November 3, 189S] 



NA TURE 



23 



and it is cunsidered that this shelf, at the 140 fathoms level, 

 marks the downward limit of the coral formation. 



Exceptionally dry weather has been experienced, which has 

 somewhat delayed the boring, on account of the temporary 

 failure of the water-hole from which the water supplies were 

 being drawn. Foreman Symons, however, who is in charge of 

 the drill, had, by extending the line of suction pipes, been able 

 to tap a second water-hole, from which water was being pumped 

 to the boiler. Mr. Finckh's experiments on the rate of growth 

 of the various reef-forming animals and plants were progressing 

 satisfactorily. It was hoped that the bore would, in about 

 eight weeks' time, reach the total depth of 1200 feet, which is 

 the maximum depth contemplated. Further information may 

 be expected shortly upon the return from Funafuti of H.M.S. 

 Porpoise, which will convey all the core hitherto obtained from 

 Funafuti, and tranship it to Sydney ; and until the core has 

 been subjected to thorough microscopic and chemical examin- 

 ation it would, of course, be premature to attempt to forecast 

 the e.x.act trend of the evidence. The results so far obtained 

 are very satisfactory. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



C.-^MBRIDGE. — Dr. Langley, F.R.S., has been elected 

 member of the Council of the Senate in the place of Principal 

 Glazebrook, now of Liverpool University College. 



Lord Wolsingham, the High Steward, has generously offered 

 a second (bronze) medal for specially meritorious essays in 

 biology which do not succeed in winning the Wolsingham gold 

 medal. 



At the matriculation on October 21 last, 897 students joined 

 the University. These included 19 "advanced students" ad- 

 mitted to post-graduate research or other advanced work. The 

 total entry for the year 1S98 is thus brought up to 944, which is 

 the highest since 1S90. 



An "animated discussion on the proposed Sedgwick Memorial 

 Museum took place in the Arts School on October 22. Two 

 plans, a larger and a smaller, were before the Senate. The 

 geological staff strongly pressed that the larger should be 

 adopted, though it appeared that it would cost some 44,000/. 

 Of this the Memorial Fund would contribute 27,000/. 



Mr. R. S. Morrell, who was placed in the first class in both 

 parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 188S-90, and Mr. J. S. 

 Gardiner, who was similarly placed in 1893-95, have been 

 elected to Fellowships at Gonville and Caius College. 



On Wednesday, October 26, Sir William Harcourt opened 

 the new central block of Aberystwith University College, erected 

 at a cost of about 20,000/., towards which sum he, when Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer, gave a grant of 10,000/. Speaking 

 subsequently at a luncheon. Sir William Harcourt referred to the 

 unsatisfactory state of secondary or intermediate education in 

 England, and said that what was required was a system of inter- 

 mediate education similar to that which has been established in 

 Wales, to connect the elementary schools with the universities. 



Sheaking at University College, Liverpool, on Friday last, 

 Sir J. Gorst, Vice-President of the Committee of Council on 

 Education, said that at the present time there was a strong 

 desire on the part of all interested in education that a great 

 step forward should be made in commercial and technical 

 instruction. The necessity arose from industrial competition in 

 foreign countries. Undoubtedly our higher and elementary 

 education for industrial purposes was vastly inferior to that of 

 many of our rivals, and no time was to be lost in setting to work 

 to effect .".n improvement. To this forward step there were two 

 essential conditions. In the first place, elementary education 

 must be improved, for it was no use to attempt to organise a 

 system of higher schools without having a sound elementary 

 basis upon which to build. Moreover, it was essential that 

 higher education should be perfectly organised, and that in each 

 educational area there should be one clear and definite plan of 

 education suitable to the particular conditions of the place. 



