I'i2 



NA TURE 



[December 8, 1898 



NO TES. 



We ace informed (hat the Government i; prepared to make 

 the financial arrangements necessary to enable the Imperial 

 Institute to become the headquarters of the Organisation of the 

 T»'ew University of London. This decision of the (iovernment 

 was brought before the Senate at its meeting yesterday by the 

 A'ice-ChanceHor, and it is hoped that no unnecessary delay will 

 occur ia securing the agreement of all parlies concerned. 

 While it is doubtful whether a Faculty of Commerce commen- 

 surate with the other Faculties can be at once established, it is 

 most important that the various subjects which would naturally 

 be included in it should be taught. This teaching might fairly 

 find a place in the Imperial Institute under the authority and 

 control of the New University. Some of the instruction would 

 be germane to the valuable collections of raw materials, &c. , m 

 the Institute. 



.\ VERY considerable discussion of an informal character is 

 •now going on among many interested in the various institutions 

 which may form part of the new Universily. It is to be de- 

 plored that there is a great probability of the work of the 

 Commission being hampered by the fact that many of the 

 suggestions now being made are more inspired by the local 

 interests concerned than by the desire to help on the educational 

 <juestion in the abstract. We use the word abstract in no 

 pedantic sense, and with a full appreciation of the concrete 

 <juestions involved. The Commission has to deal with an area 

 ■defined by a radius of thirty miles, a population which we may 

 roughly estimate at seven millions, and a large number of exist- 

 ing institutions. The amount of good the Commission will 

 •tUtimately produce along new lines will, we take it, be capable 

 of measurement by the success it will achieve in coordinating 

 the old forces which are already at work, by working on the 

 principle of organic growth and regarding what exists from the 

 most general standpoint. It is from this point of view that we 

 •deprecate some of the suggestions now being made, because, if 

 -accepted, they will harm existing institutions, because the new 

 UJniversity must not commence by localising itself,however high 

 any local bid may be, and because again no good work will be 

 achieved if any new suggestions be accepted before the actual 

 <X)ndition is fairly grappled with, mastered and legislated for. 



The President and Council of the (leological Society will be 

 ""at home" to the Fellows on Friday, December i6. 



The Pioneer Mail states that the Nizam's Government has 

 •sanctioned the immediate construction of a complete and 



thoroughly equipped Pasteur Institute for Hyderabad. It will 

 4idjoin the hospital and medical school, and will be available in 



about six months for patients. 



Is the forthcoming session of Congress, the Hurley Hill, 

 rproviding for the adoption of the metric system of weights and 

 •measures in the United States and its compulsory use in all 

 ■Government transactions except the completion of surveys of 

 ■the public lands, will be again brought up. The Bill was 

 •defeated by only three votes in the fifiy-fourth Congress, and 

 the increased interest since given to the subject will, it is hoped, 

 .lead to the adoption of the measure. 



A FEW particulars with reference to the discovery of a new 

 system of incandescent electric light, by Prof. NernsI, of Got- 

 'tingen, are given in Science. The light requires neither vacuum 

 rhir tender filaments. The essential point of the invention is 

 ■that when magnesia is heated above 3000° (J. (a temperature far 

 above the melting point of platinum), it becomes a good con- 

 • ductor, and a very weak current is sufficient to keep it in 

 NO. 1519. VOL. 59] 



an intensely luminous condition. Either direct or alternating 

 currents may be employed, and the magnesia is little injured 1 y 

 use. The preliminary heating Prof. Nernst accomplishes 1 y 

 placing the magnesia in the focus of a reflector. On lie 

 inner side of the reflector is a spiral wire of platinum, which 

 when brought to incandescence by a current, produces he;r, 

 sufficient to render the magnesia a conductor ; a current is thtn 

 passed directly through the oxide by the wire, and that in tl^.- 

 spiral is shut off. .\s advantages over the urdinarj' incandescei.' 

 lamps Prof. Nernst claims that the same amount of light ca:i 

 be furnished at one-third the cost, and as the magnesia allow - 

 of being healed lo a much higher degree than a carbon filamer; 

 a purer light is obtained. The successful employment of ;i 

 cheaper substitute for the platinum is also announced, thougn 

 the name is not made public. 



Prof. George Forbes, F.R.S. , referred to the utilisalioi 

 of the Nile cataracts, in his recent lecture at the Society of An - 

 on long distance transmission of electric power. He remarke . 

 as follows : — " My report on this subject is in the hands of th 

 Egyptian Government, and is their property ; but I am nc 

 divulging secrets when I tell you that the electric lighting 1 

 Cairo could be done cheaper by power generated at the Fir.^ 

 Cataract than by steam engines at Cairo. The distance is 40 

 miles as the crow flies. Do not imagine that I propose lighting 

 Cairo immediately in this way. The Government has far more 

 important uses for the power, not only in the irrigation of the 

 country as it is, but still more for the perennial irrigation which 

 will be so much extended when the great reservoir designed by 

 Mr. Willcocks, Sir William Garstin, and Sir Benjamin Baker 

 shall be completed by Mr. John ."Vird. Vou may take it as 

 certain that before long the cataracts will be harnessed and 

 forced to assist in developing not only Egypt proper but the 

 Sudan, and especially the Dongola province up to the Fourth 

 Cataract, which, with efiicient irrigation, may become the roost 

 fertile country in the world." 



After several visits to the Orkneys, Prof. Newton succeeded 

 this summer in landing upon the Holm of Papa Westray, a 

 small island lying to the eastward of the larger one, from which 

 it is separated by a comparatively narrow and shallow sound. 

 A survey of Papa Westray in 1888 led Mr. Buckley to believe 

 that he had found the last breeding place— reputed to be there 

 on — of the Great Auk or Garefowl {Alca impennis). The un 

 suitableness of any part of the island as a breeding place for 

 such a bird was afterwards pointed out ; but an examination of 

 the Holm of Papa Westray led to the discovery of a locality 

 adapted in every way to the habits of the Garefowl, and Prof. 

 Newton considers that there is no room for doubt that the Holm 

 was the true home of the species whose extirpation, so far as 

 Orkney is concerned, was compassed in 1813. In connection 

 with this subject it is interesting to mention that Mr. Symington 

 Grieve contributes to the Transactions of the Edinburgh Field 

 Naturalists' and Microscopical Society some additional notes on 

 the Garefowl, with special reference to two newly-recorded 

 skins. He states that the existing remains may now be sum- 

 marised as follows :— Skins, 80-82 ; skeletons, more or less 

 complete, 23-24; detached bones, 862-874; physiological 

 preparations, 2-3; eggs, 71-72. 



The weather reports issued by the Meteorological Office show 

 that during the month of November the rainfall in different 

 localities has been considerably influenced by the tracks of the 

 storms, some of which have passed to the north and others to 

 the south. Cienerally speaking, the rainfall has been exces.sive 

 in the northwest and south-west of our islands, and deficient 

 in the eastern parts. But not unfrequently stations not very 

 far apart have received very different amounts of rainfall. At 



