20 
NATURE 
bridge Geology, Mr. Marr on Advanced Palzontology, especially 
the Graptolites, Mr. Harker on Microscopic Petrology. 
In Botany Dr. Vines is lecturing on the Cryptogams; Mr. 
I. Darwin on Physiology, and Mr. Potter on Advanced Sys- 
tematic Botany. 
In Zoology, Mr. Sedgwick continues the courses of Elementary 
Biology, and the Anatomy and Embryology of the Vertebrata ; 
Mr. Gadow gives a summary Course on the Palzontology of the 
Vertebrata. 
In Physiology, beside Prof. Foster’s Elementary Course, we 
have advanced lectures by Dr. Gaskell, Dr. Hill, and Mr. 
Langley. 
Prof. Macalister lectures on the Variations in the Skeletal, 
Muscular, and Nervous Systems of the Races of Mankind. 
The Special Board for Physics and Chemistry report to the 
Vice-Chancellor on the new Mechanical Science Tripos :— 
In consequence, the report states, of the Grace passed March 
11, 1886, confirming their report, dated December 14, 1885, 
the Board have drawn up regulations for the New Tripos in 
Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry, for which they would 
propose the name ‘‘ Mechanical Science Tripos.” They do not 
think it desirable that the University should examine in subjects 
for which the University does not or may not easily provide 
adequate teaching, and have therefore made the examination in 
Engineering mainly an Examination in Mechanical Engineering. 
They have included, however, in it such elementary portions 
of Civil Engineering as can be taught in Cambridge and 
such as may often be advantageously studied by those who 
are intending to become Mechanical Engineers. With re- 
spect to the Engineering papers in Part II. of the Ex- 
amination one paper would test the ability of the candidates to 
indicate how a given design should be carried into execution ; 
another would include questions on steam and the steam-engine 
besides other prime movers, and also on boilers and furnaces ; a 
third would include questions on bridges, roofs, arches, abut- 
ments, elementary hydraulics, strength of materials, and ele- 
mentary building construction. In the Examination in Physics in 
Part II. the papers would contain questions on the application of 
dynamics to physical phenomena ; gravitation ; attractions ; hydro- 
Statics and hydrodyna nics ; properties of matter, including elas- 
ticity, capillarivy, diffusion, and viscosity ; heat ; kinetic theory of 
gases ; radiation ; light, including the application of the undu- 
latory theory to the problems of geometrical optics ; minera- 
logical physics ; acoustics; meteorology ; cosmical physics ; 
electricity and magnetism; reduction of observations. The 
Practical Examination would extend over two days, the Exami- 
nation on the first day being of such a nature as would test the 
knowledge of the candidates in the general methods of labora- 
tory work ; on the second day a list of experiments would be 
given, one or more of which each candidate would be expected 
to complete. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Bulletins de la Société d? A nthropologie de Paris, tome 8eme, 
4me fascic., 1885.—On the facial and cranial muscles of a young 
gorilla, by M. Chudzinski. The subject of this post-mortem 
examination, a young male, was 98 centimetres in height. The 
muscles of the head and face were the same in number as in the 
human species, but in form and dimensions they exhibited cer- 
tain differences, being combined into a single fleshy mass, which 
covered most of the face.—M. Pozzi laid before the Society 
various anatomical characteristics with reference to the compara- 
tive constitution of the muscles of the Negro and the white 
races. —M. Folley drew.attention to the greater anastomosis of 
the subcutaneous abdominal veins of the Negro, and the import- 
ance of this peculiarity in giving to the organism a greater power 
of resisting the action of rapid variations of atmospheric or 
aqueous pressures.—On the common origin of Malays and 
Vedahs, by M. Beauregard.—On the universal language of F. 
Sudre, by M. Gajewski. The basis of the system proposed fifty 
years ago by M. Sudre is the musical nomenclature of the vocal 
notes, do, ve, &c., and from these he elaborated a language 
which claims to be equally capable of expression by means of 
musical instruments and the voice. The defects and impractica- 
bilities of Sudre’s proposed musical language were considered at 
length by MM. Kerckhoffs, Dally, and Dehoux.—Suggestions for 
the modification of Broca’s method of determining the direct abso- 
lute cranial capacity, by M. Topinard. The points chiefly insisted 
on are the different results yielded by fresh, and often-used, lead, 
[Way 6, 1886 
the latter being valueless after 100 cubage determinations. —On 
the cause and nature of the vitrification observed in tumuli, and 
other ancient structures, by M. Manouvrier.—Report of the 
recent Anthropological Exposition at Buda-Pesth, by Dr. R. 