The report on the work of the Examinations Department of 

 the City and Guilds of London Institute for the session 1897-9S 

 has been published. From it we learn that the number of 

 technical classes throughout the country registered by the Insti- 

 tute shows a marked increase, and the instruction is in closer 



NO. 15 14, VOL. 59J 



touch with industrial requirements. The recognition by the 

 Post Office of the Institute's certificate in telegraphy as qualify- 

 ing the holder of it for increased remuneration has had the 

 effect of nearly doubling the number of candidates for examina- 

 tion in that subject, and shows the influence, which employers 

 generally might exercise, in encouraging attendance at technical 

 classes, by giving some kind of rewaid to such of their employes 

 as succeed in passing the Institute's examinations. Couniy 

 Councils have during the past year further availed themselves of 

 the services of the Institute in connection with the technical 

 classes under their control. Several important additions and 

 alterations have been made in the programme of Technological 

 Examinations. 



The Calendar of the University College of North Wales 

 (which is a constituent College of the University of Wales) for 

 the year 1898-99, has been published. The syllabus of classes 

 shows that students are educated as well as instructed at the 

 College, and the questions set in the science subjects in which 

 candidates for entrance scholarships have been examined, give 

 evidences that no credit is gained by perfunctory work or for 

 information derived entirely from books. The College offers a 

 course of training to those who intend to become teachers in 

 secondary or intermediate schools, and in this, as in other 

 subjects, the course involves practical as well as theoretical 

 work. Among the subjects to be dealt with in the lectures are 

 the psychology of the growing mind, and physiology and 

 hygiene in their relation to school life. The agricultural 

 department, and the College Farm, have recently been referred 

 to (p. 611). After following a course of study at the College 

 extending over three years, students may take the degree of 

 Bachelor of Science of the University of Wales in the group 

 Agriculture and Rural Economy." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 Paris. 

 Academy of Sciences, October 24. — M. Wolf in the 

 chair. — On double integrals of the second species in the theory 

 of algebr.aic surfaces, by M. Emile Picard. — Properties of 

 calcium, by M. Moissan. The pure crystallised calcium whose 

 properties are given in this p.aper, was prepared by the method 

 already described in Natitre. The melting point, determined 

 by a thermo-couple, was found to be 760" C. The metal 

 can be cut, but it is much less malleable than sodium or potassium, 

 .as it can be broken, and shows a crystalline fracture. When 

 totally free from nitride, its colour is brilliantly white, recalling 

 that of silver. The density was found to be about I S5 ; and it 

 is hard enough to scratch lead, but not calcium carbonate. 

 Neither chlorine, bromine, nor iodine attacks calcium in the 

 cold, although the corresponding haloid salts are formed at 

 higher temperatures. Calcium burns brilliantly in oxygen, the 

 temperature resulting from the combustion being so high that 

 a part of the quicklime produced is melted and volatilised. 

 When burnt in air, the calcium combines with both con- 

 stituents together, nitride and oxide being simultaneously 

 formed. At a dull red heat the metal also combines with 

 carbon with great energy, forming CaC,. At high temperatures 

 the reducing power of calcium is remarkable, oxygen being 

 readily removed from sulphur dioxide, phosphoric anhydride, 

 boron trioxide, silica, and the oxides of carbon. — On the 

 decomposition by aluminium chloride, of a straight-chain 

 saturated hydrocarbon, by MAL C. Friedel and A. Gorgeu. 

 The reactions have been studied arising between aluminium 

 chloride and the normal paraffins from methane to hexane. 

 The latter, when heated to its boiling point with dry AICI3 

 gave rise to pentane and butane, the pentane predominating. — 

 On a peculiar mode of formation of the pollen in Magnolia, by 

 M. L. Guignard. As regards the mode of formation of the 

 partitions in the pollen mother-cell, the Magnolia present a 

 condition quite unknown in other plants. They are inter- 

 mediate between Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons, resem- 

 bling rather the former than the latter.— Extension of No. 

 162 of the " Disquisitiones Arithmeticae " of Gauss, by 

 M. de Jonquieres. — Remarks by M. Hatt on the new 

 portion of the hjdrographic map of the coasts of Corsica. — 

 Observations of the new Brooks' comet (October 20, 1898), 

 made at the Observatory of Paris, by M. G. Bigourdan. — On 

 the intermediate integrals of equations of the second order, by 



