5i6 



NATURE 



{Oct. n, 1877 



connected until the death of Prof. Agassiz. His sections of 

 shells and rocks were of extraordinary beauty, and he was also 

 specially skilled in the preparation of injected objects. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Oxford. — The Oxford University Commissioners will sit for 

 a fortnight at Oxford, from the 22nd of this month. They will 

 occupy rooms at the Clarendon Hotel, the University being 

 unable to place sufficient accommodation at their disposal. It is 

 understood that evidence will be received during this sitting as 

 to the requirements of the University. The Acaitmiy states that 

 it is rumoured that the Oxford University Commissioners propose 

 to devote the first year to taking evidence ; they will then lay 

 down principles, and, lastly, will receive and adjudicate upon the 

 schemes of the various colleges. 



Camuridge. — Mr. William James Sell, B.A., Scholar of 

 Christ's College, has been appointed joint demonstrator of 

 Chemistry in the University in conjunction with Mr. Hicks. 



Mr. J. Aiken, of Liverpool, who a few years ago gave a dona- 

 tion of 1,000/. to the Association for the Higher Education of 

 Women at Cambridge, has signified his intention of placing at the 

 disposal of the .\ssociation an exhibition of 30/. for two years. 



Man'CHESTER. — The session of the Owens College was opened 

 on Tuesday, the 2nd inst. , with an introductory address by Prof. 

 Williamson, F.R.S., on the present aspect of the evolution 

 theory. So far as can yet be judged the attendance of students 

 promises to be very good during the session. 



Ireland. — The thirteenth annual meeting of the Convocation 

 of the Queen's University in Ireland was held on October 5 in 

 Dublin Castle, under the presidency of Sir Dominic Corrigan, 

 Vice- Chancellor. The annual report referred to the great necessity 

 that now was manifested for the supply of central buildings for 

 the University in the Irish metropolis. The report was unani- 

 mously adopted, and it was urged by the speakers that a repre- 

 sentation should be made to the Government for a grant in aid 

 of the erection of necessary buildings. A motion in favour of the 

 admission of women as medical students to the colleges of the 

 University was lost. 



Glasgow. — It is stated that Dr. Cleland, of Galway, has been 

 appointed to the Chair of Anatomy in Glasgow University, 

 recently vacated by Dr. Allen Thomson. 



Mr. A. Orr Ewing, M.P. for Dumbartonshire, has announced 

 his attention of founding, in connection with the Glasgow Uni- 

 versity, four bursaries of 25/. per annum each, tenable for four 

 years. Mr. Orr Ewing expressly declares this to be an experi- 

 ment to test the working and results of the bursary system before 

 resolving upon a permanent endowment. To this end he has 

 decided to place the sum of 1,600/., payable in seven annual 

 instalments, at the disposal of tjie Senatus. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, October i. — M. Peligot in the chair. 

 — The following papers were read : — On the order of appearance 

 of the first vessels in the shoots of Lysimachia and of Ruta, by 

 M. Trecul. — Reply to M. Angot's last note en the system of 

 winds in the region of the Algerian chotts, by M. Roudaire. — 

 Boric acid ; methods of investigation ; origin and mode of for- 

 mation, by M. Dieulafait. Inter alia, he considers (in oppo- 

 sition to some high authorities) that the boric acid and accom- 

 panying substances in the lagoni of Tuscany and in analogous 

 beds, are (with exception of the carbonic acid) products exclu- 

 sively sedimentary, their mode of formation being fully explained 

 from a study of the mother-waters of salt-marshes. It is un- 

 necessary to call in any volcanic action. Boric acid seems to 

 have existed in seas from the earliest ages, and to have been de- 

 posited wherever portions of sea got separated under suitable con- 

 ditions. This occurred on an immense scale at two epochs widely 

 apart, viz., in the trias, and at a certain horizon of the tertiary 

 formation. It is in the last mother- waters of salt-marshes that boric 

 acid is concentrated. — Employment of pyritousearths for treatment 

 of phylloxerised vines, by M. Dufresnoy. — Integrals of oblique 

 developers of any order, by Abbe Aoust. — Discovery of oxygen 

 in the sun, and new theory of the solar spectrum, by Prof. 

 Draper. — Note on the magnetisation of tubes of steel, by M. 

