38o 



NA TURE 



[Feb. 18, I J 



most desirable that all observations regarding snow should be 

 made part and parcel of regular meteorological observations. The 

 Ural Society of Naturalists has already collected valuable mate- 

 rials under that head, and it may be assumed that scientific and 

 practical meteorologists will not be slow in taking advantage of 

 such observations. P. K. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Camiiridge. — Mr. S. F. Harmer, B.A., has been appointed 

 Demonstrator of Animal Morphology, in the place of Mr. 

 Walter Heape, resigned. Mr. Harmer was previously Demon- 

 strator of Comparative Anatomy. 



The subject for the .Sedgwick Prize Essay in 1889 is the 

 Petrology of the Igneous Rocks associated with the Cambrian 

 (Sedgwick) of Carnarvonshire. The essays must be sent in on or 

 before October I, 1SS8. It is open only to graduates of Cambridge 

 who have resided sixty days during the year preceding that date. 



On the 22nd inst. the General Board of Studies will proceed 

 to nominate a University Lecturer in Geology for five years, in 

 the place of Dr. R. D. Roberts, now Secretary to the London 

 Association for the Extension of University Teaching. 



A report of the General Board of Studies has been carried, 

 recommending that no fees shall be paid by students to Pro- 

 fessors and Readers in consideration of the lectures which form 

 part of the ordinary duty of their office, but only for further 

 assistance and material or apparatus ; also that a return shall be 

 given to the Board of lectures delivered, extra teaching given, 

 and fees charged. 



The important proposals respecting the additional subjects in 

 the Previous Examination required of candidates for honours 

 have been carried in such a way as to make them broader in 

 their effects. The substitution of Mechanics for Statics was 

 carried by 58 to 44. The alternative of French or German was 

 introduced by 59 to 42 ; and then, somewhat surprisingly, the 

 restriction of this alternative to candidates for the Mathematical 

 Tripos, and the requirement that candidates fur any other tripos 

 than the Mathematical should pass in the mathematical addi- 

 tional subjects, were rejected by 53 to 49. Thus a great step 

 in adv.ance is made, and any candidate for honours can take 

 Mathematics, French, or German as an additional subject. 



Mr. Leslie Stephen has been reappointed an Elector to the 

 Knightbridge Professorship, Lord Rayleigh to that of Chemistry, 

 Mr. Christie, Astronomer- Royal, to the Plumian Professorship ; 

 Dr. Humphry has been appointed an Elector to that of Anatomy 

 in place of the late Dr. Allen Thompson ; Mr. F. Darwin has 

 been reappointed an Elector to that of Botany ; Dr. G.J- Ilinde 

 has been appointed an Elector to the Woodwardian Ppifessor- 

 ship of Geology in place of Rev. E. Hill ; Prof. Stokes, P. R.S., 

 has been reappointed an Elector to the Jacksonian Professor- 

 ship ; Dr. H. C. Sorby, F. R.S., to that of Mineralogy; the 

 Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, M. P., has been appointed an Elector 

 of that of Political Economy, in place of Prof. A. Marshall ; 

 Prof. H. N. Moseley, F. R.S., has been reappointed an Elector 

 to that of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy ; Prof. Stokes, 

 P. R..S. , to the Cavendish Professorship ; Lord Rayleigh to that 

 of Mechanism ; D.'. F. J. Farre to the Downing Professorship 

 of Medicine ; Prof. Huxley to that of Physiology ; Sir James 

 Paget to that of Pathology ; Prof. William Walface has been 

 appointed an Elector to that of Mental Philosophy and Logic, 

 in place of Mr. James Ward ; and Mr. Cadge to that of Surgery. 

 The appointments in each case are for eight years. 



The report recommending the institution of a Tripos Ex- 

 amination in Engineering, to be combined to some extent with 

 the Natural Sciences Tripos, has been discussed at some length 

 in the Senate. Mr. Hill thought parts of the Mathematical 

 Tripos and the Special Examination of Engineering sufficient. 

 Mr. Trotter throught the proposed examination was required 

 both for engineering students and students of physics. It was 

 desirable to increase the mathematical training of students of 

 engineering. The Mathematical Tripos had, he thought, suf- 

 fered from its long and illustrious history. The Examiners felt 

 bound to find something new, and a good deal of students' time 

 was spent in recognising old things in disguised forms, and in 

 solving mathematical puzzles, not suitable for an engineering 

 student pressed for time, or for a student of experimental 

 physics. Prof. Stuart said he was in a position to state that the 

 University had now the opportunity of making its engineering 

 certificate very much ahead of anything else in the world. In 



one very important respect the new examination would differ 

 from the Mathematical Tripos ; it would include practical work 

 in its earliest part. 