Blanchard.—On the dimensions and location of the dolmens of 
St. Nectaire, by Dr. Verrier.—History and anthropology, by 
Dr. Fauvelle. The writer draws attention to the tissue of errors 
which works intended for the instruction of the young continue 
to promulgate, as exemplified in the current historical explana- 
tions of the origin and usages of earlier races.—On the Gallic 
habitation of Mané Gohenne, Carnac, by M. Gaillard. The 
finds, which consisted principally of flints and pottery, included 
a string of twenty-three green serpentine beads cut into various 
forms.—On certain unique objects shaped like fishes, found in 
the Mammoth Cave in Varsovia, by M. Zawisza, and supposed 
to have been employed as fetishes by sorcerers.—On the signi- 
ficance of certain strongly marked impressions on the inner sur- 
face of a skull, by M. Manouvrier. Such impressions have been 
regarded as an evidence of imperfection in the cerebral conyo- 
lutions, and of consequent mental deficiency.—On man of the 
age of Palzolithic pottery in the Lozére district, by MM. Martel 
and L. de Launay. The local finds attest the co-existence there 
of man and the cave-bear, and the fabrication of pottery at the 
time.—On the flint implements of Croix Fringant, near Cognac, 
by M. Germain. —On the calcareous islets of Taled Sah, in the 
inner sea of the Samsans, in the Malayan peninsula, and the 
natives who dwell in natural caverns and are engaged in collect- 
ing edible swallow-nests, by M. Macey.—On the displacement 
of the brain in accordance with the different attitudes assumed 
by the body, by M. Bonnard.—On the form of the hand and 
figure of Asiatics, by Dr. Mugnier.—Anthropometric and other 
observations of three Australians now being exhibited in Paris, 
by M. Topinard.—On the development of the cranium in the 
gorilla, by M. Deniker. It is found that, while the frontal 
region is developed, like other parts of the cranium, as rapidly 
in the gorilla as in man from the middle of foetal life to the 
eruption of the milk molars, different relations supervene after 
the latter period, the cranial development of the gorilla becom- 
ing much more strongly marked in the posterior and inferior 
than in the anterior regions. At the same time the upper max- 
illary rapidly acquires its characteristic prognathic form. An 
almost equal degree of prognathism is observable in the adult 
Negro, or Australian, and in the infant gorilla, but with its growth 
the latter acquires a facial angle which is smaller than that of 
any human cranium,—Ethnographic observations on the cerebral 
function, by M. Fauvelle —On a case of an hermaphrodite, 
by M. A. de Mortillet.—Notes on the post-mortem appear- 
ances of an imbecile, by MM. Doutrebente and Manouvrier.— 
Report, by M. Letourneau, on the Godard Prize Essay of M. 
de la Calle (1885) on the earliest attempt at speech in infants. 
M. de la Calle attempts to draw a parallel between the first 
enunciation of the vowel-sounds a, e, 0 by infants, and the 
monosyllabic character of certain languages belonging to various 
peoples of the far east of Asia, which have scarcely yet entered 
upon the more advanced stage of lingual agglutination. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, April 15.—‘‘ Dynamo-Electric Machines.” 
3y John Hopkinson, D.Sc., F.R.S., and Edward Hopkinson, 
D.Sc. 
Omitting the inductive effects of the current in the armature 
itself, all the properties of a dynamo-machine are most conve- 
niently deduced from a statement of the relation between the 
magnetic field and the magnetising force required to produce 
that field. This relation given, it is easy to deduce what the 
result will be in all employments of the machine, also the result 
of varying the winding of the machine in armature or magnets. 
The magnetic field may be expressed algebraically as a function 
of the magnetising force, or more conveniently by a curve (Pyo- 
ceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, April 1879, 
p. 246). Amongst the empirical formula which have been pro- 
posed to express the electromotive force of dynamo-machines 
in,terms of the currents around the magnets, we may mention 
that known as Frohlich’s, where E = =e E being the electro- 
t be 
motive force of the machine at a given speed, c the exciting 
current, and @ and é constants. For some machines this hyper- 
bola is said to express cbserved results fairly accurately. In our 
