158 
WA TURE 
[Fune 17, 1886 
of illustrating the ordinary text books in the hands of students. 
Many interesting specimens have been given by Sir Joseph 
Hooker and Mr. Thiselton Dyer, Messrs. Potter, Vines, Gar- 
diner, Hillhouse, and Miss B, K. Taylor of Girton College. 
In the Museums of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy some 
most useful work has been done by the Strickland Curator (Mr. 
Gadow) in exhibiting the characteristic parts of birds, labelled 
and illustrated by printed descriptions. A lecture-room for 
animal morphology is urgently required. The attendances in 
the Lent Term this year were :—Elementary Biology, 163 ; 
Elementary Morphology, 94; Advanced Morphology, 16; 
total 273. Besides the two lecturers, nine graduates and ad- 
vanced students took part in demonstrating to the classes. Prof. 
Macalister reports that the new iron dissecting-room has been 
very satisfactory, and far more anatomical work has been done 
than ever before in the University. 
The number of students in the elementary physiology classes 
have averaged 130 each term; while an average of over 30 
attended advanced lectures. In pathology Prof. Roy has given 
systematic lectures on general pathology, a demonstration course 
on morbid anatomy, a practical pathology course, morbid his- 
tology classes, &c , and has found it necessary to engage Mr. 
Joseph Griffiths, M.B. Edin., as his assistant. Space and other 
accommodation being deficient hampers the extension of the 
work, 
Vigorous work in natural science will go on during July and 
August. Mr. Fenton will give a course of chemistry, and the 
University and Cavendish Laboratories will be open. Mr. 
Potter will lecture on systematic botany with practical work. | 
Repetition classes in histology and physiology will be given by 
a demonstrator, and Dr. Hill will conduct a class for prac- 
tical histology. Prof. Macalister will give demonstrations in 
osteology ; and other lectures will be given regularly in con- 
nection with the medical school by Prof. Humphry, Prof. Roy, 
Dr. Anningson, Dr. Ingle, &c. The courses will begin from 
July 7 to 12. 
Mr. W. H. Caldwell, Fellow of Caius College, and Balfour 
Student, having returned to Cambvidge from Australia with a 
large supply of valuable material, asks for a room in which to 
prosecute his original researches. ‘This it is proposed to supply 
at a cost of 110/. on the roof of a portion of the Museum 
Buildings. 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
American Fournal of Science, May.—The columnar structure 
in the igneous rocks on Orange Mountain, New Jersey, by 
Joseph P. Iddings. This prper, read before the Philosophical 
Society of Washington, June 1885, deals especially with the 
large vertical columnar formations of O’Rourke’s Quarry south 
of 1.lewellyn Park, and with the still more intere-ting case of 
curving and radiating columns in the Undercliff Quarry near the 
north gate of thesame park. ‘Ihese lava sheets are studied in 
connection with the general theory of columnar formation, 
which is attributed to a cracking produced by the shrinkage of 
the mass upon further cooling after it has consolidated into rock, 
which still retains a great amount of heat. As the consolidation 
due to surface-cooling proceeds inward, the resistance to con- 
traction parallel to the surface increases at a greater rate than 
that normal to it, a point may then be reached where resistance 
in the first-named direction will exceed that in the second, and 
the resulting rupture will be perpendicular to the cooling surface. 
The wavy form of some of the columns in Orange Mountain 
suggests irregularities in the mass which disturbed the uniform 
advance of the lines of maximum strain, and caused them to 
deviate from parallelism.—Larval theory of the origin of tissue, 
by A. Hyatt. This is an abstract of a paper published in the 
Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (1884), in 
which an attempt is made to trace a phyletic connection between 
Protozoa and Metazoa, and also to show that the tissue-cells of 
the latter are similar to asexual larvee and related by their modes 
of development to Protozoa, just’ as larval forms among the 
Metazoa themselves are related to the ancestral adults of the 
different groups to which they belong. In the abstract the 
suggestion is added that Volyox and Eudorina are true inter- 
mediate forms entitled to be called Mesozoa or Blastrea. The 
author’s conclusions bear directly on the results already ob- 
tained by Semper, Dohrn, and others in tracing the origin of the 
vertebrates to some worm-lke type.—Cretaceous metamorphic 
rocks of California, by George F. Becker. During a recent 
investigation of the Californian quicksilver deposits by the 
United States Geological Survey, the crystalline and serpentinoid 
metamorphic rocks of the coast-ranges have been subjected to an 
elaborate examination, Pending a complete report, a summary 
of the results is given in the present paper, all detailed proofs 
being deferred until final publication. The field-work was 
carried out by the author and Mr. H. W. Turner, the chemical 
analyses by Dr. W. H. Melville ; and the microscopical examina- 
tions jointly by the author and Mr. Waldemar Lindgren. The 
question of metamorphism has perhaps never before been studied 
under more favourable conditions: a solid basis has been ob- 
tained for further inquiry, while the results already secured are 
sufficiently definite to form an important aid for the investigation 
of metamorphic areas in other geological regions. One im- 
portant result is the full confirmation of von Rath and Bischof’s 
views regarding the probable conversion of feldspar intoserpentine. 
