tion of moderate amount. 
Fune 3, 1886] 
ical Economy in Part II. of the Moral Sciences Tripos. The 
first award is to be in June 1887. He desires to concentrate 
the attention of some students more systematically than hitherto, 
noting that on some sides Natural Science studies constitute the 
best preparation. 
During the last ten years, grants from the Worts Fund for 
Antiquarian and Literary subjects have amounted to 1100’. ; for 
Biological and Geological subjects, to 1225/. ; and for Medical 
subjects, to 100/. 
Sir J. Lubbock’s Rede Lecture will be delivered on Wednes- 
day, June 9, at 2 p.m., in the Senate House, subject, ‘‘On the 
Forms of Seedlings and the Causes to which they are due.” 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Royal Society, May 27.—‘‘ The Influence of Stress and 
Strain on the Physical Properties of Matter. Part I. Elasticity 
(continued). The Effect of Magnetisation on the Elasticity and 
the Internal Friction of Metals.” By Herbert Tomlinson, B.A. 
‘Communicated by Prof. W. Grylls Adams, M.A., F.R.S. 
The principal object of this investigation was to test the 
soundness of the view advanced by Prof. G. Wiedemann re- 
specting the cause of the internal friction of a torsionally os- 
cillating wire. According to this view, the internal friction is 
mainly due to permanent rotation to-and-fro of the molecules 
about their axes ; it seemed probable, therefore,.that experiments 
on the effects of magnetising a wire, either longitudinally with a 
helix, or circularly by passing a current through it, would aid! in 
elucidating the matter. 
The following are the principal results which have been 
obtained :— 
(1) When the deformations produced by the oscillations are 
small, the internal friction of a torsionally vibrating wire of 
iron or steel is not affected by sustained longitudinal magnetisa- 
The internal friction is also not 
affected by the sustained magnetisation even when the latter is 
carried to the point of saturation, provided the magnetising 
current be, previously to experimenting, reversed a great number 
of times. When no previous reversals have been made, the 
internal friction is slightly increased by intense magnetisation. 
(2) When the deformations produced by the oscillations are 
large, the internal friction is very sensibly increased by sustained 
longitudinal magnetisation of large amount. 
(3) The torsional ela-ticity is entirely independent of any sus- 
tained longitudinally magnetising stress which may be acting 
upen an iron or steel wire, provided the deformations produced 
by the torsional oscillations be small. When the deformations 
are large, the number of oscillations executed in a given time 
is very slightly lessened by sustained longitudinal magnetisation 
of large amount. 
(4) When the magnetising current is interrupted’ and, to a 
greater extent, when it is reversed repeatedly whilst the wire is 
oscillating, the internal friction is increased, provided the mag- 
netising stress be of moderate amount. The increase of internal 
friction may become very considerable when the magnetising 
‘Stress is great. 
When the number of interruptions or reversals in a given time 
of the magnetising current exceeds a certain limit, the effect on 
the internal friction begins to decline. 
(5) When the deformations produced by the oscillations are 
small, the torsional elasticity is not affected by either repeatedly 
interrupted or reversed longitudinal magnetisation even when 
the magnetising stress is large. 
(6) There exists a limit of magnetic stress within which no 
permanent rotation whateyer of the molecules is produced. 
This limit may be widened by previous repeated reversals of a 
_ large magnetising stress. 
(7) The passage of a moderate electric current, whether sus- 
_ tained or interrupted, through a torsionally vibrating wire of 
iron, steel, or nickel does not affect, except by heating, either 
the internal friction or the torsional elasticity, provided the 
deformations produced by the oscillations be small. 
(8) The effect of longitudinal magnetisation, even when 
carried to the point of saturation, on the longitudinal oscillation 
of an iron or steel wire, is 7227. 
(9) The passage of an electric current, whether sustained or 
interrupted, through a longitudinally oscillating wire of iron or 
steel does not, except by heating, affect the number of oscillations 
_ executed in a given time. 
NATURE 
115 
Chemical Society, May 6.—Dr. Hugo Miller, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair.—Messrs. John W. King. William 
Herbert Hyatt, and George T. Holloway were admitted Fellows 
of the Society. —The following papers were read :—Paranitro- 
benzoylacetic acid and some of its derivatives, by Dr. W. H. 
