, 1877). — J. Steiner, researches on the influence of tem- 

 perature on the nerve and muscle current. — F. Boll on the 

 structure of the electrical plates of torpedo. — G. Colasanti, 

 anatomical and physiological researches on the arms of cepha- 

 lopods. — E. A. Babuchin, further researches on electrical and 

 pseudo-electric organs. 



1S76, Part 5. — H. Erler, on the relation between the exha- 

 lation of carbonic acid and the variation of animal temperature. 

 — J. Hirschberg, dioptrics of the eye. — E. Dreher, on the theory 

 of sight. 



1S76, Part 6 (issued April, 1877). — R. Hartman, contribution 

 to the zoology and zootomy of the anthropoid apes. — H. Frey, 

 on the vasomotor nerves of the extremities. — E. Hitzig, new 

 researches on the bram. — W. Griiber, a series of papers on 

 abnormalities of human anatomy. — G. Salomon, contribution to 

 leukhcemia. 



Zeitschrift fiir wissensckaftliche Zoologie, 1877, Parts I and 2 

 (in one). — F. E. Schulze, on the genus Halisarca, with five 

 plates. — C. von Siebold, on the sexual development of urodele 

 larvae, referring especially to Triton al/'esiris. — F. de Filippi, on 

 the larva of Triton alpcstris. — A. Weismann, on the natural 

 history of the Daphnidos, parts 2, 3, and 4, 160 pp., with five 

 plates. 



Part 4. — H. Simroth, anatomy and fission of Ophiactis virens, 

 loS pp., four plates. — H. Dewitz, on the structure and develop- 

 ment of the sting in ants. — L. Graff, on Neomenia and Chseto- 

 derma. — A. Brandt,Son the frog's ovary,"and the segmentation 

 of the ovum. 



Vol. 29, Part I. — H. von Ihering, on the formation of ova in 

 mollusca. — F. Vejdovsky, on the anatomy and metamorphosis 

 of Tracheliastes polycolpus (parasitic copepod), three plates. — H. 

 Ludwig, on the anatomy of Rhizocochrinns lofotensis. — F. E. 

 Schulze, on sponges, part 3. Family Chondrosidaj. 



I\Iorphologiiches Jahrlntch, vol. iii. Part 2. — H. von Ihering, 

 on the nervous system of Amphineurida and Arthrocochlidse 

 (gastropods). — H. Strasser, on the air-sacs of birds. — E. Calberla, 

 on tlie development of the spinal canal and cord in Teleosteans 

 and Lampreys. — O. Hertwig, further contribution on the fer- 

 tilisation and segmentation of the animal ovum. 



Rl-'UC des Sciences Natitrelles, vol. 6, June, 1877. — '^'^ 

 number contains, in addition to its extended reviews of recent 

 recent research in zoology, botany, and geology, articles on the 

 classification of the animal kingdom, by A. Villot, on diatoms, 

 I)y E. Guinard, on the cretaceous formation of .Southern France, 

 by M. Leymerie, and part of a catalogue of the terrestrial and 

 fluviatile molluscs of the department of L'Herault, by E. 

 Dubrueil. 



