500 



NATURE 



[March 23, 1899 



at (lalesburg, 111., has collected a fund of 100,000 dollars, thus 

 securing the additional gift of 25,000 dollars made by Dr. D. K. 

 Pearsons. — Efforts are being made to persuade I'resident Taylor 

 not to leave Vassar College for Brown University. With this 

 end in view, a meeting of the Alumni decided to try to collect 

 the sum of 2,000,000 dollars for the endowment of X'assar. 



An address by Prof. S. W. Holman on "The Function of 

 the Laboratory," published in Tke Teclinology Review — ^a 

 quarterly magazine relating to the Massaschuselts Institute of 

 Technology — is of interest in connection with the discussion 

 which has lately taken place in these columns as to the relation 

 between polytechnic institutions and industrial chemistry. Prof. 

 Holman points out that the man whose occupation is e.\clusively 

 the practice of an art (other than the fine arts) is an artisan, not 

 a member o( ; he technical professions. The work of the technical 

 professions is the direction and extension of the application of 

 the arts, together with a far higher function — the development 

 of the arts, that is, of technology. Prof. Holman's view is 

 that the chief function of the engineer is to bring pure and 

 applied science to the industrial service of mankind. It is for 

 him to analyse the ever new industrial problems, bringing to 

 bear upon them the scientific method of inquiry, and applying 

 to their solution all related scientific as well as technical know- 

 ledge. And what is true of the engineer is equally true of the 

 members of the other technical professions, ^ioreover, modern 

 technical practice is progressing with such acceleration, and 

 every branch of scientific knowledge is so diffusing itself into 

 every line of engineering, that the coming generation of 

 engineers will find the most thorough command of science which 

 they can obtain a none too efficient aid in the keen competition 

 of their future practice. lireadth of view, opportunity, in- 

 genuity, and '* common sense " being equal, he who is a master 

 of science will distance competitors Science, then, and its 

 methods must rank first : applied science, second : artisan 

 skill, last. 



SCIEXriFIC SERIALS. 



Biilleliii of the Ameiiian Matlieiiialical Society, February. — 

 Prof. F. X. Cole gives an account of ihe fifth annual meeting 

 of the Society, and abstracts several of the jiajiers which \\'ere 

 read. It appears that this young Society is in a very flourishing 

 condition. Prof. Cole stated that two laclors have contributed 

 powerfully to increase the Society since its reorganisation as a 

 national body (originally it was the New Yoik Mathematical 

 Society). One ol these is the institution of summer meetings, 

 held usually in connection with the large general scientific 

 gatherings ; and the other is the founding of the Chicago 

 Section, which works in perfect harmony with the general 

 Society. — Prof Ilolgate follows with an account of the December 

 meeting of this Chicago branch. — Some thirteen papers were 

 read, and a few of the.se are given in abstract. — A valuable 

 "report on recent progress in the theory of the groups of a finite 

 order" is a paper by Dr. G. A. Miller, a well-known authority 

 in this field of work. It was read at the meeting of ihe 

 American As.sociation, held at IJoston in August last. The 

 period considered extends over the last ten years, and a full list 

 of works is given. These ate considered under the heads of 

 (i) Soluble groups, (2) Simple groups, (3) Substitution groups, 

 (4) Abstract groups, and winds up with a general conclusion. 

 The author's aim has been to call attention to only a few of the 

 important recent advances in the theory. — The same gentleman 

 adds a short note on Hurnside's "Theory of Groups." — Prof. 

 F. Morley contributes a short article on a regular configuration 

 of ten line pairs conjugate as to a quadric. This note, which 

 was read before the Sociely in October, is an addendum to the 

 same author's account of the model laid before the London 

 Mathematical Society in June last (/';v.. L.M.S., vol. xxix). — 

 A few short reviews follow : Einleitung in die Theorie der 

 Bessels'chen Funktionen, by Prof. Graf and Dr. Gubler ; Lei,ons 

 de Cosmographic, by M.M. F. Tisserand and II. .Vndoyer ; 

 Lectures on Elementary Mathematics, by ]. L. Lagrange 

 (McCormack's translation); &c. An account is given of the 

 new publication, L'eii!ei,!^iienicitl Mal/it'm,ilii/n,\ edited by MM. 

 Laisant and Fehr. Its object is to contribute to the improve- 

 ment of mathematical instruction by making more widely 

 known its organi.salion in different countries, by discussing 

 methods of te<aching, A;c. — Prof. Grecnhill contributes a long 

 and excellent review of Prof. Appell's elements d'analyse 



NO. 1534, VOL. 59] 



malh<5matique. —Dr. Lovett has a full budget of Notes, and 

 there is a good list of new publications. 