Perkin, jun., and Dr. E. Bellinot.—An acetic ferment which 
forms cellulose, by Adrian J. Brown. 
Victoria Institute, May 28.—Annual Meeting.—The chair 
being taken by Prof. Stokes, P.R.S., Capt. Francis Petrie, as 
Honorary Secretary, read the report, which showed that the 
home, colonial, and American members were now upwards of 
1150, and an increasing number of leading men of science had con- 
tributed to its transactions, and the Insfitute was much indebted 
to many other scientific men of eminence, at present outside its 
ranks, who had kindly given their aid and advice, so that the 
Institute might the more worthily foster a true appreciation of 
the results of scientific inquiry.—Prof. Hull, F.R.S., Director 
of the Geological Survey of Ireland, delivered the address, in 
which he gave an account of the work, discoveries, and general! 
results of the recent Geological and Geographical Expedition to: 
Arabia and Western Palestine, of which he had charge. Prof. 
Hull, having sketched the course taken by the scientific Expe- 
dition (which to a considerable extent took the route ascribed 
to the Israelites), the physical features of the country, evidences 
of raised beaches, &c., showed that at one time an arm of the 
Mediterranean had occupied the valley of the Nile as far as the 
First Cataract, the level of the land being 200 feet lower than at 
present (2n opinion which had also been arrived at by another 
of the Institute’s members, Sir W. Dawson), and that, at the 
time of the Exodus, the Red Sea ran up into the Bitter Lakes, 
and clearly must have formed a barrier to the travellers’ progress 
at that time ; he then alluded to the great changes of elevation 
in the Jand eastward of these lakes, mentioning that the waters 
of the Jordan valley once stood 1300 feet above their present 
height. The various geological and geographical features of 
the country were so described as to make the address a con- 
densed report of all that is now known of that part of the East. 
—A vote of thanks was accorded to Dr. Hull, after which the 
members and their guests adjourned to the museum, where 
refreshments were served. 
EDINBURGH 
Mathematical Society, May 14.—Dr. R. M. Ferguson, 
President, in the chair.—Mr. J. S. Mackay gave a construction, 
due to the Right Hon. H. C. E. Childers, for solving the 
problem of medial section; Mr. W. Peddie read the second 
part of a paper on the theory of contour lines and its application 
to physical science; and Mr. A. Y. Fraser submitted a paper, 
by Mr. Charles Chree, on the vibrations of a spherical or cylin- 
drical body surrounded by or containing fluid. 
PARIS 
Academy of Sciences, May 24.—M. Jurien de la Gravieére, 
President, in the chair.—Order of appearance of the first vessels 
in the leaves of the Cruciferae: mixed formation (part 5), by M. 
A. Trécul. Ina previous paper the author showed that the 
primary lobes in the type of mixed formation presented by 
certain Cruciferze appear on either side of the young leaves in 
two superimposed series—a lower éuszfefal and an upper éasz- 
Jugal. We now proves that the first vessels of the nervous 
system corresponding to these lobes usually appear in the same 
order. Those opposed to the lobes of the basifugal series follow 
from below upwards, while those opposed to the lobes of the 
basipetal series make their appearance successively from above 
downwards.—A study of the movements communicated to the 
air by the action of a bird’s wing: M. Miiller’s experiments, by 
M. Marey. A description is given of M. Miiller’s mechanical 
experiments, which are conducted at night by the aid of phos- 
phorescent vapours, and during the day by means of smoke in 
the way adopted by Tyndall.—Note accompanying the pre- 
sentation of M. Verbeek’s fresh studies on the Krakatao erup- 
tion, by M. Daubrée. Besides a detailed account of the eruption 
this comprehensive work contains a full description of the 
meteorological and magnetic phenomena attending it, together 
with some theoretical considerations on their causes. The author 
calculates that the quantity of matter ejected was at least 18 
cubic kilometres in volume, all incoherent, consequently unac- 
companied by any flow of lava.—Presentation of various maps. 
of France, Algeria, Tunisia, and Africa, issued by the Geo 