 Gaugain. If a neutral cylindrical bar of steel, at ordinary tem- 



perature, be introduced into a magnetised tube of steel and with- 

 drawn after a few seconds, it wdl be found weakly magnetised in 

 the same sense as the tube. But if, after insertion, the system 

 be heated with a lamp to about 300 deg. , allowed to cool, and 

 the core then drawn from the tutie, the tube will be found to 

 have lost a large part of its original magnetl-m, and the core to 

 have taken an inverse magnetism. — On the exact measurement 

 of the heat of solution of sulphuric acid in water, by M. Croulle- 

 bois. Tie hitherto divergent results are attributed to a fact 

 observed by M. Kirchhoff, viz., that the thermal effect is inti- 

 mately connected with the tension of aqueous vapours emitted by 

 the solution, and consequently with the temperature. Taking 

 this into account the author gives a table of calories corre- 

 sponding to difi'erent temperatures from 10' to 24°. — Continua- 

 tion of researches on the effects of electric currents of high 

 tension, and their analogies to natural phenomena, by M. Plantc. 

 This relates to effects had on placing the positive electrode of a 

 battery of Soo secondary couples in distilled water, and bringing 

 the negative platinum wire near the surface, a column of water 

 having been inserted in the circuit to obviate fusion. A small 

 globe of fire appears, taking an ovoid form when the electrode 

 is raised a little, while a number of blue luminous points in concen- 

 tric circles are seen at the surface of the water. Rays presently 

 start from the centre and join the points ; they go into gyration 

 in one direction or the other, and describe spirals ; sometimes 

 they disappear on one side. Lastly, with increased velocity of 

 gyration, all vanish, and only the blue concentric rings are left. 

 The experiment bears on the formation of globular light- 

 ning. — Some new researches on the metal davyum, by M. 

 Kern. New researches on the density confirm the former. 

 From preliminary experiments the equivalent is shown to 

 be greater than 100, and probably near 150-154, — New 

 modes of formation of oxide of ethylene, by M. Greene. — 

 Note on the wire-drawing of platinum, by M. Gaiffe. He has 

 got stronger fine wire by excluding atmospheric dust more com- 

 pletely. — On the fecundation of echinoderms (continued), by M. 

 Fol. — Metamorphoses of cantharides {Catithayis vfsicatona), by 

 M. Lichtenstein. — On the mutual antagonism of atropine and 

 muscarine, by M. Prevost. He asserts (contrary to some) that 

 large doses of muscarine will produce toxical eliects in animals 

 previously atropinised. — Trajectory of the bolide of June 14, 

 1877, by M. Gruey. — Meteorological observations in a balloon, 

 by MM. Tissandier. They found a layer of air 400 m. thick, 

 at a height of 400 m., moving pretty rapidly between two other 

 layers almott motionless ; a rare phenomenon. — On a halo 

 observed at Brest on August 31, 1S77, by M. Salicis. — Reflec- 

 tions on the meteorological works of M. Brault, by M. Buys- 

 Ballot. 



CONTENTS Pack 



Fleischer's " Volumetric Analysis" 497 



Hartlaub's Birds OF Madagascar 498 



Our Book Shelf : — 



Edgeworth's "Pollen" 499 



Moebius's " Die Auster und die Austeriiwirthschaft'*._ . . . . 499 

 Mayr's "Die Naturkriifte. — Die Gesctzm.Hszigkeit im Gesell- 



Schaftsleben " . . 500 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Potential Energy.— P. M 500 



Indications of the Ice- Age in Shetland.— G. G 501 



The Discoverer of Photography.— J. Smith 501 



The Portrait of Tycho Brahe.— Dr. Samuel Ckompton. ... 501 



Lumiere Cendrce. — B.G.Jenkins 502 



Lightning Conductors.— John Perry ; W. E. Avrton .... 502 



Electric Lighting —J. MuNRO 502 



Caterpillars.— J. A. Osborne 502 



The Satellites of Mars —John Brett 503 



Rate of Mound- Building. — Dr Otis T. Mason 503 



Our Astronomical Column :— 



The Melbourne Observatory 503 



The Outer Satellite of Mars 504 



The Near Approach of Saturn and Mars, November 3 .... 504 



New Comet 504 



Biological Notes 504 



Solar Radiation and SuN-SroTs. By S. A. HiLl 505 



Fertilisation op Flowers bv Insects, XVII. By Dr. Hermann 



UVhhnv. {li'ith Illustrations) 507 



The Restoration of the Ancient System of Tank Irrigation 



IN Ceylon. By the Rev. R. Adoay 509 



Notes 512 



American Science 514 



University and Educational Intelligence 516 



Societies AND Academies 51& 



