118 
NATURE 
{ May 29, 1902 
Other subjects referred to were the educational work of the 
Victoria and Albert Museum, the new advisory spirit in which 
the inspection of schools is to be carried on, and the provision 
by local authorities of a better system of training teachers than 
at present exists. 
Two pamphlets referring to the purpose and programme of 
the Faculty of Commerce of the University of Birmingham bave 
been received. The Faculty will begin its work in October 
next and there will be matriculation examinations on June 2 and 
September 15. Inthe course of his prospectus, Prof. Ashley 
remarks that the object of the work to be carried on by this de- 
partment of the University is the education, not of the rank and 
file, but of the officers of the industrial and commercial army : 
of those who, as principals, directors, managers, secretaries, 
heads of departments, &c., will ultimately guide the business 
activity of the country. The Faculty represents the first serious 
attempt to provide training of this kind, though every year 
shows the need of it. Prof. Ashley points out that the marked 
acceleration of the speed of industrial and commercial change, 
the application of science to machinery involving more frequent 
changes in manufacturing processes, and the extension of means 
of communication, call more and more for mental flexibility, alert- 
ness and adaptability on the part of traders, But such qualities 
are certainly not likely to be stimulated by early absorption in 
the subordinate routine of a particular occupation. There is, 
however, some chance of promoting them by courses of instruc- 
tion which shall accustom the future trader to survey a wide 
range of industrial undertakings, to watch the development of 
the world’s great markets, and to estimate the resources and 
capabilities of other nations. The curriculum which has been 
drawn up for the three years’ course leading to the degree of 
Bachelor of Commerce in the University of Birmingham com- 
prises studies which fall mostly into four main categories :— 
(1) languages and history; (2) accounting; (3) applied 
science and business technique; (4) commerce. The purpose 
of the scientific subjects included in the course is not to 
make men scientific experts. Its aim is (a) to make their 
business more interesting to them; (é) to enable them to 
follow the general movement of technological progress, and to 
realise the directions in which changes of process are probable or 
possible ; (c) to show them when they ought to call in an expert, 
and how much weight they should attach to his opinion, 
SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 
Journal of Botany, May.—Mr. Rudolf Beer describes a rare 
and remarkable conidia-bearing fungus, Coemansiella Alabas- 
trina, which has only been recorded twice before. The 
conidiophore begins like Eruotium, but the sterigmata are few 
in number and grow out forming a circlet of arms ; from each 
of these a series of conidia is cut off on the upper side. The 
conidia are fusiform and pointed at bothends. Chlamydospores 
and other conidial bodies were obtained in the culture, but no 
traces of perithecia were observed.—Mr. Pugsley has devoted 
considerable attention to the British ‘‘ capreolate” Fumitories 
and submits the following classification:—Subsection 1. 
Eucapreolatae. Bracts as long as pedicel ; pedicel recurved ; 
fruit pendulous, narrow at the base. (1) 4. capreolata, L. 
(=F, pallidifiora, Jord.). (2) F. purpurea, Pugsley, which refers 
to certain English plants named as /. Boraez, Jord., but differing 
from Jordan’s original discription. Subsection 2. Mzrales. 
Bracts shorter ; pedicels erect ; fruit without a neck. (3) /% 
muralis, Sond. (includes #. Boraez, Jord.). (4) 4. confusa, 
Jord.—Dr. Rendle describes three new species of Convolvulus 
from South Africa, a Convolvulus, and two Ipomzas which we 
regret to find are named after the collectors instead of receiving 
distinctive names.—Mr. G. C. Druce gives a list of Anglesey 
and Carnarvonshire plants and Mr. J. Hunter records North 
Donegal mosses. 