In ihe Journal of Bo/any for March is an interesting paper, 

 by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson : on a review of Latin terms used in 

 botany lo denote colour. Mr. Jackson enumerates all the terms 

 used by Latin writers, with their different .shades of meaning, 

 classifying them under twelve heads, viz. (i) terms implying 

 absence of colour ; (2) white ; (3) grey (cold neutrals) ; (4) black ; 

 (5) brown (warm neutrals); (6) red; (7) orange; (8) yellow; 

 (9) green ; (10) blue: (II) purple; (12) terms implying colour 

 without defining it, and vague terms. A useful bibliography 

 is appended. 



Bol let lino del/a Sociela Sismologica Ilaliaiia, vol. iv., 1898, 

 Xo. 7. —The earthquake of Hayti (West Indies), in the morning 

 of December 29, 1897, by G. Agamennone. — On the form of 

 the slow oscillations in earthquakes, by G. Grablovitz. Argues 

 that the records furnished by pendulums are lo be attributed to 

 the composition of the effects produced in them by horizontal 

 motions and tilts of the ground, and not exclusively by either. — 

 List of earthquakes observed in Greece during the year 1895 

 (July to December), by S. A. Papavasiliou, the total number 

 being about 260 (of which 105 were observed in the island of 

 Zante), i.e. about one and a half per day. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



London. 



Linnean Society, March 2.— Dr. A. (Jiinther, F'.R.S., Presi- 

 dent in the chair. — Mr. II. M. Bernard showed some microscopic 

 sections of the digestive ca;ca of spiders, which had led him to 

 the conclusion that digestive, assimilatory, and excretory 

 functions are all perlormed by these. — Mr. J. E. Harting 

 exhibited a male specimen of the rare King Eider {Somateria 

 spiilaliilis) which had recently been forwarded in the flesh from 

 Lerwick, and called attention to the colours of the soft parts, 

 which differed materially from the colours represented by Gould 

 in his folio plate of this species. After referring to the natural 

 haunts of this duck in the Pakvarctic and Xearctic regions, he 

 described it as a bird of such rarity in the British Islands that 

 since it was first noticed as a visitor to the coast of Norfolk in 

 1813, not more than a score of examples had been met with, the 

 last of which was reportedjin November 1890. — The President re- 

 ferred to the statement of Colonel Montagu, made on the authority 

 of Bullock, that the King Eider had nested in Papa Westra, an 

 observation which had not been confirmed ; and Mr. 11. Druce 

 made some remarks on the process of bleaching to which the 

 eider-down of commerce is generally, though not always, 

 subjected. — Mr. G. C. Druce exhibited and made remarks on 

 specimens of Dianlhus galliia from Jersey. — Mr. W. P. 

 Pycraft re.id a paper on the external nares of the cormorant, 

 intended to supplement a communication on the same subject 

 made some years ago by Prof. J. C. Ewart (Linn. Soi. foiim.. 

 Zoo/., XV., i.SSi, p. 455). Mr. Pycraft found in every species of 

 cormorant which he had examined that the external nostril lies 

 without and below the rhinolhecal groove, and not at its end as 

 had been previously described. He had failed in every case to 

 pass even the finest bristle up this groove into the nasal cavity. 

 In the gannets (.b;//., 1 he had not been able lo find any trace of 

 this nasal groove or npcrlure. Further remarks were made by 

 the President, Prof. Howes, and Mr. Marling, chiefly in regard 

 to the bearings of the facts on correlation of structure with 

 habit. — .Mr. G. C. Druce read a paper on the reported occur- 

 rence in Ireland of Care.v rhynchophysa, and gave reasons for 

 believing that Canw rostralu var. lalifolia had been mistaken 

 for it. "Typical specimens of both were exhibited, and also a 

 coloured drawing by Mr. N. E. Brown of one of the plants 

 collected by .Mr. Llojd Praeger, near Mullaghmore Lough, 

 -•Vrmagh. Some further remarks were made by Mr. C. B. 

 Clarke, more especially with reference to the descriptions of 

 plants liclieved ti. be new to British flora. Mr. Edward Step, 

 read a jiaper on the fertilisation of G/anx inaiilinia. .'\fter 

 examining some hundreds of flowers gathered along the coast 

 near Porlscalho, Coinwall, he had come to the conclusion that 

 the flower is proli.gjnous. When open, the calyx-lobes at first 

 .separate but slightly, affording only a narrow entrance. The 

 curvature of the si)le is sufficient lo bring it within the fold of 

 a calyx-lobe, from which the stigma projects so as lo be in the 

 way of any insect that visits the flower for ihe liquid that exudes 



