450 
NATURE 
| March 8, 1883 
Dr. M. Foster, Prof. Oliver, Dr. Hort, Dr. Phear (Master of 
Emmanuel College), Rev. G. F. Browne, and Rev, M. J. 
Berkeley. 
Woodwardian Professorship of Geology: Prof, Prestwich 
(Oxford), Rev. E. Hill, Mr, W. H. Hudleston, Mr. A. Geikie 
(Director of Geological Survey), Dr. Phear, Mr. R. D. Roberts, 
Mr. Ewbank, and Prof. A. Newton. 
Professorship of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy : Prof. 
Flower, Prof. Moseley (Oxford), Dr. M. Foster, Prof. Huxley, 
Mr. J. W. Clark, Dr. F. Darwin, Prof. Humphry, and Mr. D. 
McAlister. 
The Woodwardian Professor has been authorised to apply a 
sum equivalent to the late Assistant’s stipend in payment of 
Demonstrators for this and the next term. 
The regulations for the degrees of Doctor in Science and 
Doctor in Lett-rs have been confirmed, with minor modifi- 
cations. 
The additional mathematical examination of candidates for 
honours in the ‘‘Little Go” is to be discontinued ; Elementary 
Logic is to be hereafter allowed as a substitute for Paley’s 
Evidences ; Euclid is to be limited to the more useful proposi- 
tions ; algebra is to be increased in quantity ; and the examina- 
tion is to be held three times a year, the additional time being 
at the beginning of October. 
The subject for the next Sedgwick Prize Essay, 1885, is ‘‘ The 
Jurassic Rocks of the Neighbourhood of Cambridge.” 
The last Report of the Mathematical Board recommends that 
the Moderators and Examiners shall be the adjudicators of the 
Smith’s Prizes, and that the Smith’s Prizes be awarded on the 
results of Part III. of the Mathematical Tripos. This would 
give more distinction to the examination in the higher subjects. 
The concurrence of Professors Stokes, Adams, and Cayley in 
this recommendation is a strong point in its favour. 
The report of the Moderators and Examiners in the last 
Mathematical Tripos, the first under the new system, gives par- 
ticulars about Part III., to which only the Wranglers are ad- 
mitted. Of the twenty-nine Wranglers, sixteen presented them- 
selves for Part III., of whom two were not finally classed. In 
order to give opportunity to a candidate who had confined his 
reading mainly to one group of the higher subjects to employ 
his whole time in questions in that group, the examiners in the 
five bookwork papers gave at least four questions in each group 
which came into the paper, and fixed five as the limit of ques- 
tions to be answered. In the fifth paper, subjects for essays 
were chosen from each group. The majority of candidates 
attempted too many subjects, and their answers as a rule wer 
poor and meagre. The Examiners are far from satisfied with 
the average performance of the candidates in Part III., but they 
expect better results when the new system is better understood, 
especially the encouragement given to limiting reading in the 
hizher subjects to one or two groups. 
FREE admission to the lectures and courses of practical 
instruction in the Normal School of Science and Royal School 
of Mines at South Kensington and Jermyn Street will be 
granted to alimited number of Teachers and Students of Science 
Classes under the Science and Art Department, who intend to 
become Science Teachers. The selected candidates will also 
receive a travelling allowance, and a maintenance allowance of 
twenty-one shillings per week while required to be present in 
London. The courses given and the duration of each are as 
stated below :—Chemistry: Part I., October to February ; 
Parts II. and III., October to June. Physics: Part I., October 
to February; Parts II. and III., October to June. Biology: 
October to June. Geology: Part I., February to June; Part 
II., October to February. Mechanics: Part I., February to 
June; Parts II, and III., October to June. Metallurgy: Oc- 
tober to June. Mining: October to June. Agriculture: Oc- 
tober to January. Attendance is required from 9 or IO a.m. 
to 4or 5 p.m. daily, in addition to the time necessary in the 
evening for writing up notes, &c. Students will be required to 
attend the Classes for Mathematics, Geometrical Drawing, and 
Freehand Drawing, so far as may be considered necessary. 
Candidates for these Studentships must send in their applications 
before May 31, on Science Form No. 400, copies of which may 
be obtained on application to the Secretary, Science and Art 
Department, South Kensington. When the same student is a 
candidate for more than one course, the order of preference 
should be given. It should, in all cases, be stated for which 
course or courses the student is a candidate. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
American Fournal of Science, February.—Henry Draper, by 
G. F. B.—Fauna at the base of the Chemung group in New 
York, by H. S. Williams.—Geological chemistry of Yellow- 
stone National Park.—Geyser waters and deposits, by H. Leff- 
mann.—Rocks of the Park, by W. Beam.—Electromagnetic 
theory of light; general equations of monochromatic light in 
media of every degree of transparency, by J. W. Gibbs.—The 
rainfall in Middletown, Connecticut, from 1859 to 1882, by H. 