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. viii. (2) 
No. 7, April.—S. E. Slocum, on the transformation of a group 
into its canonical form. A discussion of the Lie group defined 
by X,=8/52., Xg=2x,5/5x,+ 8/5x,.—O. Dunkel, some applica- 
tions of Green’s theorem in one dimension. The theorem thus 
designated is an integral relation deduced from a linear differ- 
ential equation and its adjoint. Some applications follow.— 
V. Snyder, on the forms of quintic scrolls, —E. V. Huntingdon, 
simplified definition of a group. This interesting paper defines 
a group as an assemblage a elements satisfying the three 
NO. 1700, VOL. 66] 
postulates: (1) Given any two elements a, 4, there is an 
element x such that av=0 3; (2) there is an element y such that 
ya=b; (3) if a, 6, c, ab, bc, and either (ad)c or a(dc) are ele- 
ments of the assemblage, then (a+)c=a(éc). A finite group 
requires the additional postulate that the assemblage shall 
contain only 2 elements.—L, P. Eisenhart, on isotropic 
congruences. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Physical Society, May 23.—Prof. S. P. Thompson, presi- 
dent, in the chair.—Mr. T. C. Porter showed a lecture experi- 
ment on the ebullition of rotating water. If the water in a 
beaker, having approximately vertical sides, be caused to rotate 
about an axis concentric with the vertical geometrical axis of 
the beaker, it is obvious that in any horizontal section of the 
water the pressure is least in the centre and increases from the 
centre outwards. If the temperature of the water is just below 
boiling point and heat is supplied to it whilst it is rotating 
steam is formed only in the region of least pressure, and a 
gaseous core is produced. The rotation can be given to the 
water by stirring it with a glass rod covered witha piece of india- 
rubber tubing, and maintaining the stirring motion during the 
act of withdrawal of the rod. Some curious phenomena are 
shown by the column of steam, if the water is first stirred and 
then left to come to rest whilst the heating is continued. At 
first there is a markedly concave surface to the water in the 
beaker, and the column of steam is practically continuous from 
base tosummit. After this stage pulsations set in, Pulsations 
can also be produced by stirring cold water in a beaker-shaped 
jar, having a small hole in its bottom through which a stream 
of air-bubbles can be blown. The forms of the steam columns 
_in some cases present a likeness to those of solar prominences, 
and Mr. Porter suggested that the immediate cause of the 
latter might be the diminution of pressure on the sun's 
surface at, or near, the centre or centres of depressions 
caused by violent cyclonic disturbances in the solar atmo- 
sphere.—Mr. C. V. Boys exhibited a small heat engine 
in which rotating water evolved steam without ebullition,— 
A paper by Mr. J. A. Erskine on the conservation of entropy 
was read by the secretary. Heat energy may be expressed as 
the product of two factors—a quantity factor, entropy, and an 
intensity factor, temperature. The conservation of entropy 
holds in thermodynamics when dealing with reversible processes, 
and is analogous to the conservation of other quantity factors 
such as momentum, moment of momentum, and electric quan- 
tity. The author shows the completeness of the analogies by 
considering Carnot cycles carried out on electrostatic and 
hydraulic engines. Prof. Wiedeburg has proposed to extend 
the doctrine of the conservation of entropy to irreversible 
processes by introducing a new quantity analogous to elec- 
tric resistance.—A paper by Sig. G. Giorgi on rational 
units of electromagnetism was read by Mr, Price. Mr. 
Price prefaced the reading of the paper by saying that 
both Prof. Fleming and Prof. Fessenden had advocated a 
partial change of units which would leave the most important 
ones unchanged, and the method employed by the author was 
similar to that adopted by Prof. Fessenden. The author starts 
with a set of three equations, which contain explicitly the four 
concrete units of E.M.F., M.M.F., electric current and magnetic 
current, together with that of activity, and considers them as 
fundamental in electromagnetism. Two fundamental units are 
required to express these quantities, and their product must 
reproduce the mechanical unit of activity. If the watt is as- 
sumed as unit of activity, there are two units ready made, the 
volt and the ampere, which satisfy the condition and may be 
considered fundamental. All concrete units in electricity and 
magnetism can be expressed in terms of these and the second as 
unit of time. In order to complete the system, a unit of length 
is required. The metre and kilogramme are consistent with the 
watt, and putting them together with the units enumerated in 
the paper, the author has built up an absolute metre-kilogramme- 
second system which comprises electric, magnetic and mechanical 
measures in a consistent frame. 
Chemical Society, May 15.—Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., 
vice-president, in the chair.—The variation with temperature of 
the surface-tensions and densities of liquid oxygen, nitrogen, 
argon and carbon monoxide, by Messrs. E. C. C. Baly and 
Sy ee Ne ey te 