New science buildings are now being erected for Tonbridge 

 School at a cost of nearly 14,000/. They will contain chemical 

 and physical laboratories, lecture-room, class-rooms, preparation- 

 rooms, and in addition a library and room for drawing. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The Journal of the Royal Microseopical Society for December 

 1SS5 contains : — On some new and rare Desmids, by W. Barwell 

 Turner (plates 15 and 16). Describes a number of new species, 

 for the most part from the United States of America, but the 

 localities are not always very definitely given. A new gentis, 

 Leptozosma, is made for a filamentous form near to Bambusina, 

 Kutz, but differing in the sutures. The various forms mentioned 

 are all figured. — Further experiments on feeding insects with 

 the curved or "comma" Bacillus, by Dr. R. L. Maddox. The 

 curved Bacilli are apparently able to retain life in the intestinal 

 tract of flies, and so might possibly become a source of injury to 

 animals. — On the cholera "comma" Bacillus, by G. F. 

 Dowdeswell, M.A. — On an improved form of Stephenson's 

 binocular prisms, by C. D. Ahrens. — Remarks on Prof. Abbe's 

 note on the proper definition of the amplifying power of a lens 

 or lens-system, by Dr. E. Giltay. — On the limits of resolution 

 in the microscope, by Frank Crisp, LL.B., with a note by 

 Prof. Abbe. — The usual summary of current researches and the 

 proceedings of the Society. — At one of the meetings Mr. Crisp 

 exhibited a series of photographic portraits of all the Presidents 

 of the Society. These — eighteen in number — appear in the 

 present part, arranged on two plates of eight portraits each and 

 two full-page portraits of Sir R. Owen, the first President of 

 the Microscopical Society, and of Mr. Glaisher, the first President 

 of the Royal Microscopical Society. 



Wiedemann'' s Annalen, Bd. xxvii. No. I, January. — F. and 

 W. Kohlrausch, the electro-chemical equivalent of silver, to- 

 gether with an experimental proof of the measurements of 

 intensity of terrestrial magnetism. These determinations, chiefly 

 by the method of Joule, appear to have been made with the 

 utmost regard for precision in all details. The value of the 

 electro- chemical equivalent of silver deduced is about o'o6 per 

 cent, higher than that given by Lord Rayleigh, being o'ooiiiSj 

 gr.amme per ampere, as against O'ooiiiyg. Mascart's latest 

 value was 0"OOIII56. This would make the equivalent of 

 hydrogen O'ooooio385. — A. Kundt, on double refraction of 

 light in metal films which are produced by disgregation of a 

 cathode. Films deposited by electric discharges from a pointed 

 cathode show a circularly-arranged dichroism when viewed in 

 the polariscope. — Ch. Liideking, on the specific heats, specific 

 gravities, and heats of hydration of the fatty acids and of their 

 mixtures with water. — Otto Schumann, on the density of the 

 adsorbed films of air on surfaces of glass. — J. Lahr, Grass- 

 mann's vowel-theory in the light of experiment. Discusses the 

 re'ults obtained by Jenkin and Ewing with a phonograph, and 

 by Schneebeli with a phonautograph. — E. Aulinger, on the 

 relation of Weber's theory of electrodynamics to the principle 

 of unity of electric forces propounded by Hertz. — O. Tumlirz, 

 on the properties of rock crystal in the magnetic field. This 

 paper announces the discovery in this body of residual dia- 

 magnetic properties. — Eug. Blasius, notice on Japanese mirrors. 

 Describing kindred phenomena with glass plates which have 

 been scratched at the back with a writing diamond. — E. 

 Lommel, aerostatic balance for the determination of the specific 

 gravities of gases. 



Archives Italiennes de Biologic, tome vi. fasc. 3, May 30, 1885. 

 — This part completes volume vi. of this Archiv, and in it the 

 editors apologise for its tardy and irregular appearance, which was 

 caused by the terrible epidemic which afflicted Italy in 1884. 

 For the future the Archiv will appear not at stated periods, but 

 as matter is ready for publication, every three parts to form a 

 volume. This part contains the last part of a notice of Dr. 

 Beccari's work on " Piante Ospitatrici," by M. E. Levier. 

 These host plants, noticed first by Rumphius in 1750, have 

 been studied in New Guinea and in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago by Beccari, the first part of whose deeply interesting 

 account of them and their ant guests has but recently been pub- 

 lished. — On a case of congenital cataract, by J. Albertotti. The 

 patient was operated on at the age of 21. The operation 