D. A. Ward.—Discoveries in Devonian Crustacea, by J. M. 
Clarke.— Observations of the transit of Venus, 1882, made at 
the Lick Observatory, by D. P. Todd.—The antennz of Melée, 
by F. C. Hill.—Hypersthene-Andesite, by W. Cross.~—Method 
for determining the collimation constant of a transit circle, by. 
M. Schzeberle. 
The American Naturalist, December, 1882, contains :—A 
pilgrimage to Teotibuacan, by R. E. Hills.—On the grey rabbit 
(Lepus sylvaticus), by Samuel Lockwood.—The Paleozoic allies 
of Nebalia, by A. S. Packard, jun.—American work on recent 
mollusca in 1881, by W. H. Dall.—The organic compounds in 
their relations to life, by L. F. Ward.—The reptiles of the 
American Eocene, by E. D. Cope. 
January, 1883, contains :—The history of anthracite coal in 
nature and art, by Jas. L. Lippincott.—The development of the 
male prothallium of ihe field horse-tail, by D. H, Campbell.— 
On the geological effects of a varying rotation of the earth, by 
J. E. Todd.—On the bite of the North American coral snakes 
(Zlaps), by F. W. True.—Achenial hairs and fibres of Com- 
posites, by G. Macloskie.—Instinct and memory exhibited by 
the flying squirrel in confinement, with a thought on the origin 
of wings in bats, by F. G. King.—The extinct Rodentia of 
North America, by E. D. Cope. 
February, 1883, contains:—The Kindred of Man, by A. E. 
Brown.—Indian Stone Graves, by C. Rau.—On organic physics, 
by C. Morris.—The mining regions of Southern New Mexico, 
by F. M. Endlich.—The extinct Rodentia of North America, 
by E. D. Cope.—Spencer and Darwin.—The Beastiarians. 
Anna'en der Physik und Chemie, No. 2.—The electric con- 
ductivity of some cadmium and mercury salts in aqueous solu- 
tions by D, Grotrian.—On the change of the double refraction of 
quartz by electric forces, by W. C. Rontgen.—On the optical 
behaviour of quartz in the electric field, by A. Kundt.—On the 
function of magnetisation of steel and nickel, by H. Meyer.— 
Contributions to the history of recent dynamo-electric machines, 
with some remarks on determination of the degree of action of 
electromagnetic motors, by A. von Waltenhofen.—On the vis- 
cosity of salt solutions, by S. Wagner.—Researches on the ab- 
sorption of gases by liquids under high pressures, by S. y. 
Wroblewski.—Strecker’s memoirs on the specific heat of gaseous 
biatomic compounds of chlorine, bromine, iodine, &c., by L. 
Boltzmann.—On the luminosity of flames, by W. Siemens.— 
Distillation in vacuum, by A. Schuller.—Researches on the 
elasticity of crystals of the regular system, by K. R. Koch.—On 
absolute measures, by C. Bohn.—Correction of the method 
adopted by Rk. Kohlrausch in his researches on contact-elec- 
tricity, by E. Gerland.—The volume-change of metals in 
melting, by F. Nies and A. Winkelmann.—Correction, by A. 
Guebhard. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, February 22.—‘‘ Preliminary Note on the 
Action of Calcium, Barium, and Potassium on Muscle.” By 
T. Lauder Brunton, M.D., F.R.S., and Theodore Cash, M.D. 
It has been shown by Ringer that calcium prolongs the con- 
traction of the frog’s heart. This prolongation is diminished 
by the subsequent addition of potash. 
It occurred to us that calcium and potassium salts might exer- 
cise a similar action on voluntary muscle. Ontrying it we found 
this to be the case. Calcium in dilute solution prolongs the 
duration of the contraction in the gastrocnemius of the frog. 
Potassium salts subsequently applied shorten the contraction. 
We have been led to try the effect of barium on muscle by con- 
siderations regarding the relations of groups of elements, accord- 
ing to Mendelejeft’s classification, to their physiological action. 
These considerations we purpose to develop in another paper. 
The effect of barium is very remarkable. It produces a curve 