There seems to be no doubt that the phenomenon occurs in 
the Californian coast-ranges where the feldspars are corroded 
externally, cracks widened irregularly and filled with serpen- 
tine, and in some cases elongated teeth of serpentine may be 
seen biting into the clear feldspathic mass. It is impossible to 
explain these and many similar occurrences, except on the sup- 
position that a reaction between some fluid and the feldspars has 
yielded serpentine. Quartz also, which is well known to be 
sometimes converted into talc, is in the same region transformed 
into serpentine. —Arnold Guyot, by James D. Dana. This is a 
biographical sketch of the distinguished Swiss naturalist, 
brought down to the year 1848, when he settled in the United 
States. —On the determination of fossil dicotyledonous leaves, 
by Lester F. Ward. The writer offers some critical remarks 
on the views, and especially on the system of nomenclature, 
advocated by Dr. A. G. Nathorst of Stockholm in a paper on 
fossil floras recently published by him in the Sotanzisches 
| Centralblatt (xxvi., 1886).—Pseudomorphs of limonite after 
pyrite, by Erastus G. Smith. It is shown that the common 
hydrated oxides of iron generally referred to limonite are un- 
doubtedly alteration products of ferrous oxide, or decomposition- 
products of other iron-bearing minerals. Their secondary 
nature is clearly shown in the various occurrences where crystal- 
line form is yet retained, giving clearly-defined pseudomorphs of 
ferric hydrate after the orginal mineral. An interesting case is 
described of such an alteration of pyrite into ferric hydrate, in 
which the crystalline form of the pyrite is sharply defined.— 
Influence of motion of the medium on the velocity of light, by 
Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley. A series of 
important investigations are described, tending fully to confirm 
Fizeau’s classical experiment of 1851, which proved that the 
luminiferous ether is entirely unaffected by the motion of the 
matter which it permeates.—Note on the structure of tempered 
steel, by C. Barus and V. Strouhal. The results are given of 
some experiments on the structure of steel, a full report on 
which will appear in Bzdletin No. 35 of the U.S. Geological 
Survey. —Brookite from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, by Samuel L. 
Penfield. A description is given of a fine crystal of brookite 
from the collection of Prof. G. J. Brush. It belongs to the 
variety classed as arkansite by C. A. Shephard. 
Bulletin de V Académie Royale de Belgique, March 6.—Deter- 
mination of the direction and velocity of the motion of the solar 
system through space, by M. P. Ubaghs. So far from being a 
constant quantity, the systematic aberration of the sun and its 
satellites was already shown to vary with time in right ascension 
and declination. It was also seen that, by taking into account 
this fact in studying the motion of the solar system, it might be 
possible to determine not only the direction and velocity of the 
motion, but also its extent and even the mean distance of the 
stars selected for the purpose of comparison. The author here 
undertakes to apply the principle to certain groups of stars of 
like magnitude, and although the results are not absolutely uni- 
form, the agreement is sufficiently close to justify the conclusion 
that theory and practice are, on the whole, in harmony. The 
direction of the motion has been somewhat accurately deter- 
mined, but the mean velocity expressed by the fraction 0*109 of 
the mean radius of the earth’s orbit would appear to be far less 
than that usually attributed by astronomers to the motion of the 
solar system.—On the study of ‘‘ arithmetical events,” by M. E. 
Cesaro. In explanation of the expression ‘‘arithmetical events,” 
this young and profouncly original mathematician remarks that 
the systems with which he is here occupied are constituted by 
numbers taken at hap-hazard. When such a system happens to. 
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